Distress ink lifting on tulips

Ages ago I saw a video by Jennifer McGuire where she talked about "Distress ink lifting". Today I tried it out with my tulip stamp set from Altenew.

First you heat emboss your image. 

Then you saturate your paper with distress ink. The bolder color the better. I took the ink pad directly to the paper to get it really wet. Then I worked with an ink blending tool as well. 

I wanted to participate in the Color Throwdown challenge where the colors this time were yellow, green and blue so I chose Squeezed lemonade.

After the paper is loaded with ink, you "lift" the ink with a wet brush. If you want, you can then add additional color. I added some Mowed Lawn to get that green. To get some blue in there I tied some blue bakers twine around and finished off with a sentiment stamped in black and some pearl stickers.

The effect would be more noticeable, had I chosen a more intense color like blue or red. I think I will go for red next time ;)


Challenges
The Color throwdown
Simon Says Wednesday challenge - Anything goes

Couldn't wait any longer, SSS order =)

Now I couldn't wait any longer. Had been making shopping lists on Simon Says Stamps website for months now and now was the right time. Order placed and I know it's going to be 2-3 weeks agonizing waiting until it gets here. But... it will be worth it.

Ordered a ton of dies. Have been really wanting to expand my "ordinary" dies for just regular cards but also have been craving the stitched variety as well. Got a bunch of My Favorite Things;

• Wonky stiched rectangle stax die-namics
• Inside and out stitched circle stax die-namics
• Trees in the forest die-namics
• Slider channel companieon windows die-namics
• Adorable elephants die-namics (bought the stamps last fall and have been wanting the co-ordinating dies since then)

Also got some Lawn Fawn including the Leafy tree backdrop landscape. There were 2 more coffee stamp sets, SSS Frozen Fractals (a must have for winter/christmas this year) and last but not least, the Pretty Pink Posh clear droplets. They are no-where to be found around here so now I got 2 packs of each ;)

Happy (boating) birthday

A friend of mine has a birthday coming up. He loves his sail boat so I thought I would incorporate that into a birthday card. I used a die from First Edition for the sail boat and paper pieced it with some patterned paper from Echo Park.

I then used a lot of Lawn Fawn *smile* and cut the waves, the frame and also used the new Happy happy happy stamp set to emboss the sentiment. I didn't have any stamp that looked like a seagull but found the "heat smoke" from the "On the mend" stamp set doubled as birds beautifully. There are 3 lines in that stamp but I only inked up two which made in to fairly "believable" birds.

The background is done with distress inks. I then turned the cards into shakers by adding foam tape to the frame and adding sequins to the inside. A couple of blue and clear rhinestones are also glued to the waves so they stay in place permanently.

The two shakers (really hard to photograph. The transparency really gives off a glare).

Close up of the shaker.

Challenges;
Lawn Fawnatics birthday challenge
Simon Say's stamp Wednesday challenge

Scrap it up showroom - 50% off until April 2nd

Saw in my Facebook flow that Scrap it up showroom has a sale, 50% off on everything because they are moving their warehouse. Sale sounded good to me so I flipped through the pages and found some good stuff.

1. 3 mini distress ink cubes that were missing from my collection (Wild honey, Dusty concord, Hickory smoke
2. Butterfly stamp from Marianne Design

3. Basic Stitch passepartout rectangle from Marianne Design (my Lawn Fawn basic stitch rectangle die is doing too much work *smile* so I needed something to switch it up with)

4. Horizon Paris die from Marianne Design

5. Horizon big city die from Marianne Design

6. Musical notation stamp (will go great with musical note die that I got previously)

I've seen some great design done with city scape dies the past couple of months. Also looking at pairing them with a cute super hero stamp set from Mama Elephant. Lots of ideas. Now, all that is left is camp by the mailbox until it arrives. =)

Popup card with Newton's birthday flutter, day 9, 30 day coloring challenge

I loved taking this stamp set from Newton's Nook and making it into a popup card, the sentiment fits perfectly for that. The pop-ups are created with Lawn Fawn dies. The cloud and grass border dies are also Lawn Fawn as well as the patterned paper.

This card is day 9 of the 30 day coloring challenge.

Newton loves coffee, day 8, 30 day coloring challenge

Day 8 of the 30 day coloring challenge. Today I colored some kitties from Newton's Nook with my Zig markers. The background is stamped with pigment ink in different brown colors.

Watercolor flowers, day 7, 30 day coloring challenge

I saw a card from a previous 30 day coloring challenge and it was so beautifully simple in the design so I had to try. I stamped the pionee from Altenew with Versafine black ink. I then masked off the flower to stamp the leaves and the sentiment.

I then watercolored with one pink and one green color of my Zig markers and used a waterpen to spread the color. I'm finding it very challenging to put the shading in the right place. Practise, practise, practise.

This card is a part of the 30 day coloring challenge.

Top pick on #41 Inky Paws challenge

My jaw dropped. I was picked as one of 2 top picks for Newton's Nook #41 Inky Paws challenge for this card:

Thanks so much! Had really fun playing!

Feel better, day 6, 30 day coloring challenge

Saw a card on Pinterest and just had to try it. My dad has got a really bad "man cold" so I need to send him some happy thoughts!

I started by white heat embossing on Canson watercolor paper and then coloring the band aids with Distress Inks. The little critters I colored with my Zigs.

I then die cut the panel and also cut a smaller panel with the same die but shortening it so I could use it as a banner across the card. I die cut the heart shape and the heat embossed the sentiment.

The panels were then mounted on a black mat and then on to the card base. It's now I'm realizing that the image behind one of the die cut hearts becomes very distracting so I put the heart back but I coat it with Wink of Stella to try and get some definition.

The inside have stamped sentiments with the last of the colored images. The tissue box ended up in a wonky place but that's just because I dropped a die cut with glue there with the "wrong" side down of course. Ah well!!

This card is part of the 30 day coloring challenge.

A "sweet seven" pick

I participated in the Cupcake Inspirations challenge last week. I was then picked as a "Sweet Seven" for this card:

Thanks so much!

Rainbow horses, day 5, 30 day coloring challenge

Soon done with my shaker cards with stamped images from the Greeting Farm. Those ponies are so cute.

This card is a part of the 30 day coloring challenge.

Birthday flyby by dragon in the sky, day 4, 30 day coloring challenge

I got this stampset from My Favourite Things last fall and just now I've been able to start playing with it. Loved the little dragons so much so there will be a couple of cards with them during the coming weeks.

I started with the backgrounds and cut out a white cardbase with Lawn Fawn's stiched rectangle. I also cut out the clouds with stiched cloud border die and puff cloud die, also from Lawn Fawn. I then did the cloudy sky with distress inks and an ink blending tool. I did the cloud shapes by sponging with the negative space that was left over from cutting the clouds to the bottom.

The dragon was stamped on Canson Watercolor paper and colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I also used a water brush to blend the colors.

The whole thing was mounted on a cardbase with both a tape runner and some things were popped up with foam tape.

This card is also part of day 4, the 30 day coloring challenge.

Newton with coffee and cupcake, day 3, 30 day coloring challenge

I spotted on the Newton's Nook blog that they had this fun challenge together with Cupcake Inspirations Challenge and of course I wanted to play. The challenge is to create a project based on the inspiration image (and it doesn't have to contain a cupcake *smile*):

I had already stamped out Newton with coffee and cupcakes for a previous project which now turned out to be perfect for this challenge so now I just needed to color. I used my Zigs and I so still need to practise here. Either I use too much water and everything seeps out of the edges or the colors that I've chosen doesn't want to blend like I want them too. Ah well, it's just to continue to practise.

After coloring, I fuzzy cut the image out. I picked two pattern pieces of paper and layered them. On the back one I used the Lawn Fawn stiched scallop border die. Then I heat embossed the steam from the drinks in white and the sentiment in black. I then popped up the main image with foam tape and finished off with some Wink of Stella and a little bakers twine.

The card from the side so you can see dimension.

This card is also part of day 3 in the 30 day coloring challenge.

Are you joining the 30 day coloring challenge?

When watching some videos on YouTube, I heard mentions of the 30 day coloring challenge. I looked it up and it looks like fun. I'm going to try to join as much as I can during the month of March. I really need to practise coloring so this is a great opportunity and also to get more inspiration and learn from others.

If you want to check out the challenge, visit the Daily Marker and read more about it.