Stencils and Distress Paints - STAMPlorations Stencil Blog Hop Day 1

I told you all that you were in for a one-woman-whirlwind of stencil madness. I've had so much fun playing around with my new STAMPlorations ARTplorations stencils! I've already done a little embossing paste and stencils showcase on my last blog post, and for the next three days I'll be showcasing different mediums that will work with your stencils.

And it's not just me! Over at STAMP-town, we're having a 3-day hop with AMAZING prizes and awesome technique tutorials.

And today's medium is:

DISTRESS PAINTS! 

My DPs are actually a recently acquired product (after my mental willpower to NOT buy more stamping supplies failed me - thanks Pinot Grigio...) And I'm still learning, but I'm happy to show you some basics. 

The first thing I did was dobbed some DPs on my card stock (Broken China, Spiced Marmalade, Picket Fence) 

Now here's how Distress Paints differ from other paints (if you don't know already): They are water reactive. 

So I spritzed a heavy dose of water on them and....

Runny fabulous goodness! I love how these colors mixed together.

Next, I took my Brackets ARTplorations Stencil and used a sponge to add some Distress Paint through the cracks. 

 

I wanted to add a little more texture to the card, so I embossed some funky, graphic shapes with a silver embossing powder. 

The arrows and the sentiment are from the  VIGNETTE - Chevron and Arrows set. 

And that's my card! 

I'm sending it on over to the following challenges: 

Just Us Girls Word Week - Masculine 

Seize the Birthday - Masculine toppings (option)

Hiding in My Craftroom - Freestyle

The Challenge - Thanks for the colors and sketch

As for YOU - Go start the hop so you can win some cool schtuff!

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all our projects here.

Prizes:

SIX (6) winners (2 winners per day) will receive their choice of ARTplorations stencil. Winners will be randomly drawn from all comments left on the designers' blogs.

THREE (3) winners will each win a $15 gift certificate. Winners will be randomly drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog.

+ surprise prizes

Yeah. That's a lot of free stuff you could have. 

I'll leave you with one last smile - a couple of snapshots from my vacation so far. 

On the boardwalk in Park Point, Duluth MN



How do you know you're in Duluth, MN? 
When the public beaches look like this:



Yes! Those are snowmountains on the beach! But hey - it was a balmy 38 degrees today, so we were happy!