Mixed Media: Two Ways Tutorial

Hello Friends! 
It's been awhile since I've written, but I've decided to hop back into the bloggy world with both feet and have lots of great makes I'm excited to share with you. 

I've created two awesome cards using the STAMPlorations Wild and Free stamp set, with full mixed media tutorials over on the STAMPlorations blog. 

The first card showcases what happens with loads of inky goodness and layers in a full blown mixed media montage. 

The second card features the pristine, crisp lines of a clean mixed media card. 

Go check them out! Thanks for popping by! 

Autism Awareness Blog Hop

An amazing bloggy friend (here's looking at you, Tenia) asked me to participate in a blog hop to raise in honor of Autism Awareness Day - recognized internationally on April 2.

Of course I said a resounding yes. I've been blessed to have individuals with autism in my life. One of my first ever jobs was working with an autistic man, helping him succeed in his job and it was one of the most rewarding things. People with autism might find themselves facing challenges with non-verbal communication and some social interactions.

You might have heard about the spectrum within autism and that's because it's really what it is - no two people with autism will present with the same symptoms. Today is a day to celebrate individuals with autism, and I'm proud to be a part of this hop.

The color for autism awareness is blue, so I started with a watercolored blue background made with Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks.

I added to the blue with some mandalas, stamped with Distress Inks.

Next, I used a butterfly  mask from STAMPlorations and painted over it with gesso.

I outlined the butterflies, created with the negative space of my mask, using a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen, then used Scribble Sticks and water to create a hazy blue cloud around my butterflies.

I embossed a sentiment, super appropriate for this blog hop from STAMPlorations and added a little embossed butterfly.

 So there's my happy blue card. I hope you'll all participate in this awesome hop and check out the rest of the talented designers. Check them out! 

Erica A-B

Sandy Allnock

Amanda Bodine

Kimberly Crawford 

Joscelyne Cutchens (Instagram)
Dana Joy

Wanda Guess

Jill Dewey Hawkins

Jennifer Ingle (Instagram)

Emily Midgett

Kay Miller

Carly Tee Minner

Miriam Prantner

Elena Roussakis

Heather Ruwe

Amy Tsuruta

Marcie Sharp

Alice Wertz

Vera Yates

Tenia Nelson

Catherine Cosimano

Rachel Parys

Pocono Pam

Terri Burson

Becca Dawn Cruger

Cindy Blancett

Bonus! There are some super awesome prizes up for grabs thanks to some uber generous sponsors. Happy hopping! 

Glimmer of Light Mixed Media Canvas

***Warning*** Photo heavy post ahead so get your eyeballs ready for some visual happiness. 

 

 I had some messy fun in my studio and I can't wait to share the results with you all!

I've had this bright red canvas staring at me for quite some time. I've always thought it's just been too obnoxiously vibrant, but tonight I decided to conquer it. 

What better way to tone down the red than to cover it up? haha
I used a sheet of old, old music given to me by a bloggy friend and cut it into a face shape. 

I LOVE how easy it is to make emotive faces with the Face It! stamp set from Visible Image.  I stamped the closed eyes onto the sheet music. 

I used some Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks to add some colors to shading. 

Even though Scribble Sticks might not look like much when you scribble them on, as soon as water is added to them, they activate and make all kinds of gorgeousness. Around the edges of my face, I used some Faber Castell Gelatos to add depth and dimension.  I also stamped my background with some numbers from the Somewhere in Time stamp set to grunge it up a bit. 

I took some metal gears and transformed them with some Inka Gold metallic paste. 

I embossed a sentiment from the Glimmer of Light set. 

 

 I glued down the gears to the top of my gal's head, along with some turquoise gemstones and then sprinkled the whole dealio with some Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains. 

 

Pretty much in love with the way this turned out and no longer intimidated by all that red. 

I had to add the stripeys to the side to complete the whole shebang. 

Thanks for tuning in and have a very happy Saturday!

Zodiac Birthday Card - Cancer Style

Friends. If you haven't been to Visible's blog yet, you are missing out. They just released an amazing array of new designs, and my heart is swooning at each of them! 

Among the newly released beauties is a whole set called "Written In the Stars" which has all of the signs of the zodiac and each of their attributes. 

I don't necessarily follow my stars or anything like that, but every once in awhile I have fun reading my horoscope. I'm a Cancer myself, and when I got my hands on the set, the attributes were pretty spot on "sensitive, caring, intuitive, sentimental, and emotional". 

Originally I thought about paper piecing my crab and pulled out a bunch of red patterned papers, but as I was pulling out my scraps, I came across this piece I'd made by sopping up the leftover inks on my craft mat after a project. (Waste not, want not.)

Since Cancer is a water element sign, the leftover paper totally spoke to me and I scrapped the scraps. 

Continuing with the water theme, I pulled out my Kuretake Gansai watercolors and added some various shades of red, with hints of blue.

I cut down the background, using mostly reds and orange hues. As I was chopping my paper to size, I spotted these old wax sealer things that I've never used and had a thought. I used my embossing tool to heat the wax, and pressed it into the background. 

I'm definitely going to use this technique again in the future because it resulted in "wet" spots, even though the wax is perfectly dry! 

I used some Weathered Wood Distress Ink and repeatedly stamped the Cancer phrase over and over again. 

Some additional stamping, fussy cutting, and blue fibers later and my card was complete! 

Head on over to the Visible Image shop to see all the new releases! Thanks for popping by!

Fusion is BACK! Special Guest Kevin Bray

People! This was supposed to publish yesterday, but in true Becca fashion I bumbled my scheduling. Woops! Oh well, it's always better to start the new year with a mistake right away, and then it's out of the way. 

So you get two cards today - make sure to check out my STAMPlorations post below. 

Over at Fusion, we are celebrating a 4th Anniversary! That's four whole years of creative challenges to inspire you. I hope you'll come party down with us! 

Here's the inspiration image and sketch! Over at Fusion, we don't like to limit your creativity so you can choose to use either the sketch OR the inspiration image, or do what I did and mash 'em together to create a true fusion!

When I first looked at this image, I immediately thought of a Winnie & Walter set that I purchased a year ago and haven't even used yet :o. It's a set for new homes and moving called This Awesome House and I LOVE it so it's such a shame that I've let it languish alone in a closet for so long. 

I incorporated the rustic colors and then also the keys, along with the calligraphy in the big ol' words. I also used the sketch (creatively). :) 

You definitely want to pop over to Fusion to see the cards everyone created. We all got to invite one special guestie to join us (which was ridiculously hard!) I thought long and hard about who to invite, and landed on a fella who lives about an hour-and-a-half south of me. Given the fact that there are practically zero cardmakers in this area, that in and of itself is a novelty. 

But the real reason I chose Kevin Bray to guest is because his cardmaking style is amazeballs. I found him first on his Instagram account and I've been so inspired about what that guy can do with clean and simple cards. We all know I'm TERRIBLE at CAS, but I'm always amazed by the design lines within his cards. Complete stunners. 

Pretty please give him a warm welcome and go comment on the incredible design he put together for this challenge. 

InkaGold Mixed Media Card for Guys

When I found out the latest challenge for Seize the Birthday was Circles... well my mind started spinning. 

You see... I'd been working on an art project a couple of months ago and had cut out an excessive amount of die cut circles. Like WAY more than I wound up needing. So now I have a bag full of a gazillion circles that make me mad every time I look at them because they were SO MUCH WORK. 

Well, they came in handy because I'm guest designing for Seize the Birthday through the end of the month. 

Their Toppings theme this time around is "Circles". You can really make any kind of birthday card you want and link it up to their challenge, but they give you an optional theme every time, too.

I created a shiny background using a wet paintbrush and some InkaGold. I'm definitely going to be making more backgrounds like this because, in the end, it looked like brushed copper. So pretty! 

I ran my painted background through my embossing machine, using an embossing folder with a clock print. 

The circles were cut out on white paper, then I used my fingers to slather some green, gold and copper InkaGolds all over. Looooove the textural look of the circles. 

I stamped a sentiment and old-fashioned car from a Unity kit to complete my design. 

I'm going to play along at:

More Mixed Media Challenge - Anything Goes (option of black)

I also used the color scheme from The Color Throwdown.

So. What's circling in your brain? Give the latest challenge over at Seize the Birthday a try!

Elegant Autumn Leaves Thank You Card

Happy Thursday! 
This weekend, I'm off to a concert series down in the Twin Cities area and I can't wait! 

But before I go, I get to show off the design I made for the latest Fusion challenge. I loved the warmth of the inspiration image and I took a stab at the sketch, too. 

I've had these gold leaf stickers from Martha Stewart for so long. They're just so lovely and I haven't been able to bring myself to use them. I finally found the perfect design that would let me part with them. 

My little design is also going to go play along over at
Die Cut Divas - Autumn 
Little Red Wagon - Harvest Time

I hope you'll come play along at Fusion this fortnight! 

Cheers!

Growing in Unity Hop + Prizes

Boy (or in this case girl) - do I ever have an exciting couple of minutes planned for you. I'm so jealous because you guys (or girls in this case) get to hop through some AMAZING talented cardmakers AND you get the chance to win some awesome prizes from Unity Stamp Company.

If you're here from the hop, you're on the caboose of the talent train. 

Here's the official order:

Terri Burson from Waving My Wand

Sarah Vait from Sarah's Stamping and Stuff

Deborah Adams from A Creative Life 

Becca Cruger from Damsel of Distressed <-- YOU ARE HERE

Here in North Dakota, we saw the first snow of the season this week! Naturally that put me in a Christmasy mood (aka the pre-Christmas panic of realizing I haven't made any Christmas cards this season and I now have exactly ONE MONTH to get crack-a-lackin'). 

I bought the Unity Itty Bitty stamp set All is Calm All is Bright stamp set last Christmas season and never opened the package. So now I'm killing two guilt birds with one stone! I get to use a never-before-used-schtuff (in the words of Darnell Knauss) AND start my Christmas card spree. 

I stamped my image and then sponged over it with some Broken China Distress Oxides. Then I spritzed it with a little bit of water. 

To add a little texture and shimmer to my background, I schmeeeared some Heidi Swapp metallic white embossing paste through a stencil. 

Instead of letting it air dry, which would have produces flat circles, I used my heat tool to dry it. You can see that this causes the paste to bubble and crack, producing a yummy texture (and helping impatient crafters like me get on with their business). 

I put it all together, and got this little lovely! I even think I can get away with mailing it with no extra postage. Woot! 

Thanks for popping by! If you're new to my blog, I'd love for you to give me a follow. I love teaching new mixed media techniques and sharing my processes with you all - so you won't be bored! 

Now get to hopping and win some prizes!

Seize the Birthday Surprise Party Guest

That's right, folks, you get not one - but TWO - lovely postings from me today. 

That's because I'm the Surprise Party Guest for Seize the Birthday's latest challenge. 

I'm so thrilled to be playing along with their uber talented team again. 

For the "toppings" this go round, they want you to create a card using a kraft base. But don't worry, if you don't feel like getting krafty, you can just create ANY kind of card with a birthday theme and still link up. 

I wanted to play with my new Feathery stamp set from STAMPlorations (available for 20% off in the STAMPstore by using code STAMPGIRLBECCA) so I pulled out a sheet of vellum and got to embossing. 

To give my kraft background a little pop of texture and dimension, I used some Ranger Texture Paste through a Winnie & Walter stencil. 

I loved the sketch put out by CAS Colors and Sketches this week and used the heck out of it. 

Taaadaaaa here's my full card.

I'm also going to play along at:
Crafty Gals Corner - anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - anything goes


Thanks for popping by! Now go check out the rest of the awesome creators over at Seize the Birthday!