Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Guest Design

There's nothing better than the feeling of scrubbing off inky, messy hands after a good play session in the studio. 

I have the honor of being a guest designer this week over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge. I happen to love this challenge because it's always anything goes as long as it's a mixed media project. 

One of my friends asked for a special commissioned card for his wife on their anniversary. 

I started with a piece of white background and stamped it with a text background stamp and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide. I spritzed with water and then added two drops of Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour Ink. 

Next, I added another layer of stamping with Visible Images Fibrionaci stamp, embossed in Speckled Egg Distress Glaze. 

I decided on the different elements I wanted to bring into my card - a peach frame that I covered with blue and gold InkaGold to antique it, and a white butterfly that I sprayed with Distress Spray Stain and then added Speckled Egg Distress Glaze before heat setting it (and almost starting it on fire. :o ) 

I started layering my card with Prima flowers, my frame and the butterfly, and then added little bits of ivory frantage around the edges before dusting it with some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray Stain. 

I added some romantic, gushy words to make it appropriately lovey-dovey for an anniversary and - I've got to say it turned out sooooo pretty. 

Thanks for popping by, and I hope you'll go get all inky and play along at Creative Artiste. 

Making a Mess

Over at Shopping Our Stash they have a challenge going entitled “Make a Mess”. Basically I feel like that’s every single card I ever make. All I have to do is look sideways at a white space on a card and boom! an only smudge appears. It’s like being King Midas, but sadly nothing turns to gold- only to smudge. 

But this card upped the mess ante even for me! In my last blog post I shared a card using the dregs of a cleanup from a pretty horrendous spill of a brand spanking new bottle of Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Spray Stain. I was going a splatter effect on a card so unscrewed the cap. Enter elbow and a giant spill. *facepalm*

What is a girl to do besides frantically mop up the mess? However, even if my card doesn’t win the competition, I’ve already won by creating some gorgeous backgrounds and a well-earned red stain on my craft table. 

But I didn’t want to rest on my accidental mess laurels for this challenge. Au contraire! I decided to pull out my messiest products and up the ante. 

For my  next act, I pulled out some Dreamweaver metallic gold embossing paste and slopped that through the STAMPlorations Dots All Over stencil. 

The texture! In case you’re wondering about the added colors, they are Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide and a gold shimmer by Heidi Swapp. 

Next up on the messy agenda, I scribbled some brown gelatos along the edges of the pieces I was going to use and smudged them to soften the lines with my fingers. 

Also, you can see I stamped an image over the background and used Distress Glaze. 

So let me talk about my focal bird. I’m ashamed to say I’ve probably had this Tim Holtz stamp set for close to 10 years and never used it. >insert head hanging here<  I knew I had to get messy with the bird, too, so he wouldn’t take a backseat to my background. We had a little messy experimental play together. 

I sprayed some Oxides and stains and dried them on a paper. Then I stamped a blue layer and brown layer of Distress Inks, and while the ink was still wet from stamping, I applied Distress Glaze over it. It gave it an antique glassy feel. 

I adore the way this card turned out and I think I’ve sufficiently risen to the Make a Mess challenge. To finish off my card, I mounted it to some Hambly patterned acetate. 

I’m also going link this up to the NBUS challenge, as I finally gave this 10-year-old bird some wings AND tried out Distress Glaze for the first time. 

This one is also going over to Creative Artiste’s Anything Mixed Media goes. 

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! 

Sailing Away

Hello lovelies! 

Week four of social distancing. I'm doing far better than I was two weeks ago. No shower crying and TONS of house projects being done. 

I've loved seeing how all of my artist friends and cardmaking friends are chugging along in creative land and using this time to create beautiful things in the midst of chaos. 

And I love how all the crafting companies are coming together to build community. One such company is Paper Anthology. They're giving four challenge prompts per day and hosting nightly zoom calls! You can participate in some or all of their challenges. 

 

One of the challenges today especially caught my eye. Can you tell why? I dusted off my Distress Inks and even threw in a Distress Oxide and used the smooshing technique to create a watery background full of inky depth. 

After everything dried, I added in a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain (don't mind the terribly messy bottle - inky fingers are a real thing). 

I stamped a ship from the STAMPlorations True North set in Blueprint Sketch. 

 One of the reasons I like Distress Inks so much is because you can use them in so many ways - like watercoloring! I just wet my brush and pulled in the blue stamped edges to add some shading. 

 Then I smooshed some Vintage Photo Distress Ink onto a craft mat and picked it up with my paintbrush to color in the woody part of the ship.

I made some waves using the STAMPlorations A Ton of Fun stamp set and then added sentiment to finish it all up.  

I'm hoping to join in one of the Zoom calls on Sunday so maybe I'll see some of your smiling faces there!

Quarantine Schmorantine

Hellooooooo my bloggy friends. Ope. Hold on one sec. 
..
....
......
Ok I'm back. Sorry. I had to shake the rust off my blog. 

As you may have realized, I definitely have taken a hiatus from the bloggy world of cardmaking to focus on my mixed media canvas art business (you can see what I've been up to on my Instagram @damselofdistressed). 

But the thing is - the world is changing. And right now this Extrovert with a capital "E" is holed up practicing some social distancing and canceling all my plans and meetings. My two little nieces, who live in my house with me and their mama, just came back from a trip to Florida so they are quarantining for 14 days and I packed one rolly suitcase of crafty supplies and headed to stay at my boyfriend's apartment until they're cleared. 

So what's a girl to do with all her unexpected free time besides turn back to her first love of cardmaking and blogging. Can't wait to check in on some of you and see what you've been up to. 

For my card today, I decided to break out my STAMPloration stamps and do some watercoloring. I have limited supplies, so CAS is what's in in my world right now. Luckily STAMPlorations has an Anything Goes Clean and Simple card challenge every month with an optional theme of using light blue. 

I didn't choose the optional color twist, but I DID choose some fresh Springy colors that made me feel especially happy. The flowers are all one stamp from STAMPlorations - the In Bloom: Floral Bliss Trio - so no tedious masking required. I embossed them in gold. 

Once I had watercolored everything (which honestly took soooooooo much longer than I remember. God bless the watercolor cardmakers of the world.) I sprinkled it with a little white Distress Spray Stain and then embossed an uplifting sentiment from the Buttercups and Butterflies set. 

Honestly, it felt so good to make a pretty card and get lost in a design for a couple of hours. Thanks for stopping by!

How are you all surviving this current global nightmare? 

Mixed Media Graduation Card

It's graduation season, and this year it seems like LOTS of my friends are graduating with their college degrees. Tomorrow I have >count them< THREE back-to-back grad parties. Which, of course means I need cards!

So I decided to take this month's Theme and Sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations and make some fancy dancy grad cards. 

If you're wondering how to play along in the STAMPlorations challenge, just use either the sketch OR the theme OR use both. You can make a card using any brand of stamps (although it's extra nice when you use STAMPlorations). 

For my design, I spritzed the back with a green Distress Spray Stain, flicked it with black Spray Stain to give it a little messier of a feel, and then stamped over that with some stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. 

The focal images aren't cupcakes (as you probably could tell by now). They're graduation caps from the Snarky Cap & Gown set. I'm always looking for good graduation sets and this one is awesome! It's designed by yours truly and if you order it you can get 20% off by using code STAMPGIRLBECCA at checkout. 

Last but not least, I die cut a big congrats twice and stacked them for a little bit of dimension. 

Thanks for popping by! I hope you'll come play along with us! 

Wooded and Healing Herbs

There are two brand new stamp sets on the block and they are BEEEAUUUUUTIFUL!!! 

Over at STAMPlorations we're releasing Wooded and Healing Herbs, designed by Deepti! 

 

These stamp sets are so versatile and you can build your own little scene with them. I got to play around with Wooded and couldn't wait to make these two cards. 

For my first design, I used these dainty little flower sprays and paired them with branches. I "watercolored" with Distress Markers and, since I stamped the branches with Distress Inks, I just applied a little bit of water over the top to make them less of a perfect impression and let the colors bleed onto my paper. Teeny little pearls finished off this pretty, girly design. 

I'm going to add this card to the Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine challenge and Creative Inspirations Spring Greens challenge.

For my next design, I went with something a little more clean and simple because I wanted to play along in the Cardz 4 Guys Challenge. This design is a whole lot of versatile and perfectly masculine and earthy.  

I repeat stamped the wood circle rings with Distress Oxde inks, then spritzed liberally with water so it would bleed. I splattered it with some white Distress Spray stains and added some fussy cut leaves.


Make sure to go check out this special release and leave a comment on the STAMPlorations blog because you could win a $20 gift code to the STAMPlorations store!

STAMPlorations Challenges are BACK!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

You may have noticed over the summer that I took a little hiatus from regular blogging. That's because I was crazy busy with some of the art shows I'd signed up for, plus doing some community work. Stay tuned early next week and I'll share some of my summer hijinks with you. 

But for now, I'm here to tell you that STAMPlorations challenges are back, too! They also went on a little summer break. But now we've got a whole new crop of fresh challenges and great prizes. 

The sketch this month is:

And the theme this month is: 

You can play along with either the sketch or the them OR both! Options!

For my design, I decided to work with the theme. Believe it or not, we had our first snowfall last night and so I'm already wistful for Autumn. *sigh*

The first thing I did was to add a layer of prettiness to a sheet of mixed media paper. 

I used these Ken Oliver Color Burst Crystals and Liquid Metals to create a flowy, vibrant background. 

Over the top of that, I added a layer of Faber Castel Glitter Bead gel through the Botanical Lush stencil. Because let's be real here, everyone loves glitter. 

Once that dried, I speckled the background with green & red Distress Spray Stains. 

I double stamped a leaf from the Trendy Leaves stamp set, using Fired Brick Distress Ink and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide. 

Added a sentiment from the Buttercups & Butterflies stamp set, some ribbons, a little glue and BAM! One gorgeous Fall card. 

Pop on over to play along in the STAMPlorations theme & sketch challenge and to see all the other crafty inspiration. 

PSSStttt - if you're looking to add to your stamp collection, you can get 20% off anything in the STAMPstore using code STAMPGIRLBECCA

Live Like Tomorrow Doesn't Exist

Happy Weekend! 
Today, I've got a card for you that's full of vibrant colors and movement. I was experimenting and trying out different combos of stamp sets and happened upon one particular duo that made my heart do all sorts of leaps. 

To start my design, I stamped and masked the jumping girl from the Visible Image Tomorrow Doesn't Exist stamp set. 

After I masked her up, I used the How Fragile stamp set, embossing it with clear powder. 

Next, I spritzed the page with water and sprinkled on some turquoise Ken Oliver Color Burst crystals.

I spritzed again with water and let the crystals work their magics. I wanted a little more movement so I used a wet paint brush and made hard side to side strokes. 

I splattered the whole thing with Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain.

I embossed and fussy cut a sentiment from the same
Tomorrow Doesn't Exist set. 

Put it all together and ba-blam! OOOoooooo

I love the way this turned out with all the movement happening! Thanks for popping by and have a lovely Saturday!