Distress Oxides - Take 2! Sponging on Kraft

As you may have known (by the large earthquakes stemming from North Dakota) I have been jumping up and down in my excitement to finally have time to break out my brand new Distress Oxides and play. 

I'm planning on having tons of time this weekend to explore some of the other things, but I really wanted to give these babies a whirl on kraft paper.

Guys. Guys. Mind = Blown.

I cannot believe how pretty they look when sponged over kraft paper.
If you're new to the Distress Oxides, what rock have you been under? Haha - just kidding. If you're new to Distress Oxides, they are a pigment + dye based ink fusion. What that means is that the pigment portion of the ink sits on top of the paper. Which means that you can use it on kraft & black cardstock. 

But before I get tooooooo far, I also want to say that this card was made for the brand new challenge at STAMPlorations. 

 

The theme & sketch challenge is exactly what it sounds like. Choose the theme or the sketch OR use both! There's prizes for the winners and you can use ANY brand of stamp you want! So, what I'm saying is... YOU should go play! 

I chose to use the theme: Spring and picked out these pretty little daisies from the Pocket Blooms stamp set. I embossed them in white and then began sponging. 

See how well that color shows up? You'd never be able to get that with a dye based ink, and pigment based inks leave an oily little residue that doesn't dry for...like... ever. Distress Inks dry within a minute! 

Like all Distress products, Oxides react uniquely with water, too! I sprinkled some water over the ink and dabbed it up. That's when the magic "oxidization" happens. 

Yeah.... I love this technique with Distress Oxides. Definitely going to be using this one again. 

I added the Thanks Word Die cut to the center panel.

I used Worn Lipstick and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxides for these two cards. 

Blam! Two super pretty and relatively easy cards to make! 

If you are thinking about buying any of the stamps/dies used here, just know that my bloggy subscribers get 20% off ALL the things in the STAMPlorations store by using the code STAMPGIRLBECCA. 

I'm also going to link up to:
Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything Goes
Paperminutes: Spring

Thanks for popping by!

Reindeer Games - Stamped Christmas Card

Jingle Jingle Jingle!
I'm back with ANOTHER Christmas card. I'm not even sorry because this one is just plain adorable. 
I started crafting last night and new I wanted to try out the new Stitched Snow Hills CUTplorations die cuts. What followed was a card that just makes me grin all over my face. 

This post is also serving as a reminder to go play along in the STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch Challenge. 

I chose to play along with the theme portion - but you could use the sketch or the theme and sketch. 

I began by sponging a background using Salty Ocean Distress Inks. 

I created three snowy hills from the Stitched Snow Hills CUTplorations dies and sponged around the tops to give them a little more dimension.

 

I also die cut three bright green patterned paper trees and sponged around their edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

I assembled the background and used Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains to create some white splattery "snow". 

Here's the final product. Don't you just adore that happy little reindeer? He is from the Reindeer Games stamp set (designed by yours truly) and he makes me so happy. The sentiment is from the Trendy Christmas Trees stamp set. 

I'm going to link this up to:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Christmas Critters
Just Add Ink - Choose 2 (Die Cut, Patterned Paper)
Winter Wonderland - Poinsettias or Snow is Falling (Snow)
Cute Card Thursday - Christmas/Holidays

Thanks for popping by! I hope this card makes you smile as much as it did for me! :)

Dramatic Sponging Happy Birthday Stamped Card

It's time to get your sponges out and ink them up! 
STAMPlorations monthly challenge is SPONGING. There's also a sketch to play along with, too! 

Just look at the drama of those colors coming together. I had a ton of fun dreaming up the color scheme for this one.

Here's the challenge info: Head to STAMPlorations. Use ANY stamps you want from ANY company you want. Use the sketch, or the challenge, or BOTH. 

And I'm gonna show you exactly what I did to make this magic happen. 

Firstly, I got out some bright, sunny yellow ink in the form of Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink and I used a sponge to rub it all over a piece of white cardstock. 

Then I used the STAMPlorations Mixed Media Grunge stamp set to add in bits of grungy ink. I used a few different types of stamps from the set and a few different colors of ink. 

Theeeeeen I used the Leaf Prints 2 ARTploration stencil to add in some vibrant orange. OOoo!

Lastly, I used the CUTplorations Happy Word die and stamped a sentiment from Party Time to complete the look. After I cut out the Happy, I sponged it up to match my card and added a bit o' Wink of Stella to give it a special glisteny sheen. 

Now head on over to STAMPlorations to play along!

Speaking of playing along, my sponged piece o' cardstock is going to head over to the following challenges: 

Seize the Birthday - Any Toppings this go-round!
Aud Sentiments - ATG plus a sentiment


Thanks for popping by!

Mixed Media Harvest Blessings Card

Ahhhhhhhh September. Pumpkin Spice Lattes return to the land of all things good. The smell of apples is in the air. You can take deep breaths and inhale.... Cough* Cough* OUCH! That was a wasp. 

Seriously - up here in North Dakota, you can't walk 2 steps without encountering one of the stingalicious flymobiles - and breathing deeply is done at your own peril. 

Autumn is my most favoritest season, though, and I can't wait to become a boots-sportin', PSL-guzzling, sweater-wearing gal again. 

Over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge, we are celebrating Autumn in fine fashion with our new challenge. 

 

Our theme this month is Harvest Basket with the optional element of Fruit. 

For my creation, I inked up a stamp that has been beckoning me since I bought it last Fall. It's a gorgeous autumn basket from the STAMPlorations HOLIDAY EXPRESSIONS: Thankful for Autumn set. 

I'm sorry I don't have my usual process photos to show off - I actually made this background a while ago when I was just putzing around having some messy fun in my room. 

I can tell you the process, though. 

1. Sponge a mixture of Mustard Seed and Fossilized Amber Distress Inks on a sheet of cardstock
2. Ink up a grungy-looking stamping with Spiced Marmalade Distress Inks and randomly plop that baby onto the sponged paper.
3. Apply gold texture paste through a stencil in random areas around the edges. 

My image was colored with Spectrum Noir Makers and Distress Markers and then I embossed the sentiment on a sheet of vellum. 

I'm going to link my Harvest beauty up to:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon - Lets Get Inky

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In other BIG and super cool news! I'm so excited to announce that I was invited to be a part of the 2016-2017 Fusion Challenge team!

 WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

I love the Fusion Challenge and the seriously talented design team they've always seemed to gather so I was uber chuffed when I got the email! Hope you'll pop by & check out my new teamies!

Special Stamp Release - True North

I was *thrilled* to get my inky hands on the latest STAMPlorations release - True North. I happen to love lighthouses and so this set was a must have for me.

As soon as those polymer babies were in my hands, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. So I pulled out my Distress Inks and set to work!

 

I did a tutorial a couple weeks ago about how to sponge ink and then use transparent texture paste to get a great raised surface. This starburst was a result of that!

 

Then I kept the sponging going! I used a blue-gray shade of Distress Inks (Stormy Sky) to create a sky background, and then a darker blue (Faded Jeans) to create my water.

 

 

Then I used my darkest blue Distress Inks (Chipped Sapphire) through the Tribal Swirls stencil to give a retro-mod feel of waves.

Next, I used some torn and crumpled cardstock to create "rocks" for my lighthouse to sit on. I sponged the rocks with Pumice Stone and then added Black soot to the raised areas before sprinkling with bits of Black Soot Distress Spray Stain.

Then I stamped and colored my lighthouse with Spectrum Noir Markers and put it all together!

As you can see - I distressed up the lightbeams a bit (couldn't help myself). Even through there are some awesome sentiments in this set, I opted to not stamp one on this particular creation because there is already a lot going on.

Hey! Do you want to win this set? Then head on over to STAMPlorations because Shery is giving it away! Leave a comment here and then hop on over to the STAMPblog. Some very lovely other creations have been made by my fellow STAMPteamies so go take a peek!

I'm entering my card into the following challenges:
Cardz 4 Guyz - You rock (hey, there's a rock in it) :)
City Crafter Challenge - Paste It
Craft Stamper - Take it Make it - Ink Stitch Paint Collage Print Paper - I used lots of ink, made my rocks with collaged paper, and created my own print with the stencil!
Just us Girls - Trend week - Use stencils

The BS Sessions - A Stenciling Tutorial

Welcome, Friendly Friends to the very 

first episode of the BS Sessions!

What are the BS Sessions? Well Samantha knows how to work a marker like nobody's business and Becca loves to get messy with mixed media. We both wanted to learn the other person's crafty secrets so we're going to ask one another a question on the last Thursday of the month. Becca will provide you with some amazing Mixed Media techniques and Samantha will show you some tips and tricks about coloring! We'll both provide our followers with a little tutorial, because if we have these questions - our followers might too!

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Which brings me to this month's question, asked by Sammy:

How do you get your stencils to create such clean 

lines with no bleeding?

Well now, this poses a conundrum because I usually just do a bunch of messy junk on my cards and I wasn't aware that I produced clean lines. ;) 

Hah!

But seriously, there are a couple of tricks to using a stencil and getting the result you want. I'm going to take you through 3 different types of mediums and how to get a *kinda* clean line. 

>>>>Stencils and Sponging with Distress Inks<<<<

So these tips really will work with any type of ink. I just said Distress Inks because, well, Damsel of Distressed... ya know?

First of all, I think this photo is wicked cool. The design lines are TOTALLY going to inspire a card in the future. 

Step one of getting a good impression from stencil and sponging: TAPE IT DOWN!

 For this, I like to use washi tape that I don't like very much because it's repositionable and won't rip my cardstock when I remove it.  You will notice that I have two different rings of tape, one that's holding each side of my stencil down, and then another that's keeping my cardstock in place. That's because if you only tape down one, and the other still is movable, you're not going to get clean lines. 

 

Step 2 - Be gentle but firm

 Rub your sponge in soft circles, and always start from an edge/off the paper. That way you won't get weird stop/start lines. Use your free hand to hold the stencil down - moving your hand as you go along. If you rub too hard, you're likely to tear the stencil. If you rub too soft, you're likely to not get a good amount of ink onto the paper. Practice until you get a feel for it. 

At this point, you could lift up your stencil and you'd have a nice impression. If you're sponging, I'd recommend wiping your hands on a wet towel, then peeling so that you don't accidentally get ink onto the white space. 

For me, I added another layer to this.

>>>>Stencils and Embossing Paste<<<<

I kept the stencil positioned, exactly like I had it. 

So Step 1 - TAPE IT DOWN! 

Step 2 - Use a Palette Knife to Spread

Using a palette knife is the easiest way to pick up a good amount of texture paste, and then spread it over your surface. You want enough to cover the whole opening, and you can add more as you go along so don't grab a huge glob at first. 

Different brands of texture paste have different consistencies. I really like the Ranger Art or Wendi Vecchi brands, myself but I've tried Dreamweaver brands and that is nice, as well. Texture paste usually has the consistency of shaving cream and is fairly easy to manipulate.

There are many different colors of texture paste. Here, I'm using a translucent/transparent version. It had a slightly jelly-like consistency. 

Step 3 - Smooth it with the Flat End of the Palette Knife

Here it is all smoothed out. You can see that there is not many bumps and lumps in mine. If you want bumps and lumps, feel free to vary the pressure of the palette knife as you're smoothing and leave some areas with thicker paste and some areas with thinner paste. 

Step 4 - Remove the Tape and Peel Back Carefully

Voila! Clean lines! Again, it's important to clean your hands before you peel back the stencil to help your chances of being smudge-free!

Another tip for texture paste, If you DO get some out of the lines - don't worry. Clean your palette knife and use it to remove the excess paste. It usually will come right off. But do it quickly - some brands of texture paste can dry very fast.

>>>>Stencils and Distress Spray Stains<<<<

Again - this could be any type of spray stain, really. I just only own Distress Spray Stains.

I started this background by sponging in 3 layers of Distress Inks to create a color blend. 

ooooo- purty!

Then repeat 

Step 1 - Tape it Down!! (are you getting the hint yet)

 

Step 2 - Spray your Ink then Dab with Paper Towel

Here's the deal folks, I'm sorry to break it to you but I don't really think there is a way to get CLEAN lines by using sprays and stencils. (maybe some other crafty magical genius can overrule me on this)

But there are a few tricks to getting CLEANER lines. - Dabbing up the excess with a paper towel helps to prevent seepage when you remove the stencil. You want to do this as quickly as possible. 

Step 3 - Use a pen in a matching color to define lines

I bet you can tell which triangles I traced around! Here I'm using a Faber Castell Pitt Artist pen to go around the edges.  It's a little time consuming, but that's the only real way to get semi-clean lines that I know of with this type of medium.

So there you have it Sammy! I hope this answered some of your questions! :) 

I bet my readers are curious what question I asked Sammy! It is:

How do you blend skin tones so easily?

Pop over to her blog (Designs by Sammy) for a tutorial on blending skin tones!

Polka Dotty Hills - STAMPlorations Sketch Challenge

Today, I've got a card that brings out the bright and fun. This weekend was 67 degrees here in North Dakota, which is practically tropical weather! So I was inspired to do a little summery number on my card stock. 

I'm using the new sketch challenge going on over at STAMPlorations:

One of the things I love to do is to mix and match funky, retro patterns. There's just something about putting two things together that shouldn't work, but do. The way these rolling "hills" light up the foreground of the card makes this girl super happy! 

To go with the funky hills, I have a funky house from The Bee's Knees - Houses STAMPlorations set. I also used the Clouds ARTPlorations stencil and some Salty Ocean Distress Ink to make the bright sky. 

You should totally go play along at STAMPlorations! We've got some great prizes for you to win, including a guest design spot. 

Speaking of,the fiesty and talented Monika Reeck is joining us this week with another version of a funky card with mixed and matched patterns. Stop by and say hello!

I'm sending my card over to:
Craft Stamper Magazine - Take it Make it Challenge
Chocolate, Coffee, and Cards - Spring has Sprung
Try it On Tuesdays - 1960s retro
Little Red Wagon - "B"lieve it (my b is for Blue Skies)

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On a more personal note, many of you know that April's been a crazy month for me. It seems like everything I need to do all year long is packed into this one little month. I know I haven't been able to leave as many comments because of this, but I do want you to know that things will be slowing down. I have one trip next week to D.C. for work, but then I'll be able to breathe a little (fingers crossed). 

This weekend was truly spectacular darlings, and I thought I'd share a little bit about what I've been up to. 

This was my Saturday:

  I've been working with my local Young Professionals Chapter to plan and orchestrate a community-wide clothing and necessities drive that would help 7 local nonprofits including our battered women's shelter, homeless shelter, and organizations that help New American Families. We distributed 1000 orange bags door-to-door two weeks ago and on Saturday we went to collect them from people's houses. 

As you can see, we got an amazing response and were able to help out some families who really needed it. 

After that, I did a quick change and got 1920s glam for the evening:

This is my gorgeous cousin, Amber, and myself all decked out. The Dean of the medical school where I work gave me two tickets to a charity ball and I have to tell you it was F-A-N-C-Y. Probably the fanciest thing I've ever been to. You know... one of those awkward situations where you don't know which fork goes with what dish... or whether the utensil you're holding is a fork at all... :) It was a ton of fun, though, and I felt very Daisy-ish with my updo. 

So... yeah! It was a busy weekend. Like I said, I have one more week of running around like a chicken with my head cut off and then I'll be back to the normal Miss-stalk-your-blogs-for-inspiration self. 

Thank you for popping by!