Distressing fun

Crafty Individuals Stamps with  Leaves Mask onto Glossy card

I've been having a play with my Distress Stains.  These are the distress inks in a liquid form.  They come in a handy bottle with a sponge tip to apply direct to cardstock.  These five samples have all been created using combinations of just three colours - Wild Honey, Broken China and Forest Moss.  I've combined them with stamps from Crafty Individuals and Inkadinkado - all stamped with Archival Black ink and highlighted with white gel and black fineliner accents.  I''ve used masks from 'that special touch of' to add extra pattern. 
 

Crafty Individuals Stamp (3 birds # 7463) & Leaves Mask onto matt card

They are all created with the same technique.  You can work onto glossy card (Our A6 packs are now online #4320 25 sheets for £3.00 is ideal).  You can also work onto matt white cardstock - and as you can see from the samples it will give you completely different effects depending upon what you use.

Start by taking a blank piece of cardstock.  Work onto a messy mat or non-stick heat mat (a surface you can wipe clean).  Pick up your distress stain colour of choice and either wipe across the cardstock or dot and dab for more intense colours. 

Inkadinkado Stamps Dogs Life Inchies (#4364) on glossy card

 Add additional colours in the same way, going over the top of some of your previous colour.  Try to work with the lightest colour through to the darkest to minimise contaminating the sponge pad - but don't worry if some colour does transfer - just work it onto some scrap paper and because the colour comes through the sponge pad the original colour will come through.  Two to three colours give an ideal vibrancy without being too much variation in colour.  Place your mask over the top and again dot and dab over with your various colours to get a few elements of the pattern to show.

Crafty Individuals Stamps - butterflies & cottages and circles mask onto matt card

 At this stage - have confidence and don't panic.  You may think it looks like a mess!!  Leave it to dry - you want it to be completely dry before you start stamping.  Select your stamps and arrange at different angles using Archival Black ink.  Add little accents with small stamps, border stamps or lines of words to break up the images.
Finally take your white and black pens and start to add some highlights.  You'll see I've added various white highlights - really handy to lift the design if your background is a little dark and you are losing the definition of the image you have stamped.  If you have a big empty gap in between stamps, then squiggles just done by hand in black or white - or a few parallel lines also works well.  It's one of those techniques designed to just play and experiment and see what appears!

Crafty Individuals Elegant Lady (#3813) with Andy Skinner Word Up (#7880) onto glossy card

Hope you have fun giving it a try - and I'd love to see what you create!
happy crafting
Jane

Shopping Guide - 
the # references refer to the item codes on our website for items in stock at the time of writing!  Just put the number in the search box in the top left corner of our website to find the items! 
Shop here for Distress Stains at just £5.30 each.
Shop here for Masks
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