Distress Oxide Inks

I took a short class today with Marco's Paper (a local store and online store), where we played with the new Distress Oxide Inks and PanPastels. I have seen the Pan Pastels and did a bit with them once, but not much and the Distress Oxides are brand new, and mine haven't arrived yet. So, it was cool to fool around with different materials and papers and just generally get inky, chat and snack with a group of like-minded people.

Here's a background on the Tim Holtz Distress Mixed Media paper with the Oxide inks. I wasn't too fond of the Vintage Photo Oxide but it turned out okay after some spraying and drying with a heat gun (it's in the lower left). I looove Broken China and the Worn Lipstick. The technique I liked the most was applying the ink pad to a non-stick surface, spraying with water and then dragging or patting the paper into it.

After making a few backgrounds, I took this one and stamped an Iris in gray Archival ink. The we used the PanPastels and tiny applicator to apply a little color to the flower/stem, while letting the background show, and then using medium and dark gray Pan Pastels to shade the outside of the stamped lines. The darker gray under the petals and lighter around the rest. 

I like how the pastels work well on top of the dried Oxide Ink background and how the Mixed Media paper worked with them both. We also used watercolor papers and the inks and water really just soaked into the paper so fast they didn't have time to react. I'll be posting more experiments with the Oxide inks next week.

I think the loosely drawn look of this stamp makes perfect sense for the unpredictable Oxides.

Are you jumping on the Oxide ink bandwagon? I wasn't going to until I saw Jennifer McGuire's video. That woman could sell an empty box if she made a video about it. Just say'n. She's so talented and makes it all look so easy...and necessary for my craft stash! 

Happy Friday!
Chark