My Favorite Thing Stamps and CAS

I have to tell you that I love My Favorite Stamps...especially their adorable critter stamps. I had a hard time choosing between the BB Bitty Bear stamps and the BB Birthday Bears this last trip to the local scrap store. I ended up with the Birthday bears, but I know that the Bitty Bears will be coming home soon :)

I'm entering the MFT contest for Card Design Superstars...now, I don't know how much confidence one has to have to believe one is a Card Design Superstar, especially when you can see how much talent there is in the crafty world, but if someone hands you the crown, you don't ask why. So, if you enter and win, just thank them nicely and wear your title with pride. Why yes, you'll say, I  AM a Card Design Superstar. You have 7 more days to enter in three categories...hope you'll join me!

Here's my entry for the Clean and Simple card. I used the gift, balloon and sentiment from my new Birthday Bear stamps. Birdie Brown makes some fabulous stamps, am I right? Even the little extra stamps are adorable and perfect on their own. 

1. I taped off a rectangle panel and stamped the present and balloon. Then I masked them.

2. I inked the panel with Distress Oxides in Picked Raspberry and Salty Ocean (which made the purple in the middle of course). 

3. I used my Wink of Stella Clear Glitter pen to pick up the ink and color the balloon, gift and bow. 

4. I cut out the panel, trimmed a piece off the bottom and adhered the top piece to a card.

5. I stamped my sentiment onto the card and then adhered the little strip at the bottom. It was quick and easy and letting the Oxide inks dry was the longest part of the process. 

Thanks for the chance to win a fab prize, MFT, and thanks for making adorable bear stamps!

Happy Thursday!

Chark

Distress Oxide Inks for Easter

I've had playing around with the new Distress Oxide Inks and have posts here and here about them. And I used them with oval infinity dies on this a2z Scrapbooking post to make Easter eggs. 

Today I'm using the Hero Arts Floral Border die in white Bristol paper. 

1. I swiped the Oxide inks in Worn Lipstick, Cracked Pistachio and Blueprint Sketch onto a nonstick craft sheet and sprayed with water.

2. I dragged the paper through the ink and made sure it was fully covered with the ink. Then I let it air dry. The inks were a pretty smooth covering on the paper and as it dried, the shading happened on its own.

3. While it dried, I took some regular (not Oxide) Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry and Salted Ocean and swiped those on a nonstick sheet and sprayed those with water. Same process, different types of ink. I dragged the paper through the ink and let it dry too.

4. I die cut the dried and Oxide-inked paper. Then I mounted it to the Distress Inks colored paper. I made sure the blues and pinks were placed opposite to each other.

5. I wrote Love You in white Uniball pen, outlined it in blue pencil and made a card with it. I like how the Oxide inks automatically get some marbling/textured look while the Distress inks just merge and meld together. You can see the difference between the background and the die cut parts here.

If you have some last-minute Easter or coloring needs, you can head to the free digi stamps section of Simply Cards and Papercrafts page. It's where I got this cute guy.

Happy Friday and Happy Easter!

Chark

Distress Oxide Inks Are Addictive Fun

So, I got four of the new Tim Holtz Oxide Inks—Faded Jeans, Cracked Pistachio, Worn Lipstick and Fossilized Amber—and I'm addicted! I tried a class with them recently and had already ordered my colors or I would've added Broken China and Wilted Violet. We used all of them in class and, although I wasn't too fond of the browns, I liked the pastels a lot!

Here's a panel we made in class. We used a textured watercolor paper and I would have to say that watercolor paper isn't exactly the best paper to use with the Oxides. They soak into the paper too quickly to react with heat or water or the other colors. It's pretty, but I think Distress Inks would be about the same as far as technique. I added doodles in black, white gel pen and pink chalk pen. This is the Wilted Violet and Broken China with a smidge of the Worn Lipstick.

We did this one in class too, with different colors. I added doodled in black and white pens and then used some Duo adhesive (it stays sticky) to add foil accents. You can see them better in the close-up pic.

Lastly, in this pic, you can see the difference in the papers. In the left piece, I've used the textured watercolor paper and on the right, a slightly coated piece of printer paper. The ink blends well on a good quality cardstock (Neenah Solar White) and on the Tim Holtz Mixed Media paper, as well as on the slightly shiny/smooth paper I've used here. The ink does wipe off a little the shinier or slicker the paper. We used Yupo (great for alcohol inks) and the Oxides never dried to the paper and the chalky texture of the inks rubbed off later. So, there is a happy medium for these inks. I used Bristol paper and that went well too.

I used the same colors and stencils on these two examples—the only difference is the paper. I went back after the paper dried to add Distress Inks as paint to the white stenciled areas on right and the inks played well together.

Have you tried the Oxide Inks yet? What do you think?

Happy Monday!
Chark

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