Monday 1 February 2016

Well and truly Distressed ....... I'm talking about the inks!!

Happy Monday!

And welcome to February ...... Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

I hope you all had a good weekend ..... thankfully no more of you lovely followers have disappeared over the last couple of days .... maybe the worst is over!

I've got another busy week ahead .... well its the start of a new month so that means new Blog Challenges will be set and of course Barbara is back on the telly at the weekend with new products from Clarity ..... so lots to get through

Before I head off to the old craft room and attempt to wake up the mojo,  I thought I'd share a little bit of the weekend with you.
I had a lovely day on Saturday with a fab bunch of crafty ladies ...... 10 of them .... sat round my dining table, having fun getting to grips with all things Distress .... inks that is!

We inked, we blended ... we splattered (although some were not too keen on splashing water and ink around ....... some  needed a little coaxing, but ..... we got there in the end!)
One of the examples shows just how pretty a few water splatters can look ......


We did the faux mother of pearl technique ... introduced to me by my good friend Loll (Stamping With Loll)  If you haven't tried this then give it a go ..... the results are stunning, and it's really easy to do. Check out Loll's tutorial on YouTube


Depending on the colours of inks you use .... it looks different every time.  Bold and bright ....


Love the shimmer .....


Or soft and pastel ....... this was the favourite I think ....



We played with stencils and Distress inks, spritzed through with pearl misters and plain old water to get different looks,  and we also used them to create backgrounds, building up the layered look


Using the same colours of ink all the way through ..... and adding in some stamping (and a bit more splattering!)


We even coloured the flowers using Distress ......


We finished off the day with a quick faux bleaching technique, using water again.


Simply stamped and embossed an image onto an inked background and then used clean water applied with a brush, and then dabbed over with some kitchen towel to remove the colour in places



They all went away with 3 cards ........ well nearly 3 cards, the last one wasn't quite finished, but looking at Facebook they're all having fun finishing them off at home, and using up all the backgrounds they made practicing each technique, to make some stunning cards.
They also put together a little tag book ..... a reminder of the techniques we covered, the colours we used etc. this was mine.  The techniques on one side ....... and notes made on the other.


We seemed to cover a lot, but we've only touched the surface on what you can do with Distress Inks. My advice is to just play with them ......  and see what you can do.

Oh well must dash ..... the old craft room is calling.  You'll probably hear quite a bit from me this week ....... there's a lot going on!

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your day.  I hear that Storm Henry is on his way, it's supposed to hit our little island this afternoon. Strong winds .... which means no ferries and possible flight disruptions amongst other things..... fabulous!

Cheerio until next time

Linda
xx

10 comments:

Sue said...

Such pretty cards, Linda! I love them all. The first one is my favorite. I love pink and orange-yellow together. There's nothing like a stamp class to get the mojo flowing. I said the same thing after taking a class at my local stamp store this past week, too.

Mac Mable said...

Enjoyed reading your blog and looking at the wonderful projects. Yes you did look like you covered a lot and also looked like you all had fun. Some great techniques and great inspiration thank you x

Kath said...

It sounds like you have a great weekend. The cards are all lovely and your tag books are a really good idea.
Kath x

Darnell said...

Wow, Linda, thank you! This post is just busting out with inspiration!! I love every one of these example cards and am bookmarking this post!! Hugs, Darnell

Loll said...

You DEFINITELY had fun with distress inks. Beautiful cards with gorgeous techniques. I bet all the girls were happy, happy, happy! :) Nothing better than sharing our love of crafting with our friends. Every card is so beautiful and unique Linda. Thanks so much for the shout out! :) Hope Storm Henry is gentle with you. Take care. xx

Loll said...

Oops ... meant to say that I just decided the other day I'm going to make a tag booklet of techniques for reminders. So funny that we are on the same wavelength! xx

Tracey McNeely said...

Linda these are all such beautiful cards, well done!

Unknown said...

I love all of these cards, cant wait to get in my craft room and get the distress inks out now :)
Could you please possibly share where the different sentiments come from as they are all gorgeous too.
Hugs, Kaz x

Linda said...

Thank you for your lovely comment Karen I'm so pleased you liked the cards. You'll have great fun in the craft room playing with Distress.
The sentiments I used come from a couple of Penny Black 'T' for Transparent sets ...... Heartfelt and Sprinkles and Smiles. These are my go to sets at the moment.
The words on the bird card are from JOFY15 from PaperArtsy and the little 'With Love' is from Happy Little Stampers Thinking of You.
Hope this helps xx

Mrs.B said...

Great cards and sounds like a fab day - fun and productivity!
Avril xx