Let's Get Inky for the Craft Stamper Blog challenge .....

Happy Friday folks .....

Welcome to the weekend.
The sun is still shining over here.   We've had a great practice week of this year's Isle of Man TT .... the weather has been glorious! Sorry to keep going on about it ..... it's just been so nice!! Hubby's taking next week off work so hopefully we should get out and about and see some of the races up close and soak up the atmosphere (as well as the sunshine!)
The fun fair has arrived (oh joy!) ..... Douglas promenade is now full of fairground rides, side shows and loud music!  Bushey's beer tent at the end of the prom, is well and truly open ....... full to the brim everyday and beer served in plastic cups!
We've got the Red Arrows flying in with a display next week, and we also have the Poker Stars Summer bash next Thursday evening to look forward to .... always a fun night! And then we finish the week with a Bank Holiday ....... it's Senior Race Day.  Let's hope the sun is still shining for that one.
And then when all the TT fun is over, it's just 6 days before we go on our little family get together to Bourton-on-the-Water in the the beautiful Cotswolds .... can't wait!

Anyway enough about all that ..... onto the more important stuff.
It's the first Friday of the month and that means a brand new Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge on the Craft Stamper Blog.
This month it's the turn of Take a Technique and boy have we got a fun one for you this month .......

Let's Get Inky!!!

Use more than one type of ink on your projects (ink pads, ink sprays, stains, acrylic inks etc.,) OR use more than one colour of ink.  Don't forget to include some stamping on there too!!

The fabulous PaperArtsy are our challenge sponsors this month .....

And the prize for the challenge winner is 5 BOTTLES of the brand new PaperArtsy INFUSIONS!!!

Infusions are little bottles of magic ....... water soluble particles made up of 2 components ...... dye colour pigment suitable for paper/card etc.,  and fabric, mixed with Walnut Stain.  The colour pigment powder reacts with water faster than the Walnut Stain, so you can control the colour-to-brown stain ratio ..... clever eh!
There's a whole bunch of fabulous colours ..... 12 in all, and the winner will receive the 5 bottles in the picture below (Lemoncello/Blackcurrant/A Bit Jaded/Are You Cerice and Emerald Isle)

OK ..... I've used Distress Inks (my favourites!) in 3 different colours, Versamark ink for the embossing and I've used one of the Infusions to colour the flowers.  Oooh .... and there's also Versafine ink for all the rubber stamping.

I started by inking the background using my favourite technique at the moment ..... smooshing with acetate.  Applying the ink to a piece of acetate, spritzing with water and then using the acetate to place the ink onto my cardstock ...... I love it!!
I started with a couple of pale colours ..... Twisted Citron and Salty Ocean.  The more water you add, the paler the ink will be.  If it's too pale you can always add more ink.

I repeated the process using Mowed Lawn Distress over the green areas, to add a bit of shading here and there

Once the ink was dry I added a bit more interest to the background by randomly stamping and embossing some text, using a white embossing powder.

I stamped the pretty bunch of flowers (from Stampendous) onto my card and then again onto a piece of card that I'd coloured using one of the PaperArtsy Infusions ........ Are You Cerice, and embossed them with a clear powder.

With the Infusions I simply spritz a piece of white card with some clean water, sprinkled on a little of the Infusions powder and let it do it's thing.  To get it to spread a little more I spritzed again with the water and watched the colours change as the Walnut stain started to dissolve .... magic!

The flowers were then fussy cut, attached over the top of the image on the card and finished with a dot of White Enamel Accents in the centers.

I stamped a couple of the Inkylicious butterflies, embossed them with the clear powder again and coloured them using the same Distress colours I used for the background.

Again they've been fussy cut and attached onto the card front.

I finished off with a sentiment ..... from Penny Black's T for Transparent set Heartfelt

As always, there's a little something on the inside too ......

more smooshing and more of those pretty flowers

Now it's your turn ..... go and get inky and have fun.  Can't wait to see what you all come up with.
Happy stamping!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.
I'm off out today .... we're having a little crafty get together. No doubt there'll be cake involved, lots of chatting putting the world to rights .... and more sitting in the sunshine.  It's a hard life .... but someone's gotta do it!!!
Have a great weekend ...... I hope the sun shines for you too!

Cheerio until next time