Tag: distress oxide

Posted on by — 3 Comments

Night Skies Ink Blending

I had a brilliant day back in the classroom at Scrapbook Central today! 10 people came along to learn ink blending techniques and together, we made a cute set of Christmas Gift Tags.

ALERT: We will offer this class a second time on 14 November 2020 if you or a friend missed this! Please let Philippa at Scrapbook Central know, as we will only run this additional class if there is genuine interest. Contact Philippa directly here.

We used a small palette of Distress Oxides to ink up four different night skies, plus we added extra features to our skies with splatter, and also by lifting colour.

All products used today were from Lawn Fawn – the Everyday Gift Tag, Say What Christmas Critters, Stitched Hillside borders, the Little Town Border, and the Mini Snowflakes die set.

Check out some of the photos of the day below!

Along with the Distress Ink Combos, the class had a quick introduction to masking and colour lifting, and their blending onto the tiny spaces was stepped up for each tag – they had to blend FOUR colours onto the top half of their last tag – a challenge they all stepped up to!

After the ink blending part of the class, there was stamping, die cutting, colouring and heat embossing to be done. Even fluffy hats were made!

Check out the gorgeous tags made by all participants – everyone did an amazing job with their ink blending and even though we used the same colours, everyone had beautifully different results. Plus the added fun of splattering pigment, and revealing crisp white moons!

There were borders and images to be added for finishing, plus glittery snowflakes – aren’t they cool??

I was absolutely impressed with everyone that came along today – such enthusiasm and lovely results with their ink blends.

Promised Links

As discussed today, here are some of the links we talked about:

Ranger Ink labels – they do have a range of different ink organisation products you can download, including for Distress Inks and Oxides. Click here to visit the page.

Kristina Werner is a pro at Distress Oxide Blending, and she has a BUNCH of colour combinations for you to try out. Click here to visit her blog post for Combo Set 6 (you can search her blog for all 7 different combination blog posts, well worth the visit.

Last year’s Gift Tag Class held at Scrapbook Central, where we used Shimmer Powders and cute dies to create a set of gift tags. Plus, the Bonus blog post with further tags.

Visit my Christmas Gift Tag Pinterest Board to see other tags I have made over the past few years – there will be a bunch more added in the weeks to come as I share this year’s collection.

Bonus Projects

I also created a couple of extra projects using the same Lawn Fawn products used in class today, and here they are:

Snowy Hillside Card

I used the same blending techniques we went over in class to ink up this sky.

I stepped up the technique by adding subtle rays of light in the sky and created a full sized card to fit all the cute critters from the stamp set.

I created the rays by cutting masks from full sticky backed Post-its and arranged them to splay upwards. I carefully inked over them with the same colour blend we used in class today. I removed the masks, and repeated my inking over the top. This leaves a subtle change in colour over the sky, lighter where we had the masks, giving the impression of extra light.

I completed the card by cutting stitched hillside borders and arranged them to suit. I lifted the top two with foam tape for extra dimension.

I heat embossed the sentiment both at the top and along the bottom with gold embossing powder.

The critters are stamped, coloured and cut and placed within the hills.

I added some Nuvo Blizzard along the top edges of the hillsides and directly beneath the critters to ground them and add extra sparkle and dimension. Finally, a little fluff added to the penguin’s hat, sparkle pen to the critter’s accessories and tiny snowflakes scattered around the top half of the card.

Snowflake Circle

This time, I inked up another sky, but rather than filling the entire card front, I focused the imagery on a central circle.

I inked in stripes to try and mimic the Northern Lights, although this time I used Distress Ink rather than Oxides. You can see a difference in colour even though I used the same colour palette as we used in class.

The Mini Snowflakes set is a brilliant set where just one or two passes through the die cutting machine gets a whole bunch of snowflakes to place. I arranged the snowflakes over my circular inky piece, and trimmed the edges with scissors.

I cut the hillside border from another white circle to fit in the lowest part of the inky sky.

I wanted a few trees, and this little tree featured here is from the Lawn Fawn Home for the Holidays set – a teeny little set that has matching dies and a brilliant price point. I heat embossed the trees in gold and arranged them on the hillside.

The critters are stamped, coloured, cut and placed on the hillside – added fluff to the penguin’s hat again. Can’t resist that Neon Amplify!

To finish, the sentiment is the Lawn Fawn Happy Add-on, and I stacked the ‘Merry’ four times to bring it up to the same depth as the circular piece, also popped up with foam. The ‘christmas’ sentiment is white heat embossed on black cardstock and I added tiny dots of the Neon Amplify within the snowflakes to fill in the gaps (but did not heat them).

Say What? Tag

When the Say What Christmas Critters were released last year, this cute little tag set was also part of the release.

It cuts the tag itself, and a frame, along with speech bubble and a couple of other handy elements for your gift tag creations – all perfectly sized to match the little critters.

I simply inked the tag, added a sentiment to the speech bubble and stacked a couple of frames to give the tag a bit of depth. The penguin and his cute fluffy hat sit atop.

Shaker Tag

Now of course, with that frame option, you can create a shaker!

Shaker tags are super special and easy to make. I chose to use some bright rainbow paper I had in my stash for this one, as I have a small daughter who utterly adores Unicorns, and the associated rainbows!

Attach a piece of acetate to the back of the frame. Use foam adhesive strips on the tag around the entire edge, ensuring there are no gaps. Pop a little spoonful of confetti, sequins, seed beads, even tiny buttons can be effective shaker elements. I coloured the unicorn to match the rainbow paper, and have him/her sitting on a Lawn Fawn Puffy Cloud border inside the shaker. The possibilities are endless with Shaker Christmas Tags!

Thank you to all class participants today – it was a great day spent with you all. If you are interested in any of the products featured today, you can visit Scrapbook Central to place an order.

I’d appreciate it if you hit Follow below, and/or follow my Facebook page so you’ll be kept up to date with upcoming classes. I regularly share other cards, along with tips, hints and ideas.

Follow me on my social media channels:

For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series. Plus, you can Tour My Craft Room!

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Confetti Filled Diamonds

Cards that weren’t my original intention, but, in my play session, I ended up with two very different cards using the Pinkfresh Simply Diamonds die and Pop Out Diamonds rubber stamp. It’s a little bit of a journey!

One of my most used items when I use my Misti or Stamp Platforms, is the Scrapbook Adhesive Repostionable Tape Runner – a non-permanent stick, perfect for keeping things in place temporarily. Refills are available too.

I started by stamping the Diamond frame only, and cutting it out. I was impressed at how easy it was to have the heat embossed frame lines cut perfectly centrally with the die. There is a frame on the outside of the stamp itself which is 1/4″ wide all around, also equaling one square in the Misti for ease of lining up.

I was also suddenly taken with the idea of stamping that gold frame on a richer coloured cardstock – Peacock by Lawn Fawn. Delicious!!

Original vague plan now abandoned, I focussed on the Peacock piece. I decided to stack up the diamond pieces remaining from frame cut outs, leaving the gold frame peeping out from between them.

I stamped the flower images using Antique Linen Distress Ink and watercolored them with Ken Oliver Color Bursts (Fuchsia, Yellow, Turquoise and Lime Green). They are such fun to paint – quick and easy to do!

I had a spare Happy Birthday die cut from the Pinkfresh Classic Words set in my box which I placed in the middle. It didn’t stand out very well so I added a second glittery layer. I wish now I had used the ‘Beautiful’ sentiment from the Classic Words set instead, but hey, live and learn.

I added teeny gems in the intersections to finish.

My attention turned back to the original frame – I decided to create a confetti shaker. I stacked the plain frames I had cut, and glued them to a background I had in my stash. This was a watercolour piece of cardstock inked up with Distress Oxides in Blueprint Sketch, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers.

I chose confetti to match the colour blends.

I used my Marvy Uchida jewel picker to place escapees in their correct places.

I put the blue hexagons in the top row, plus in the top half of the two diamond openings in the second row. I then completed filling the second row with purple butterflies, along with the third row plus the top half of the diamond openings in the fourth row. I filled the remainder of the openings with turquoise stars. The result is a blended effect with the confetti. The heat embossed frame and acetate attached on top to seal them all in.

I was a little generous with my confetti (or short a layer or two of cardstock lol) so the confetti doesn’t shake around too much.

With a bold, glittery card all done, I felt it needed a bold glittery birthday sentiment – learned from previous mistake hahaha.

I chose The Stamp Market’s Happy Birthday from their Time to Celebrate bundle (sadly apparently discontinued, my apologies), cut twice from white cardstock and once from gold glitter, stacked.

I considered gems, but after doing an initial placement, decided against it.

Both card fronts were mounted onto #110 Neenah top folding card bases. There, two cards created with the Pinkfresh Diamonds – such fun!

This completes my pair of cards today. Thank you for stopping by! Below are links to the products I have used – some are affiliate links (not all) which simply means I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you when shopping. Thank you for your support – it means I can keep creating and sharing with you.

https://linkdeli.com/widget.js?id=f5e8378456858c916708

For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.

Follow me on my social media channels:

Posted on by — 3 Comments

Shakers & Inlays

My first class for the year was held at Scrapbook Central, Petone, Wellington.

Today’s class focused on creating a shaker card, and using the leftover die cut pieces to do some inlay, thus creating a second card. We also looked at some basic copic colouring and introduced the class participants to two colour blends – pink and orange.

Butterfly secured inside the shaker in such a way that it remains upright, but can still move about quite freely.
Die cut inlay and butterfly built and coloured in layers.

A shaker is an interactive card, which has depth and a window to see tiny elements such as confetti, sequins, beads etc freely moving about in a contained space. They move when shaken. We stepped up the basic shaker to include a die cut butterfly inside that is secured in such a way that it will never flip, fall to the bottom, always remaining the right way up but still moving freely in the shaker.

Die cut inlay is a technique where a die is cut twice and the inner pieces transferred to the second die cut outer frame – usually with contrasting colour ways – creating a smooth surface with great interest.

Supplies List:

Both cards were constructed onto a Bazzill Marshmallow 4.25 x 5.5 inch card base. All supplies listed are available from Scrapbook Central – you can order online, or visit instore.

  • Memory Box Side Butterfly Frame
  • Memory Box Jotted Birthday Script
  • Lawn Fawn Happy Happy Happy Stamp & Die set
  • Echo Park Mini Blossoms Background Stamp
  • Kaisercraft Blooms Embossing Folder
  • Circle dies – 3″ and 3.25″. I used the Hero Arts Nesting Circle Dies set.
  • Distress Oxides – Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass
  • Copics – YR18, YR15, YR12, RV06, RV04, RV02
  • Textured Paper
  • Nuvo Glitter paper in Silver and Black
  • Acetate
  • Nuvo Sequins
  • Double sided adhesive foam sheets
  • Foam strips and squares

Class attendees were given a kit with pre-cut elements. And chocolate. (Who crafts without chocolate??!). They inked, heat embossed, die cut and built two cards over the course of the workshop.

Our class getting underway – we had a full class of 12 participants!

We looked at easy ways to keep die cut pieces together for simple inlay, using adhesive on tricky intricate dies, some fun products to create shakers with, and built beautiful butterfly embellishments full of colour and dimension.

Progress pictures – there were some beginner crafters having their first try at inking with Distress Oxides, and confident crafters learning new (or perhaps re-remembering!) techniques.

We also had an introductory lesson in Copic colouring and blending. For further resources on colouring (including copics, watercolouring and other mediums), you can find a list here of my favourite online classes, where to find downloadable charts etc. Also, my Colour Page has information about Copic markers and other ways to add colour to your projects.

Thank you to everyone who attended today, and to Philippa & Jonathan for hosting me! It was a great day, full of creativity and laughs.

As promised, there is a second blog post with the extra card examples using the same products featured in today’s class – click here.

For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock, inks, adhesives, to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.

I’d appreciate it if you hit Follow below, and/or follow my Facebook page so you’ll be kept up to date with upcoming classes. I regularly share other cards, along with tips, hints and ideas.

Posted on by — 2 Comments

Sweet Celebration Wishes

I’ve had my eye on this stamp set by Stacey Yacula for some time, and was pleased to finally have time to get it out and do some colouring! This card has been gifted to a crafty friend celebrating her birthday.

Supplies Used:

Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes
  • Tim Holtz Watercolor Cardstock
  • Glitter paper from stash
  • Lawn Fawn Mermaid & Black Licorice cardstock for card base and sentiment strip
  • Nuvo Silver glitter cardstock
  • Ranger Clear embossing powder, Ink on 3 Arctic White embossing powder, and Versamark Ink
  • My Favorite Things Diagonal Design Background stamp (retired)
  • My Favorite Things Stitched Rectangles STAX
  • My Favorite Things Sending Sweet Celebration Wishes Stamp and Die set
  • My Favorite Things Celebrate die
  • Copic markers: R24, RV14, R22, R20, R00, E43, E31, E41, E40, E59, E25, E23, Y38, Y15, Y21, BG49, BG45, BG53, G28, YG67, YG63, YG61, G43, G21, G40
  • Distress Oxide Inks: Tumbled Glass, Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, Chipped Sapphire

I started off by ink blending with Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers, lighter in the middle and darker on the edges of the watercolour cardstock. I heat embossed the Diagonal Design background stamp (just about any background stamp would be suitable for this technique) with clear embossing powder, let that cool, and then continued inking with Peacock Feathers in the centre, Mermaid Lagoon and Chipped Sapphire, again getting darker towards the edges of the panel. Distress Oxide inks are great for this technique as the ink is opaque and you can add layers of colour very easily.

I buffed the ink with a cloth. The clear embossing resists the additional ink, leaving a cool flow of colour blending within the pattern.

I cut the panel down with a MFT stitched rectangle. I actually used a smaller rectangle from the nested set than I originally intended, and had to back the panel with some glitter paper in my stash! Whoops, but it turned out well in the end!

I had fun colouring these little guys and added fun fluff to their hats and the bunny’s tale using Neon Radiance Amplify.

I die cut the Celebrate three times from white cardstock, and once out of Nuvo Silver glitter cardstock and stacked these together for a little dimension.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from the Sweet Celebration Wishes stamp set onto Lawn Fawn Black Licorice cardstock.

The critters were placed above the Celebrate using foam tape strips cut to fit, and the whole front is mounted onto the card base which completes the card.

If you have any questions regarding the putting together of this project, please feel free to message me – I’m only too happy to help!