Distress Paint Splats

A fun, quick card using Distress Paint.  Get the dabber top very wet with paint and then hit it on your paper... repeat as wanted with whatever colors you want to use.  After I was done "splatting" I used a paint brush and the tarnished brass paint to flick on gold spots.  The tarnished brass is also used to edge the piece and the three strips of painted paper.  The flowers (Tim Holtz tattered floral die) are also painted.  Heart brad.  The sentiment is from Art Impressions.

XOXO Valentine ATCs

There is an in-person ATC swap in Des Moines this coming Saturday with a Valentine's theme that I'm hoping to make it to so I did a batch.  

The backgrounds use Wendy Vecchi's Archival Ink re-inker technique (here's a video showing it).  I cut a piece of Specialty Stamping paper in 3 1/2" strips and then used Wendy's red geranium reinker color along with magenta hue.  I forgot to add some metallic mixative but it still worked fine, just no shimmer from the metallic.  After the strips were dry I cut them into 2 1/2" sections for the atcs.  This left me with 3 small strips that I glued to an atc blank and trimmed off the excess (first atc in first row).  

For the torn hearts... I used Wendy's 'never enough hearts' stencil and a scrap piece of cardstock.  I did one small heart with embossing paste repeatedly on the paper leaving enough space to tear a border around each one.  While the paste was still wet I sprayed a script background stamp with water and stamped into the paste to create texture.  After the paste was dry I tore out each heart (a few were inked first and then torn out to leave a white border around the ink).  Some were sprayed with Dylusions, some inked with Archival.  Some have Viva Inka Gold rubbed on the texture.  A couple have Distress Stickles on them.  

Any hearts on the background were stenciled using either white paint or ink.  The stems paired with a torn out heart are also a Wendy stencil, 'create a flower', inked with Archival fern green and then a white gel pen and/or black fine tip pen for highlights/shading.  

There is a script stamp used in the background of some atcs.  Some others use a new Quietfire Design stamp 'Valentine' from the Calligraphic Love Bits set stamped either with white paint or Archival ink.  One atc uses the new QF stamp The Door Was Marked "You".  There is also a diamond stencil and a dot stencil (both Wendy's) and one used a speckled stamp.  All of the ATCs have the XOXO stamp (love this stamp) from the Calligraphic Love Bits set stamped using Archival Ink jet black.  On the second atc in the first row I accidently grabbed the wrong ink pad the first time I stamped the XOXO and so stamped again with the black, of course not getting them lined up, but it's ok.  

The leaves on the second atc below are a Wendy stencil.  The word 'love' on some atcs is hand written.

The green stem is a die cut with the leaves removed and replaced with punched hearts... extra fine Sharpie paint marker for the white dots.  A piece of red rickrack across the bottom.

All the torn out heart are stuck on with foam mounting tape for added dimension.  

love you forever

Isn't that "heartflake" cute!!! (Official name... Heart Snowflake)  I got a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas and the heartflake is one of the first things I cut while trying to figure out how it worked... now I've made it into a card.  The cut file is a Quietfire Design image and is available from Silhouette Here.  I've paired it with a stamp from Quietfire's new Calligraphic Love Bits set.  

For the background I used Ranger's Specialty stamping paper, Distress Stains worn lipstick, picket fence, and just a bit of tarnished brass.  I put the stains on a craft sheet, sprayed them with water and dipped the paper in, dried it, dipped again, dried it, and continued building up layers until I used up the stain.  Then I flicked on some water, let it sit just a bit, blotted it and dried it... and repeated again for even more light speckles.  Next I stamped on white paint with a Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 background stamp(Heirloom Art set).  It didn't stamp as well as I wanted so I did it again and, of course, didn't really get it lined up but it all came out ok.  " love you forever" is stamped with Ranger's Archival jet black.  The edges are distressed and have white paint sponged on.  It's layered to red cardstock and a piece of lace along with some red rickrack finish it up.

Oh, I almost forgot.  I sprayed the "heartflake" with Perfect Pearls perfect red giving it a little bit of shimmer which I tried to pick up in the following picture. 

October..... or.... A whole pile of ATCs

From Happy New Year to October... just like that?!?!  LOL  I say October because that is when I made all of these atcs and then I took them to an in-person atc swap up in Des Moines the last Saturday of October.  Now I'm finally getting them on the blog.  I thought maybe I should make individual posts but I can't remember all the details about I how I made each atc.... so I'll give you lots of pictures and just a few comments about each one.

The bird is a stencil... also the leaves.  I know I used a marker to fill in more of the bird than the stencil did and also a white gel pen for added details.

The flower stencil and flourish stamp are both Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi.

The flower and stem/leaves are Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Art Parts.  The mesh stamp and stamps used on the Art Parts are also Studio 490. 

The fern is a stencil.  

The flower is a Studio 490 stencil. 

Fun!!  Using up some scraps. 

The die cut leaf was left over from a project and I had the piece of paper is was cut from.  I tore the piece of paper and just used the right half along with the leaf and layered them on a different piece.   

And embossing folder for the texture in the background.  After painting I rubbed on a couple of colors of Inka Gold for that metallic look.  The leaf is painted and Distress Stickles added. 

Corrugated cardboard, embossing paste around the edged and for the stem/leaves. Flower die cut from Sticky back canvas stuck on cardstock. 

At the previous in-person atc swap the demo was the metal technique used in the background.  At home I made the metal rose and put the atc together... then took it to the next swap and gave it to the person who had done the demo. 

The background is just having fun playing with paints.  The flower is a Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stencil and embossing paste. 

Happy New Year!!!!

Yes, I know it's January 18th already!!!  I haven't posted in a month (where does the time go) and wanted to say....  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that the new year is going well for you!!!!  We had lots of company over the holidays, both family and friends, and it was so good to spend time with them.  Our son, Nick, also got to come home for 2 weeks from his AIT training at Ft. Lee.  I did accomplish several projects either for Christmas gifts or to finish up a canvas swap with friends but there are only so many hours in the day and blogging just didn't happen. 

Today I'll share one of the canvases I made.  This is a small one, 4" x 4", made for a friend for Christmas.  I first glued on a piece of Tim Holtz tissue wrap and then used various paints, stencils, and stamping with Archival Ink.  The flower and leaves are die cuts (Sizzix Tim Holtz) and they've been painted.  The center of the flower is a Wendy Vecchi Blossom Bucket piece.  The butterfly is a punch and it is also painted.  The scripture (Our Daily Bread Designs) is stamped on plain white tissue paper with Archival Ink jet black, torn out and glued to the canvas (the white tissue mostly fades away and you have just the stamping).