Wendy Vecchi Backgrounds

Over at CHA Wendy Vecchi has brought out some new Archival colours and re-inkers and shows a background technique here using the re-inkers. As I don't have any archival re-inkers, I tried it with Stazon and it worked just the same. I only have 6 colours, one being black. Above I used blaze red and mustard which created the orange. You can just make out the gold alcohol mixative in the middle.

This one was ultramarine and olive green and again a drop of gold mixative. This has much more of a metallic shimmer throughout.

I picked the excess up on a kraft tag but it just soaked right into the card, but the gold sort of floated on top - very cool.

I used timber brown and olive green on this one, again adding a drop of gold mixative.

This is the second lift of the same colours.

And finally the timber brown and ultramarine and the gold.

Close up of the gold shimmer although I'm not sure that you can really see the true effects here.

And the second lift of the above colours.

Unfortunately the photos don't do them justice as you can't see the effect of the metallics, but they look really cool.

***Edited***

I took these photos this morning in better light, hopefully they capture the effect of the gold shimmer.

Stampotique Tag

Now that I have some of my own Stampotique stamps I thought I'd best join in with their challenges!!!  Their current challenge is 'bright colours', I think this should qualify!!!  The background is burnt orange Dylusions spray brayered on from the negative of a Crafters Workshop stencil.  Once dry I covered the entire tag with the spring squeezed lemonade Tim Holtz distress ink, direct from pad to tag.  I used the peacock re-inker from the same set to create the splodges and blotted with kitchen towel.  Stamped the fence in black Stazon on a piece of card that had been sprayed with lime Dylusions spray, cut it out and attached it with 3d foam.  I stamped the Kamona image on a separate piece of card, cut her out and coloured her in bright pens.  And finally I stamped the Hanging Hearts at the top in festive berries distress ink from the winter set of TH distress inks, as my stamp only arrived today along with a couple other new (to me) Stampotique ones!!!

Atcs - Stampotique

Just a few more of the same thing really minus the tombstone, but the addition of the paper burst background image.  Backgrounds, paints and inks are the same as the post below.

Stampotique Halloween Atc Set

I decided to make the most use of these stamps as I can whilst they are on loan.  I've recently joined in a halloween atc swap and thought these would fit the bill.  The images are obviously Stampotique, the tombstone RIP is Magnolia, the spiders and small web are Lavinia and the large web is Stampers Annonymous. I coloured them with water coloured paints, distressed inks and re-inkers, eco-line inks and alcohol inks.  Pretty much the same was used for the backgrounds. Gems and watch parts were added to some of the eyes!!! Glossy accents was used to raise the RIP letters, spiders and web. I used a paper distresser to distress some of the edges and inked with black soot.

Caught In Crystal

Whilst I was playing on Saturday I prepared a sheet of caught in crystal.  I used spiced marmalade, dusty concord and mustard seed distresses inks for the colours and red and green glitter as I couldn't find any silver!!!

Felting Wool

Amongst other things Jo picked me up a bundle of felting wool.  I pulled some off and dyed 2 pieces with spiced marmalade re-inker , 2 more with dusty concord and left one natural. I then tried to plait them all but it didn't work as they just sprung back into the positions they are now!!  So I emailed Jo for some help.

Good job as I wouldn't of had a clue.  Anyway after following her fab instructions, this is what I now have.  I am going to try and plait them later.

Vilene Etching

I'd already dyed a piece of vilene interfacing with various colours of distressed re-inkers.  I low tack taped a brass stencil to the piece above and using my heat textile tool melted away the sections.

Here I've just put it behind a piece of coloured card so you can see the effect better.

Painted, spritzed and stamped background

I painted on the sunshine yellow and sunset orange with acrylic dabbers.  I then spritzed the material with broken china, mustard seed, spiced marmalade and dusty concord re-inkers mixed with water and left to dry. Hmmmm........what to do with it next!!!

I decided to randomly stamp it using black stazon.

Water Colouring Experience (One Time Only!!!)

Went to a water colouring with distressed re-inkers workshop today at Norburn's, one of our local craft centres. After hearing reports from other people who went yesterday and the long list of 'things' we had to take, also seeing the image and the colours we were going to be using, I have to say that I really wasn't looking forward to it. But now having been and survived it wasn't even half as bad as I was expecting.

Our group, left to right, Kate, Polly, Maz (no blog yet, in the process of being sorted) & Sue, started off by making our card.


I just love Kate's expression on this one, I'm sure she will kill me for this, and I only met her today!!!!


Maz and Sue pondering on what to do next


Now just look at these colours, patterns, flowers etc. The green is ok but oh no, not pink and flowery, my worst nightmare!!!!!!! But I managed to contain myself and did a bit of matting and layering and inking the edges. Sue tied my bow as it's not the sort of thing I'm used to!!!!

We then swapped rooms with the group next door and moved on to the actual water colouring of the main image. I was rubbish at it and to tell you the truth didn't have a bloody clue what I was doing!! We had a practise one and a 'real' one, but I only managed to get up enough enthusiasm to do one, after being told my water brush was no good - lol!!! But Maz lent me a lovely pink paint brush to play with - photo to follow when I've pinched it off Sue!!!!

Anyway, when I got home I cut out my one and only coloured in image and placed it over the 'proper' one. I placed all the bits where I sort of thought I'd put them (nothing is glued down and probably never will be!!). We also got brads and charms and chain, but I think I'll use them on something else!!! I quite like her trousers though, but I think that's probably because they are green - lol

Although I thought it was a bit steep at £25 we did get these goodies in our packs, and the book of Basic Grey papers is lurvley. This little lot total about £12, so not too bad in the end.

Anyway I can now say that I've been, I've done it and we'll leave it at that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Been Playing Again!!!

I've been playing courtesy of Lorraine at UkStampers. I wanted some 'Lutradur' but couldn't find any in small quantities, so she suggested that I try tumble dryer sheets instead, so I did. I bought the cheapest ones I could find, 94p from Asda.

I then used my new craft tool to burn shapes and patterns into it. Obviously this is just a practise piece to see what happened, how much pressure to apply etc. As you can see, some bits I managed to burn!!!

I then sprayed with sheet with watered down distressed re-inkers

I will get around to doing a proper one, one day!!!!

Distressed Re-Inkers Skinny Swap

These were created using re-inkers in a spray bottle and spritzing the backgounds. The images were stamped with black stazon

Another Card

Quite pleased with this card I made today. Used the cracked glass effect with walnut crystals for the background of the main piece. Used re-inkers with a paintbrush to colour the dragonflys, along with a few coats of floor wax and clear embossing powder. I then used some bits and bobs to assemble the card

Thrinchies - Children

Sue on Lotstodo Forum is hosting a thrinchies swap (3"x3") - the theme is children

Secret Santa Swap in August

Andrea is holding a secret santa sort of swap, yes I know it's only August. We were given a partner, had to make something for them, send it on and they had to guess who it was from. My partner was Jo and she guessed it was me staight away!!! I made her a journey book using my new PA Structures and Arches stamps with a few other travel type ones thrown in too. The backgrounds for the inside pages were created with a distressed re-inker and water mix spritzed onto the page or distressed inks using the watermark technique. All images were stamped with timber brown stazon

You can find the info on how to create the backgrounds by visiting our Techniques Blog

Just Messing

I made this piece by spritzing the background with different colour re-inkers. Stamped the main image onto a piece of glossy card and used lemon juice around the edges which I then burnt using a heat tool. I used brads to attach

Travel Beer Mat Book

This is a travel beer mat book that I have just made using mostly my new Paperartsy structure and arched aperture plates and my Prima journalling stamps. I used distressed re-inkers and perfect pearls to create the backgrounds of the inside pages by putting them in spritzer bottles, adding water, shaking and spraying

Splash n Spin

At last, managed to get my splash n spin out of the box. The first picture is using the paints that came with the kit, the top right has been created using accient page re-inkers and the bottom left using alcohol inks, but they dry far too fast before they have had a chance to be spun out properly. These were only my first attempts, so will keep trying!!!