Flakes and Rock Candy

Have you ever recorded how many hours it takes to make your handmade Christmas greeting cards? And who else feels guilty if you buy a store bought greeting card lol! 

But I thoroughly enjoyed every minute spent on crafting these handmade cards!

For the backgrounds on most of the cards, I smooshed inks individually on acetate, spritzed with water, and then smooshed on cardstock or watercolor paper. I mostly used distress oxide inks, but also some regular stampin up ink colors.

All of the snowflakes are older Stampin Up dies that were cut out of colored cardstock, brushed on with Wink of Stella, then added Ranger's glossy accents in followed with Tim Holtz  Rock Candy (large glitter). Also added the Rock Candy to random spots on the edges of each card panel. 

 

Mountain Man Card

A masculine card for my father in law's birthday. The waterfront stamp set is one of my faves, it's so forgiving. I first watercolor smooshed the background on watercolor paper with Lemon Lime, Dapper Denim and Cucumber Green (stamped some of each color on acetate, sprayed with water, then smooshed on the watercolor cardstock). After it dried I stamped the mountains in Lost Lagoon, the trees in Mossy Meadow, the water in Coastal Cabana, and the little cabin in Dapper Denim. Added a few spatters of basic black ink with a wet aqua painter.

 

Saltwater & Spruce Birthday

I'm loving the color combo iced spruce and saltwater taffy in the distress oxide inks. I stamped them on acetate, spritz with water and smooshed on the paper for the background colors. Then stamped the image from Nature's prints in the same colors. Used the french print from the old French Foliage set. Added some distress paste mixed with silver stickles and glitter using a Tim Holtz splatter template and added some to the die cut happy birthday. Also added some iced spruce to the edges with a blending brush. It was difficult to capture a photo that showed the glimmer of the Stickles...

 

Praying Distress Oxides

I made three sympathy/praying for you cards last week. For all three cards I used the sentiment from SU set Flourishing Phrases. I love this sentiment because when one is going through a difficult time, or time of loss, it is so powerful to know that people are thinking of them and praying! For this one I used the distress oxide inks on watercolor paper, spritzing with water to bring out the effect. For the flower from Stampers Anonymous, I first used distress crayons to color the flower and then stamped the flower image on top.

 

Rabbit jumps over the moon

Rabbit jumps over the moon

This is my first time playing around with Lavinia stamps and I love them! I've also been trying different techniques with the Distress Oxide inks. 

Here are the steps for these Distress Oxide inks with a giant Moon background. 

I began with watercolor paper and swishes a circle of the squeezed lemonade , laying it on pretty thick.

Then I dabbed on salty ocean, lucky clover, and added some peacock feather over those color in a few different spots.

I heat set the ink and then spritzed with water and heat set again. 

Next I squished the shaded lilac ink directly onto an acrylic block and smooshed that over the moon, and over scattered areas on the rest of the card as well.

I followed the same technique, smashing the broken china and wild honey in different places. Heat set again, and spritzed with water. 

I used a circle template and a gold jelly pen to draw a line outlining the moon.

The beauty of the distress inks is if you don't like it, you can always add more ink, or more water.