Category Archives: Blog Exclusive

Here’s all of my projects that I posted exclusively on this blog, so no video, photos only. Enjoy!

Mixed Media Tag: Using Paint as a Resist

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I already knew you could stamp over a painted or inked background. But what if you want to stamp a light color, like white or cream, and you don’t have opaque inks? You could stamp with paint of course, but what if you want that grungy blended color gradient effect? Stamping with (white) paint over an inked background would only give you clear and harsh boundaries between the stamped image and the background.

Fortunately there is a third way, which I’m sharing today in my blog. I got it from one of Tim Holtz’s demos by the way, so check out his blog if you want to see and hear him demo it.

Step by step

  1. Apply a relatively thin acrylic paint to your stamp, like Distress Paint. Or, use some water to thin your regular acrylic paint. Now, be very quick to stamp it onto an empty background tag, because once the paint dries on your stamp, you won’t get the paint off any longer, for it will dry permanent…
  2. Once the paint is dry, ink up your tag with some water-based inks and make an inked background. I picked the six colors of Ranger’s Distress ink you see in the picture above, and used a blending tool. Simply blend over the stamped parts: the paint will work as a resist for water-based inks, so your stamped image will appear through the ink! This works particularly well with darker colors of ink.

3. Now you can use regular ink, like some Archival ink, in a darker color to stamp other images over your background.

In the top right corner you can see I used cream-colored Distress paint, but this time not on a stamp but through a stencil. This gives the same resist effect when you ink over it with water-based inks. I even used water-based ink through an alphabet stencil over it, and the paint resisted that too.

The Archival ink I used for the large typewriter-script stamp on the other hand is oil-based, so it did cover the Distress Paint. This is a great and easy way to play around with layers of colors and patterns and add some extra dimension.

Alphabet stencil: water-based ink is resisted by the cream-colored paint, so diamond pattern still on top. Script stamp: oil-based ink covers everything, and is NOT resisted by paint, so diamond pattern is covered by the script pattern.

Below is the end result I reached – for now; some day I may add a sentiment or die-cut or some dimensional decorative element, should I decide I’m going to use it as a card and send it out. But for now I’m very pleased with it as is!

Trying Ranger’s Alcohol Inks

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If you want to learn how to work with alcohol inks, I can highly recommend watching Tim Holtz’s demos on his blog. After which: start practising!

A great starter kit would be a pack of Yupo papers, at least 2 colors of alcohol ink, and a high percentage alcohol. If your budget allows it: add Ranger’s Blending Solution too, for it will offer you some more options when working with the inks.

I have to say these inks are fun to work with, the colors are vibrant and their fluidity is quite different from dye inks or spray inks; it seems a lot thinner and it ‘flows’ differently. You can use a hairdryer to move them around on your paper, or some kind of hand air pump like Ranger‘s Alcohol Ink Air Blower or JoyCrafts’ Ink Blower.

JoyCrafts Air blower for alcohol inks

Personally, I use Tim Holtz’s Distress Marker Spritzer Tool – remember that one? It was designed for something different but it’s also a great alcohol ink blower!

Lastly, you can even blow through a straw – but be careful, for you’ll get dizzy extra quickly due to the alcohol vapors…

Next to blowing your inks around, you can also use an ink blending tool (with a felt piece instead of a foam piece) and dab-dab-dab – either with inks, or blending solution, or a mixture of both. Add some high percentage alcohol to the mix to get even more effects.

Ink blending tools can be bought from several companies, Ranger among others.

Speaking of substrates: always use a non-porous surface. I used Yupo (a plastic ‘paper’) and also a gessoed craft tag. Ranger‘s Alcohol Ink papers are of course also very suitable. Whatever substrate you use, each will have its own unique properties so it’s useful – and fun – to experiment a lot!

Below you’ll find my first set of such experiments:

Yupo A4 sheet (cut into 7 smaller pieces) – alcohol inks – blending solution – 99% isopropyl alcohol:

Yupo – alcohol inks – copper mixative – blending solution – 99% isopropyl alcohol:

Yupo – alcohol inks – pearl mixative – blending solution – 99% isopropyl alcohol:

Craft tag (cardstock) – gesso – alcohol inks – pearl mixative – blending solution – 99% isopropyl alcohol:

What about you? Have you tried alcohol inks yet? Or perhaps you’re an advanced alcohol ink artist? Let me know and share your story in the comments below!

Coloring with embossing glaze

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This week I’m sharing a nice way to color your texture paste with Distress Embossing Glaze – or frankly, any set of colored embossing powders. This technique is demoed by Tim Holtz by the way, on his blog.

First, I created a background with Distress (Spray) Stains and added some splatters with a Distress Oxide spray.

Then I used a stencil to add some texture paste. While the texture paste was still wet, I sprinkled several colors of Distress Embossing Glaze over the tag, and gently tapped underneath to get rid of the excess and at the same time prevent all of the colors mixing together.

The texture paste I used dried opaque white; you’d get even greater effects if you use a translucent paste, together with the Embossing Glaze, because this way your tag would still show some of the background colors through the layer of paste & glaze.

The final step: melt the embossing powders with a heat gun. You now have colored your texture paste!

Birthday Bash Stepcard (+ template!)

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Step cards come in many different shapes and variations, but they always have this common denominator: there’s always at least one ‘step’. The variant I’m showing you today is what some people call a Center Step Card, which is a ‘one-step’ step card. The first one I ever made I entirely cut, scored and shaped myself, which was quite some work because of the specific cuts and creases of this particular type. After that, I bought myself a die which made that part a lot easier. Mine is from Crealies but I’m sure other brands out there have them as well.

If you don’t own the die, here’s a template for you to make one by hand:

The papers I used here are from Pink Paislee, the collection is called Birthday Bash. They are fun summer colors and some sheets have a specific birthday theme. Each sheet is double-sided so with only two sheets I got myself four patterns.

I always like to cut only one piece to mat the front and backs, which takes some extra detailed measuring. Or you could use the same die, if you have one. I show you how in my free video tutorial on how to mat a step card using a die.

The final step is of course decorating. Here I used some layering, die-cutting and stamping. Ans as a finishing touch I wrote 80 (which is how old my aunt now is) in both glitter glue and liquid pearl, on both the right and left panels.

Beyond Backgrounds: Large 3D Butterfly

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In my previous video I shared a card with a very large handmade 3D butterfly on the front.
Today I’m sharing the steps to create such a decorative element.

First, create a background with any color mediums you like. I used Distress Stains and a Distress Spray Stain by Tim Holtz, in three colors.

Next, enhance the background with some stencil art. I used a Distress Oxide in the same color as one of my sprayed inks, through a mini stencil by Tim Holtz.

Stamp your image onto the background (after it has completely dried) with Archival Ink.

Fussy cut the stamped image.

Don’t forget to color the (still white) back of your butterfly, since we will be folding its wings up! I simply inked it with one color and stencilled over it with another, again using the Distress line.

To add some extra interest I also sprayed the back of the butterfly with some silver, using Distress Mica Spray in Brushed Pewter.

Now your image is ready to be used as a great eyecatcher on your card or art project!

Hope this was useful to you, if so, let me know in the comments!

A water-colored card (with Distress reinkers!)

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Stamps are of course great adornments on almost any background, but you can also go the other way around: start with a stamped image on a white background, then coloring it in yourself – Including the background.

I started with a nice image of a rustic window, its shutters open, some vines and flowers growing around it. I stamped with black archival ink on a piece of sturdy matte-coated paper I had laying around and didn’t know any properties of – but thought, oh well, we’ll see, this will probably work at least somewhat (and it did 🙂 ).

I then took out my Distress ink Reinkers, put a couple of drops of each color in a Tim Holtz Ink Palette, and went to work with a watercolor brush pen.

I colored the entire surface, paying special attention to the window panes (how does one color glass…?)

When the ink was sufficiently dry, I covered each window with Glossy Accents, to give them a nice ‘window-like’ reflection.

To finish it off I die-cut a sentiment (Congrats) from rose gold (almost copper) metallic paper and attached it to the lower right corner.

All in all it was a nice, meditatively calm kind of project. The reinkers worked wonderfully as watercolors, and the ink palette came in handy. But note that you can’t really travel with the ink palette because the ink drops will not remain in their pans – which to me was a disappointment.

Monoprinting on black cardstock

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Continuing with my experiment of spraying Color Bloom mica sprays on black, I took a different stencil, cut a large tag in half and sprayed with three colors on the first half.

This left a lot of ink on the stencil of course, so I turned the stencil upside down and laid it onto the other (clean) half of my tag. Then pressed firmly with a piece of paper towel to immediately catch all of the ink leaking through, and lifted the stencil.

Top: monoprinting; Bottom: regular stencilling

The effects were different when I tried a different stencil! With the first, the stencilled half was clear, and the monoprinted half more murky. With the second, it was the other way around! I think the type of pattern had something to do with it; the second was more intricate than the first.

Top: monoprinting; Bottom: regular stencilling

These are still only backgrounds of course, we’ll find out what use I’ll find for them in some future moment. 🙂

Ink Sprays on Black & Masking

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The difference between a mask and a stencil is, in my own words, that one is the ‘negative’ of the other. What is blocked by one, is open in the other. Both have their merits and advantages of course, and since I had never tried a mask before, I was curious about its effects.

I only have one large masking stencil in my possession at the moment, and it is one by Studiolight. It is large enough for an A4 (or US Letter) size, which also makes it perfect for the giant #12 craft tags by Ranger.

My craft tags were black, and I already knew from an earlier experiment that the Distress Oxide colors by Tim Holtz were not my preferred sprays when used on black. They show up quite clearly, but they seem to loose much of their actual colors and everything turns a very pale pastel.

So, I dove into my stash to see what else I might use, and rediscovered my Color Bloom sprays by Prima Marketing. These are inks with mica-based dye, so they not only show up on black, but add some nice shimmer as well. And although there was some loss of color here as well, it didn’t bother me as much, thanks to the nice metal sparkle the mica brings.

For my masked tag I chose the most industrial colors I could find in my stash; which weren’t many for I only have about 7 or 8 sprays. So I chose three shades of purple and one bronze. The effect was stunning, better than I had thought! And on a black substrate an industrial-themed mask is of course perfect, since its pattern will show up in black.

The most important disadvantage to the Color Bloom sprays is their price – as far as I have seen these are the most expensive on the (craft) market. A second, minor issue I have with them is their enormous nozzle, which makes them ridiculously difficult to store in any kind of efficient way. They just take up too much room. However, this is only a small point, I would definitely buy some more – except they’re not being produced anymore! I don’t know why but Prima Marketing seems to have quit this product line; perhaps they didn’t sell as well as they hoped.

However, I’ll definitely keep using the Color Blooms I already have, every time I want to spray something onto a black base!

In fact, I’ll show you another Color Bloom experiment next time, when I try my hand at some monoprinting! 🙂

Using Transparent Texture Paste to Seal Color

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In one of my previous blog posts I showed you some backgrounds with Ranger’s Texture Paste, which dries white and matte, and is porous like paper. Ranger also has a Transparent Texture Paste, which has some significantly different properties.

By the way, both of these pastes have now been rebranded as a Tim Holtz Distress Texture Paste, in case you’d like to go shop for them.

Properties of Transparent Texture Paste (Ranger/Distress)

This paste has a lower viscosity (it’s thinner and not as ‘pasty’ as the regular texture paste) and though it’s semi-opaque when you apply it, it will dry completely clear. Also, it will dry glossy, and is not porous at all. So in fact it will act as a resist, instead of taking color like the regular paste does.

This gives you the opportunity to apply texture but with different techniques, compared to the regular Texture Paste by Ranger.

Technique: Transparent Texture Paste as a color sealer

I created an Indian summer-themed background with this transparent glossy paste, using the following steps:

  1. Ink up the entire tag with four different colors of Distress Stain – I did use the dabbers this time, instead of spraying the Stains by pouring them into spray bottles;
  2. Place the tag upright and spray generously with water, almost drenching it, to get a heavy flow of color going from top to bottom. Then heat dry.

3. Apply Transparent Texture Paste through a stencil, and let air-dry for a couple of hours (drying time could probably be shorter but I wanted to make sure).

4. Since everything underneath the Transparent Texture Paste was now sealed, I could spray anything over it. So I sprayed it with two of the same colors of my palette, but this time with Distress Oxide Sprays: Oxides always dominate dye inks – except where the dyes have been sealed.

Using a splatter box whenever you spray a color medium prevents a lot of cleaning duty…

5. So I removed the Oxide from the textured leaf pattern with a damp cloth, revealing the leaves in bright dye colors, in the midst of a now more chalky colored background.

Because I used the same color palette in Oxide, the effect was subtle. You can imagine completely different effects if you use more contrasting colors, or even black!

All in all I like the ‘seal-in’ effect this transparent paste brings; however, if you were to apply it to uncolored paper, you’d never be able to color it afterward, since it’s a resist. Something to think about, and especially: play around with!

Two Backgrounds: Inks, Oxides & Texture Paste

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The two backgrounds I’m sharing today I created with one technique, but with different color schemes, generating a completely different atmosphere.

I added some texture paste through a stencil and let it air-dry for about an hour to make sure it was dry. Then I sprayed with Distress Stains and heat-dried. The next layer consisted of several droplets of Distress Oxide, since I knew Oxide would always dominate dye ink – which I learned from the Tim Holtz demos I watched recently.

What I really like about Ranger’s Texture Paste is that when it’s dry, it reacts to color mediums the same way as paper: it takes color really well, and gives it up when you want to lift it off with a damp paper towel.

I chose a warm autumn palette for the first tag, with Peeled Paint, Twisted Citron and Wild Honey, with some splats of Cracked Pistachio on top.

For the second tag I aimed at a vintage look, using Old Paper, Frayed Burlap, Bundled Sage, and Hickory Smoke, with some drops of Tim Holtz’s latest color Speckled Egg on top. I also sprayed some Brushed Pewter Distress Mica Spray, which is the silver color, over the entire tag once everything else had dried.

The stencils were both by Tim Holtz, one small and one large.

All in all I really liked this technique: it was easy, relatively quick and ideal to create some great looking backgrounds.

Two Tags: Inks, Oxides, Paint & Micro Glaze

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So yesterday I kicked off my new blog category, Mixed Media. Many of those will be blog exclusive, so no video. But, you will get clear pictures and descriptions of what I did and which products I used.

These two art backgrounds are Distress Tags by Tim Holtz (for Ranger), a mixed media heavy stock. For the first, I started with one of Tim Holtz’s stencils and gently dabbed some Distress Micro glaze through it in two spots, quite randomly. Micro glaze will work as a resist. So when I sprayed three colors of distress stain (the first three in the picture) over it, the stencil’s dotted pattern showed up white.

By the way, you may notice that there are hardly any actual spray bottles in the picture; that is because my main stash of Stains consists of the earlier Distress Stains, which were dabber bottles. So I removed the dabbers and poured some of the Stain in small empty spray bottles I had bought at the dollar store – turning them into Distress Spray Stains quite easily 🙂

So I went along and I placed a second stencil (the smaller one on the right) and sprayed the blue Distress Stain, some purple and the Distress Oxide spray through it. This gave a subtle floral effect. Micro Glaze will take a bit of color after you heat(-dry) it, which is why several of the dots in the end were colored after all.

For the second tag I used the same technique, but with only one stencil and with slightly different colors.

That concluded round 1, leaving me with two nice base tags. On to round 2 below!

Round 2, resist spray: To prepare for what I’m calling a ‘stencil reverse’ technique, I sprayed both tags with Distress Resist Spray entirely and let them dry.

Round 3, paints: for this ‘stencil reverse’ technique – which I learned by watching one of Tim Holtz’s demos – I covered an area of each tag with Distress Paint. I then placed a stencil over each (wet) area and removed the paint through the stencil with a damp paper towel – leaving the thin blue lines you see on both tags. With a normal stencil technique these of course would have been masked on your project, but now they are the only lines showing. A great and unexpected technique which may resemble a monoprint but isn’t one!

To add an extra color accent I added some Maya Gold metallic paint in a gorgeous dark purple called Aubergine, using a different stencil for each tag.

I was now ready to declare my two backgrounds finished, but then I noticed a small uncolored spot on the right edge of the left tag, which bugged me to no end. It seemed I had apparently touched the tag there with some Micro Glaze still on my fingers – adding a resist.

So as kind of a PS, I took a Distress Ink pad and blended a whole lot of ink over it so as to force-cover it up. It only partially succeeded of course, because of the resist, but at least the spot didn’t bug me anymore 🙂

Now my backgrounds were truly finished – and ready to be used in some creative way in a future moment!

Happy New Year!

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Gelukkig Nieuwjaar – Happy New Year!

Thank you all for your support and encouragement in 2019! I wish you many blessings, inspiration and of course creativity for 2020 – may at least one of your dreams come true!

Papers used: Graphic 45 – Midnight Masquerade collection

Techniques used: matting, layering, die-cutting, stamping, corner punching, inking around the edges

Extra interest items: dimensional tape, glitter glue, corner chomper