Distressing Weekend

It has been a very distressing weekend - and I am enjoying every minute of it. As a treat, I purchased some Tim Holtz distress ink and I have been playing with them of late. With each project (and each reviewed tutorial) I think I am getting better at it.

This card was made for a challenge at Cookin' up Creations. The flower in the center is painted with distress ink. The image was stamped with embossing powder. I put some on my craft sheet and added water. I applied the paint to the stamped image with a paint brush. The background was also made with distress ink. I spread it on the craft sheet, spritzed it and then dragged the paper through it. I learned the hard way to stop before I think I should as more than once I just ended up with a mess on the craft sheet and a soggy piece of brown paper.

I used the crumpled distress technique for the background on the stamped portion of this card. I had made a large sheet and used some of it on a layout. This was just a scrap. The real technique I was playing with is I used Perfect Pearls on the wet distress ink. Lesson learned here - for this to work, the background must be COMPLETELY dry. The flowers are stamped in dusty concord and then covered with the iridescent purple pearls.

Of all the experimentation, I think this one came out the best. I was using the Distress Ink, but I was playing more with the layering of stamps than an actual distress technique. But now it is time to go and do some more playing and perfecting of my distress techniques.