Watercoloring with Distress Inks

Hi, all!

Today's post is going to be slightly longer than usual as I'm going to do more of a how-to post rather than show you the final product without the steps. 

Originally, I first saw this idea from Kristina Werner's blog. Honestly, she is so creative, talented, and inspirational! Anyhow, I thought I'd try out this little technique, and it was fairly simple. Instead of just describing everything in words, I thought I'd add in a couple pictures to illustrate the steps. So here we go!

Supplies:

• Paper: Bazzill COCONUT SWIRL Cardstock/Watercolor Paper (not bad w/watercolors, but preferably watercolor paper), Bazzill BLACKBIRD Cardstock
• Stamps/Ink/Embossing Powder: Studio 112 SPRING Clear Mini Stamps, Tsukineko VERSAMARK Ink, Inkadinkado WHITE LINEN Embossing Powder, Ranger Tim Holtz PEELED PAINT Distress Ink, Ranger Tim Holtz FOREST MOSS Distress Ink, Ranger Tim Holtz BROKEN CHINA Distress Ink
• Embellishments/Other: American Crafts Amy Tangerine Sketchbook BLACK JOURNAL Thickers

1. Mount the clear stamps onto the stamp press.

2. Apply the ink to the clear stamps.

3. Press the stamps down. Re-apply the ink to the stamps and stamp down as many times as desired to make your design. Tip: Use a powder bag to prevent excess static cling of the embossing powder (you'll see in the next step).

4. Apply the embossing powder and dust of excess. Tip: If the embossing powder is too stubborn, use a dry brush to get it off.

5. Squash your distress ink pads down on a craft mat/sheet. Make sure they are close to each other in the color spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).

6. Add some spritzes of water to get the ink moving (about 1-2 sprays in each ink swatch is good enough).

7. Use a medium to large sized brush to catch the ink-watercolor.

8. Apply the ink-watercolors on the paper. Start with the light green on the top and work to the blue on the bottom. Blend the inks thoroughly when changing colors.

9. Finished. Let the watercolor dry for a good 10-15 minutes.

After the watercoloring section of the card, I began assembling the card. Instead of using the entire watercolor piece I decided to crop it down so it wouldn't be too busy. 

And there's the finished product!

Hope you enjoyed today's how-to type post! Please comment below if you have any questions or thoughts, I'd really appreciate it!
-Daisy Parker

"Baby Girl" Card

Hi there, Daisy here!

Today's card features a clean and simple layout. It has minimal distractions around a single centered focal point. 

I would say the majority of my cards have clean and simple layouts. I find that using only one focal point in a card is more useful than using several focal points. It makes the entire card stand out and makes it more elegant. In today's card, the focal point of the card is the stamping/copic coloring.

Remember: "less is more."

 Supplies:

• Paper: Bazzill KRAFT Cardstock, Bazzill COCONUT SWIRL Cardstock, Bazzill GRAPE DELIGHT Cardstock, Bazzill DATE SWIRL Cardstock
• Stamps/Ink/Embossing Powder: Hero Arts ADORABLE BABY GIRL Clear Stamp Set, Tsukineko VERSAMARK Ink, Inkadinkado Silver Starlight Embossing Powder
• Dies: Medium Label Die, Cuttlebug Anna Griffin POPPY Embossing Folder/Border Set
• Other: Copic Markers (colors shown in photo), Uniball Signo WHITE BROAD Gel Pen, Stickles SILVER Glitter Glue, We R Memory Keepers CORNER CHOMPER

Catch ya'll next time!

-Daisy Parker

Birthday Wall-hanging Idea

Hey there!

Today I wanted to share with you a neat project you can put together for someone's birthday. My beautiful mother's birthday was earlier this month, so I presented this to her. As you can see below, she absolutely adores it!

I was inspired for this project by vintage Polaroid pictures and ideas on how to hang them up in your room. At first, I wanted to just present her a stack of vintage Polaroids or at least put them into a scrapbook page. Since I gave her individual scrapbook pages on nearly every occasion, I decided to change it up a bit. 

So here are a couple of pictures of the final product. I will describe the steps I used to make it and the materials needed below.

Supplies:

• Cardboard/Corkboard (approx. 10" x 20.5")
• Maroon/Burgundy fabric (should cover front of cardboard base)
• Natural burlap (should cover about 3/4 of front of cardboard base)
• "Naturally Coiled" wire (should cover length of cardboard base in addition to handle)
• Small/Medium clothespins
• 2.5" x 2.5" printed photos
• Letter stickers/Cardstock
• White acrylic/fabric paint
• Dotted foam stamp
• Any other embellishments

Steps:

1. Cover your cardboard base with the burgundy fabric. Use hot glue to adhere the fabric to the back side of the base (Tim Holtz TONIC Scissors work great with cutting basically anything.).
2. Cover a part of the front of the cardboard base with the natural burlap and glue it down (Don't mess with the ends of the Burlap as they fray easily. You can use an anti-fray serum or glue such as Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS.)
3. Cut your wire and run it across the length of the front of the base. Hot glue the ends on the backside of the base.
4. Take some more wire (for the handle up top) and adhere the ends to the backside of the base. Use scrap fabric to secure the ends of the wire to the back.
5. Hot glue the back of your clothespins to the base and insert your photographs.
6. Use letter stickers or cut out cardstock for the greeting of your wall-hanging.
7. Dip the dotted foam stamp into the white acrylic paint and stamp it on some empty spaces on the wall-hanging.
8. Let everything dry, and you're finished!

I hope you liked the idea, as it is such a cute project to make for someone you love or someone that is close to you. It is really versatile, as you can incorporate several different ideas with the same project! Thanks for visiting, and come back soon for some more snipping and scrapping!

-Daisy Parker

"Fly High" Card

For today's second post, I am featuring another clean and simple card. It uses a new, common technique known as misting. 

I used a butterfly shaped stencil and sprayed the glimmer mist on the cardstock from about five inches away. I just pumped it one to two times for a clear defined background. I let it dry for about 5-7 minutes. As you can see, it turned out pretty sweet. 

To add a bit of variation to the card, I used a small hole punch and punched the very corners of the white cardstock to create a "moth-eaten" or perhaps "butterfly-eaten" look! 

 Supplies:

• Paper: Bazzill KRAFT Cardstock, Bazzill COCONUT SWIRL Cardstock
• Punches: Small Hole Punch
• Mist/Stencil: Heidi Swapp Color Shine MINT GREEN Glimmer Mist, Heidi Swapp 6x6 in. BUTTERFLY Spray Stencil
• Embellishments/Other: American Crafts Amy Tangerine PINK GOODNESS Thickers, American Crafts Amy Tangerine ROBIN'S EGG WISH Thickers 

Catch ya guys next time! Bye!
-Daisy Parker

Simple "Thanks A BUNCH" Card

Hello!

So you may have guessed that I was never coming back from my rather lengthy blog break. If you did, I'm sorry to say that you are wrong!

Taking a five-month break from paper-crafting/blogging was necessary for me. Life was extremely busy with school, graduation, athletics, family issues, and a whole lot more. I'm so so glad to announce my official return into my life as a paper-crafter and blogger! I hope to be doing posts at least weekly so, heads up!

Today's project features an extremely simple and basic thank you card. No techniques or skills needed- just patterned paper, cardstock, baker's twine, and a simple cardstock embellishment. 

Supplies:

• Paper: Bazzill HOT FUDGE Cardstock, Crate Paper ACORN AVENUE 6x6 in. Paper Pad
• Embellishments/Other: GREEN Baker's Twine, American Crafts "THANK YOU" Card Shapes

Don't worry, I'll be back!

-Daisy Parker