Shine

Hey, everyone...hope you had a great week.  Mine was busy, busy, busy with household stuff that needed to be done as well as finalizing product for Spring Edition, the upcoming event I am teaching at in New Zealand.  So many details in an event like this that can easily become overwhelming (anything that involves international shipping is at the top of the list) but Nic and Lucy have been great to work with all along the way.  Thank You!

All my Heart tray class from Spring Edition Event, New Zealand

So on to today's tutorial, I was recently asked by a friend to create a simple project for a small class of beginning crafters. I thought an introduction to Distress Ink was an easy way to jump into crafting and feel successful, I know I always do when I use them.  So here we go...easy, fun, cheap and not a lot of time.  Sounds like the perfect project to me.

The picture frame -
I went Walmart and picked up a 8 x 10" frame for $3.  It was one of the only frames ($3 and under) that was made from wood not plastic although it was dark brown.  When I got it home, I painted it black and sanded it.  Now I like it much better.

The mat -
The frame came with a thin mat.  As you can see, it does not have a beveled edge but that's okay, in fact probably better.  I got out my Distress ink and inked up the mat using Dried Marigold, Tumbled Glass and Crushed Olive, but really any combination of Distress Ink colors will do.  When mixing colors I try and stick with 3 to start (not counting a brown just for darkening the edges) since 3 can make multiple combinations when layered on your surface.

When the coloring was complete I used Tim's spritz and flick technique to make the water spots. Just spritz a bit of water in the palm of your hand from a mini mister and flick it on to your surface.  Give it 10 seconds and dry it with a Heat Tool.  Super easy technique I learned at Ranger U a few years ago that always makes an impact, possibly making you seem smarter than you actually are (at least in my case it does).

Once the mat was dry, I stamped it with black Archival ink and a great Christy Thomlinson - SheArt Print Texture stamp.  Perfect message for this class and this age group.

 I stamped, and stamped until I covered the entire mat.

...and here is the finished mat.
I also sprayed it with Perfect Pearls Mist in Heirloom Gold to give it a shimmer.

The center - 

Next, something for the center of the mat.

I cut out a simple heart from plain manila cardstock and inked it with Dried Marigold, Scattered Straw and Frayed Burlap.  I used the same water flick technique as on the frame to remove ink from the heart.   The quote stamp is from the SA - Going Somewhere stamp set which I stamped in Archival Ink - coffee.  I use the same plant stamp (SA - Nature's Discovery) from my last tutorial to add in some blue (Archival Ink - Aquamarine).  Then finished it off by distressing the edges with the Tonic distress tool.

 

I painted some random chipboard letters with Claudine Hellmuth paint - classic teal then distressed them with a sanding pad.  I inked the white spaces with Scattered Straw Distress Ink.  There are letters from 3 different letter sets...a great way to use up left over letters.  The paint color makes them look like they go together.

So, just in the name of experimentation I created 3 different backgrounds.

Background No.1:
Distress inks used: Broken China and Crushed Olive.
Stamp: Mixed Media, Distress in in Crushed Olive

Test #1

Background No. 2:

Distress Ink: Broken China, Crushed Olive, Frayed Burlap

Stamp: Papillon with Archival Ink in Coffee

Test #2

I might have liked this one better if I had used a lighter shade of ink on the butterflies.  Hummm...lets keep going.

Background No. 3

Manila cardstock
Distress ink: Frayed Burlap
Stamp: Postcard, spills and splatters with Archival Ink in Coffee

The Postcard stamp is hard to gauge whether or not it is straight on the block so I used Tim's acrylic blocks with the lines.  I can place the cling stamp on the block using one of the lines as a guide.  Super simple.

Use my frame as a guide.
(I do know my frame is upside down in this picture but I was just using it as a guide at this point)

 

 and now it is stamped nice and straight.

 

I used the spills and splatters stamp to make it look old.
Note: I did stamp off some of the brown ink before stamping since the ink was dark.

And here is the keeper.  Background number 3 is the winner.  Sometimes it takes some trial and error to get it right!

This project is easily adaptable to any stamp set you might already have and any Distress Ink colors you want to use.  Seriously, super easy project. 
cheers for a great weekend!
paula

*Ranger Inkssentials Non Stick CRAFT SHEET Reusable 15 X 18 Stamp Paint Ink	*Ranger Inkssentials HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL HIT00471	*Tim Holtz Distress Ink PAD TUMBLED GLASS Blue Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BROKEN CHINA Blue Ranger
*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD SCATTERED STRAW Yellow Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD DRIED MARIGOLD Orange Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD FRAYED BURLAP Brown Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD CRUSHED OLIVE Green Ranger
*Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK AIP31468	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad AQUAMARINE AIP30577	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad COFFEE AIP31451	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps SPILLS & SPLATTERS And Stampers Anonymous
*Tim Holtz 9 GRID ACRYLIC BLOCKS Set to Cling Stamps	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps PAPILLON CMS106 2011	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps POSTCARDS cms099	Nature's Discovery
*Tim Holtz Tonic PAPER DISTRESSER Altered Aged Edges	*PREORDER Claudine Hellmuth Mini .5 Oz. Studio Paint CLASSIC TEAL Ranger HSM24606

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