Alcohol Ink Leaves for (American) Thanksgiving

Blatantly copying Linda Cain's techniques for her Fall Wreath (or Centerpiece) Design of using Alcohol Inks and Tim Holtz Sizzix die cuts. Love the colours alcohol inks give on clear plastic (with white background).

CCC #23 - Double Distress

Over at Studio L3 it's Compendium of Curiosity Challenge #23 - Double Distress. I found this a difficult technique for a couple reasons. Lighter colors on Grungeboard tend to look "dirty" because small flecks in the grungeboard tend to discolour darker than I would like. Bundled Sage and Weathered Wood didn't really work. I also had trouble getting my Distress Ink pads to apply directly to the paper as I wanted then - I often ended up with banding from the sides of the pad. I was also overly ambitious in attempting to do this multi-colour. In the end I'm happy with what I came up with.

The background is Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans with Black Soot highlights and Walnut Stain on the edges. The ornament is Adirondack Acrylic Copper on Grungeboard with some distressing. I wanted to compare acrylic metallic with alcohol ink metallic

Storage teaser

I didn't do any challenges this week - I've been taking some time to design and build some storage towers for all my ink stuff, which as I haven't really done much woodworking in the past 2 decades has involved a lot of trial and error. Here's a teaser of what I'm coming up with for Distress Ink + Reinker storage:

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 21 & Simon Says Show and Stamp

This weeks technique over at Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge was Perfect Distress, which Tim actually demonstrated in one of his online video clips. The Simon Says Show and Stamp challenge was "your Favourite Tim Holtz Stamp", which I interpreted to use only one stamp, plus the sentiment. The stamp is from Stampers Anonymous Winter Wonder, and I selectively inked the snow flake stamp on it.

The background is Cool Peri Acrylic Dabber, Broken China, Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood Distress Inks. The highlight flakes are Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and Perfect Pearl Perfect Pearls. Sentiment in Jet Black Archival Ink.

This shows the pearlescent effect. This effect is hard to photograph just right since it varies in the light.

Love this close up. Check it out in full size.

Simon Says Show & Stamp - Shabby

My entry for Simon Says Stamp and Show Something Shabby.

Products and techniques used: Grungeboard cut with Sizzix dies. Heart-Distress Crackle, Crackle Accents, Tissue Table, Distress Ink (background and cracks), Old Paper Distress Stickles (wings). Cage-Copper Metallic Mixatives, Distress Ink. Tag background: Winkle-free Distress, Stampers Anonymous stamps (Natures Elements), Idea-ology embellishments.

CCC #20 Industrial Grunge

The background is Copper and Silver Metallic Mixatives Alcohol Inks, Idea-ology game spinners and gears(distressed with a Texture Hammer), and tissue tape. The embossing folder used was a Cuttlebug one. The material for the tag is Grungeboard cut with the new Sizzix Tags and Bookplates dies. I look forward to using different materials to make tags in the future.

The technique I used for the birds was to stamp the birds with Black Soot, spray with a mini mister, dry, then go in and colour the background with Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans Distress Inks. Showing some nice background details in the full size image.

The sentiment was done with Tea Dye and Aged Mahogony DI.  Some detail on one the spinner and brad distressing.