Stained Reindeer

Yup. Still sick. And totally exhausted. But yet, still motivated to blog every day (although I'm running out of stuff to blog which isn't going to help me any).

So, another Stained Distress Card.


I love those trees (Tim Holtz: Reindeer Flight). I use them all the time. The Reindeer is from his Season's Silhouettes set which I am liking more each time I use it.

Sorry the posts have all been so short and choppy. I promise once I clear my head, I'll put more effort into them. But right now, it's short and choppy or nothing and so I'm going with the former.

Stained Distress

I am still sick, so another quick post. Here is a card I did using the Distress Stains. I've done this technique with Distress Inks, but you get a more intense look with the stains. Ink a couple blots on a non stick craft sheet and mist with water. Then drag your cardstock through the wet mess and you get a cool background.

I'm feeling Motivated

I was at my Pretty Mean Stampers Christmas Social on Friday night which was so fun. It was really relaxed and we had a great meal and did our gift exchange. Last year, we switched to a gift card exchange. We fill in a form about our interests and favorite places and we get a gift card to one of those. The trick is that you are supposed to wrap up your gift card so that it represents the card.

I bought a Homesense gift card for my person and I found a little notebook that said, "I want it all and I want it in chocolate." I put the gift card in the little book and then stood it up in a little dish and wrapped it in clear cellophane. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I received a Banana Republic gift card (which I am so excited about) and she made it into an awesome little book. Someone made a paper version of a Starbucks card and when you pulled the top out, there was a gift card. Such original ideas and I loved them. I left that night, so inspired. I really want to craft (but I'm behind in paperwork and I NEED to get caught up first).

So, here's hoping I can focus today and get it done so I can scrapbook tomorrow!! I really want to get stuff done and I'm motivated.

In the meantime, here is a quick card I did for my technique club before Christmas. It's a technique called Stained Distress. I've done this technique with my Distress Ink pads before, but this gives you a way more intense colour. Put some Distress Stain on your craft sheet. You want two or maybe three colours. Spritz with some water and then place a piece of white matte cardstock in the puddle. Pull and smear it and when you lift it up, you'll have a very cool background.

Stained Distress

I sat down to do my technique club the other day and morphed a technique that I love. Here is a sneak peek.

The set is a Tim Holtz set: French Marketplace. I quite like it and can't wait to play a bit more with it.

Distress Burst Reindeer

A quick post today as I'm heading out the door to work at my mother's. Not nearly as fun as stamping. I got a new TO DO app for my iPhone though and it allows me to do recurring tasks, so I have "blog" as a daily task, so here's hoping I make it here on a more regular basis.

That said, it will never actually be everyday, but at least I have to consciously delete the TO DO from the list instead of just forgetting!

Here is a quick card using the Distress Burst technique. Stamps are from "Reindeer Flight" by Tim Holtz (one of my favorite sets; I LOVE those trees).

Another Distress Burst

June's Technique Club technique was Distress Burst. I first saw a variation of this technique in Technique Junkies (if you don't receive it, check it out; it's amazing). She used Bingo daubers, but I don't like those colours, so I never really did it. I did try it with some form of Radiant Rain or something, but I can't remember what the product was. It was one I didn't really like, so I didn't really ever do it.

Fast forward to June and I was sitting at my craft room desk and I had a brainwave and thought I'd try it with Distress Stains. It worked great.

The technique is so easy really. You literally just pounce the Distress Stain down on the paper. The harder you pounce it, the more of a starburst pattern you produce.

The first couple I did, I tried colours I normally like together, but then I didn't know what to do with the background. For this card, I used more colours of the same tone and then used it as a background for an image and then mounted it on a larger card. I really like how it turned out.

The stamps in black are from a set by Hampton Arts. The yellow stamp is one of my favorite background images from "I See Paris" by Tim Holtz.