Metallic Distress Stains

I finally had some time last week to play with my new Tim Holtz Metallic Distress Stains and I love them. I shouldn't be surprised, since I am always impressed with any product Tim comes out with, but these are really cool. They have a gorgeous metallic sheen, but they're still water based, so mix well with his other Distress Products. I thought they might be cool as a resist, but since they're water based, that didn't work, but it opened up new mixing possibilities.

For this technique, I put down some Metallic Distress Stain and then some regular Distress Stain on my non stick craft sheet and misted with water. Then I placed a piece of white cardstock and smooshed it around in the stains. I pulled and twisted until I got the look I wanted and then put it aside to dry. It looks so gorgeous!! The metallic is nicely marbled throughout the background.

For this card, I used Aged Mahogany Distress Stain and then overstamped it with the same colour Distress Ink so it matches perfectly. The background stamp is an awesome brick background from Unity Stamps and then the butterflies are from Tim Holtz. I added a few Candi and called it done.

Tim Holtz Stamps

He has a bunch of new release stamps and I just wanted to share two that I really like.

Words for Thoughts



Mixed Media

More Candi

It's been a busy day, and I have a meeting tonight, so just a quick post to show a really simple card I made the other night while I was playing with my Candi.

I've made a bunch of other stuff with it too. So much fun. I love how they're dimensional!!


And if I was debating before about getting the Distress Markers, I'm totally sold now. Of course, watching a video of Tim Holtz using them is pretty good motivation to shift me to the dark side. Yup. Definitely ordering these when they become available. I'll be able to get the sets for sure; I'm just not sure if they're going to make me order the markers in multiples. I'll post cost when I get confirmation. And they're supposed to be shipping in February!!!

Check out the video for yourself!!

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.

Believe

I have been teaching my quick cards class for a couple months now and I'm enjoying it so much. It's a small group of awesome women and we have so much fun.

One of the cards we created this month was a quick Christmas card. Once again, it features some of my favorite Tim Holtz stamps (the trees and a different reindeer). I love how I can use them so many different ways. The trees are from "Reindeer Flight" and the reindeer is from "Season's Silhouettes."

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I haven't been stamping much (at all). I figure it will continue like this until after Christmas. Then I'm hoping to go hard for a couple of weeks and maybe, just maybe, get Nathalie's pages done until her first birthday. It's still a possibility.

Until then, here is my Believe card.

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.

Another Pearl Resist

I really like how this card turned out. I did a Pearl Resist with Silver Liquid Pearls and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink and then I just stamped the verse from Urban Tapestry by Tim Holtz. I distressed the edges and mounted it.

Bottle Capped Paris

As promised, here is a card I made using my bottle cap supplies. It's done with July Kayric Club techinque: Distressed Felt. I used the Paris Passport bottle cap insert images and the chrome bottle cap.

The background is the new Tim Holtz embossing folder which matches the background from his "I See Paris" set (I love this background and am so excited that there is now a matching embossing folder). I embossed a piece of the Faded Jeans Distress Core'dinations and then sanded off part of it. I really like how it all turned out!

An Anniversary

My parents are celebrating their 40th anniversary in October and we are having a party. I volunteered to do the invitations and so I did two completely different prototypes. One photo type card and then one stamped card. In the end, the photo card won out, but I quite like the stamped one I made. I really struggled trying to get it to be something I liked, but I mostly got there.


I used my Cricut to cut out the hearts and then I stamped a flourish by Magenta. I used my Tim Holtz scallop border die to cut the middle strip. I'm sort of glad that they didn't choose this one though as it definitely would have taken me longer to make and we were pressed for time.

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.

Ladybug Birthday

It was Nathalie's birthday a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to try my hand at a fondant cake. My sister and I had done one with our cousin (who is our resident expert) and figured we were ready to tackle alone it since Deb was heading to Vegas.

In the end, it turned out better than I had imagined possible. I was so excited!! I know it's not stamping, but I just wanted to share it anyway.


To keep with the stamping theme, though, here is the card I made Nathalie for her birthday. It's quite simple, but I liked how it turned out. I stamped the background from "Papillon" by Tim Holtz and then just cut out a ladybug using my cricut.

Purple Flower

I wanted to share a card I made a couple of months ago.

I cut out the purple flower using my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. Then I cut out the same flower from fun foam and I ran it through an embossing folder to give it some texture. I adhered the purple cardstock flower in the middle and then used the funfoam flower as a stamp and stamped it with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. I love that the stamp and flower coordinate.

To create the stamp, take funfoam and adhere a very strong double sided adhesive (I love the Sookwang sheets). Cut out the shape you want and then emboss it with an embossing folder if desired. Then adhere the stamp to some strong plastic (I cut apart the plastic that my Tim Holtz dies came in; but that plastic packaging is everywhere!). Then you have a stamp.

Distress Burst

My June Kayric Club technique is called Distress Burst. I'll post in a couple of months about how to do it, but I wanted to post a quick card.

I used the Curiosities set by Tim Holtz. It came in my last order and I wasn't quite sure about it (I ordered it on a whim). But I've used it a couple of times and I love it. It's great for guy cards.


I am hoping to have some more time soon so that I can play with it more!!

Anyway, here is the card I created using this set and the Distress Burst technique.

Simplicity

It's raining here. Well, it's alternating between raining and pouring. I managed to scrapbook a bit this weekend which was very nice. I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things!

But it's Monday and I have tons to do, so it's just a quick post today. Here is another simple card with my friend Jackie's background. I always make these focal things and then don't know how to finish the card. I've started using my Tim Holtz background stamps and just stamping a quick background and then layering and I'm liking the look.

For Heather

I was at my friend Jackie's class last Saturday and another friend, Heather, came up to me and said, It's about time you started blogging again. I was a bit surprised that she had noticed my absence, but she said she had which was very nice. I just figured that people would check maybe every so often or if they saw a link on my Facebook, but Heather isn't on Facebook and so, she was just checking. So, for her, I'm trying to be better about posting.

I created this card using the same technique Jackie had taught us (well, steps 1-3 of it). Then I grabbed one of my favorite Tim Holtz sets, Reindeer Flight, and added the trees and reindeer. I love that I could create cool looking background paper to match whatever colour scheme I have in my head.

Mother of Pearl Hearts

A quick post to showcase another Mother Of Pearl card that I introduced yesterday. This one is done with Gold Lumiere paint and then I used Red Distress Ink overtop. Then I die cut two hearts (Tim Holtz) and stamped on them.

Very simple, but I like how it turned out!

Shimmer Bird

I did this card awhile ago when I was doing all of these shimmer backgrounds, but for some reason, never got around to posting this one, so here goes. Stamps are all Tim Holtz.

Product Focus: Tim Holtz Gridblocks

Sometimes I feel like I have nothing to say and share and other times, I feel like I could post multiple times a day.

Lately, it's been feeling like multiple times. I have been trying to refrain from talking that much though, less people get sick of me.

My last order had these Gridblocks by Tim Holtz that my friend Jackie told me to try out. Well, I opened them yesterday and am in love. I know I shouldn't be shocked since I seem to like just about anything Tim Holtz puts his name on. It is a set of 9 acrylic blocks, but they are very thin (1/8"). I was worried when I first opened them since they seemed so thin and I was concerned that they wouldn't be sturdy enough. I don't know why I even let that thought flitter through my head since they are awesome. They are so lightweight. They are going to be so great for traveling too and they take up a fraction of the space all my old blocks did.

The set includes 9 blocks:
8x4"
3x4"
6x4"
6.5x5"
2x2"
3x2"
2x7"
1x5"
1x2"

Each block has a light grid printed on so you can make sure your stamps are straight. And even though they're thin, they are so easy to use and hold.

I actually took all my old, gross, cracked and dirty acrylic blocks and threw them out yesterday because these will be my go to ones for now on.

And the best part?? The set of 9 is only $22! That is such a great deal for 9 acrylic blocks. I'm going to order some more since I know people will love them too. Let me know if you want me to hold a set for you.


This picture makes them a bit hard to see, but I wanted to try to show you all the blocks you get. I spread them out on a 12x12 sheet and I still had to put some on top of others. I just thought it might be helpful to see them all laid out. The gridlines are at 1/2" intervals I believe so you can see the different sizes. I'm actually missing one block in the photo because I was using it last night and didn't put it back (oops).

Tim Holtz Time

I had a crazy weekend and so didn't get to post, but I have a couple Tim Holtz products in stock now too. I have another box full of stuff (Melanie - your stuff is in it) which I am hoping to go through today or tomorrow. In the meantime, here are 2 Tim Holtz Dies and 1 Embossing Folder Set.

The dies are part of the Movers & Shakers series. I think they are supposed to fit into one of the metallic bases for cutting, but I made it work without that by adding an extra shim. They're small, but very cute and appropriate for the front of the card. I used the butterfly one for the card I posted last time.

Hearts - $16


Butterflies - $16


I also have this embossing folder set which I thought looked cool. It's a sewing theme and comes with one regular sized one and three borders. Cost is $11.

Let me know if you are interested in any of these.