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.

Sleep Tight

As I was playing with my paper pack for my club last month, I came up with this simple layout. It was just sort of cutting and placing things down until I liked how it looked.

I had some washi tape that went with the pack and it was fun to just add it in places to add some dimension. The flowers were actually printed on the paper and I just cut them out.

Hallowe'en Goosebumps

I had fallen behind on my monthly techniques and so sat down in September and came up with 4. A couple of them used Goosebumps which I hadn't played with for awhile. I really like that stuff even though it's messy and goes against my sticky messy rule (ie: I don't do things that are sticky or messy). Anyway, I spritzed some on my non stick craft sheet and then used it as an ink to stamp on cardstock. When it dried, I added some Distress Ink overtop and buffed it off the Goosebumped area. I love it. I love resist techniques, so I'm always excited to play with a new one.

This card was made with a cool Hallowe'en set I just got in. I am not a big Hallowe'en person, but I thought with kids, it would be cool to have a few stamps.

What's New

I spent a good chunk of yesterday unpacking my new order and then the doorbell rang and it was another order. Talk about fun!! So, today, I wanted to share some of the new stuff that arrived yesterday!!

Some new M-Bossabilities from Spellbinders (these ones are bigger than the regular ones)

Holiday Magic

Tweets & Twigs

Winter Wonderland

I also got some new tinsel from Tim Holtz

Silver

Black

Autumn

Winter

And I got a very cool new embossing folder set from Hero Arts & Sizzix

Christmas Words & Dots

And what would a stamping addiction be without a couple new stamps?

Stay the Course (I loved these words)

Country Road (What a great masculine set)

I literally just got it all opened and reconciled so I haven't priced anything yet, but if you are interested in anything, just email me and I'll get it priced for you. I also have limited quantities of these so if you are interested, let me know and I will pull it for you.

I love my boots

Nathalie had these ladybug rubber boots that she wore when she was around 2. She loved those things and would wear them all the time. Even with shorts or a dress. She wore them so much that they cracked. Everyone knew about them and they really looked quite cute on her. So, I knew I had to do a layout about them. It's ironic that I ended up with a photo of her crying while wearing them, however, I can guarantee that the tears were about some major injustice suffered by her at the time and not about the boots.

Sweet Girl

I saw a layout very similar to this in a magazine and fell in love. I knew I wanted to make it. Then I saw it again in another magazine as a reference to something and figured it was a sign to make it right then. So I did.

It's really so simple and was quite quick: 9 hearts out of coordinating paper. That's what takes the longest (picking the coordinating paper: thankfully I was using a paper pack and that part was super quick and easy). Then I cut out 9 hearts using my Cricut (Doodlecharms cartridge) and just matted my photos. The hardest part was figuring out a title, and I found the Sweet Girl one as part of a bigger title in my Graphically Speaking Cartridge, so I cut it out and it was done.

I love it.

Big Girl Bed

This latest layout came together rather quickly, other than the journaling. I wanted to write something about how she went from not being able to climb out to almost getting her leg over the side of the crib in less than 15 minutes. I had the layout done except for the journaling and I tried cutting shapes out and placing them on and nothing worked. I had already stuck everything down, so I didn't want to risk wrecking it by running it through my printer and the background cardstock had little raised circles, so I wasn't convinced it would print well anyway. In the end, I just drew some lines and wrote out what I wanted to say and I quite like how it turned out! A few years ago, I would have never done that, so I'm happy with how I've changed and let stuff go. It doesn't have to be perfect!