Creativation 2017 Card Samples Part 1

I had so much fun creating some cards for the Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamps at CHA Creativation 2017.  Today I'm posting two of the cards I made with a quick photo tutorial on how I made each one.

First, I gathered a whole bunch of my Distress supplies so that whatever idea or vision took hold, I would be ready.

For the first card, I was taken with the florals in the Illustrated Garden CMS295 and wanted to do something soft and vintagey.

I started by making a soft Spun Sugar background using the Vines and Roses CMS298 background stamp. I inked the stamp with Spun Sugar Distress Ink, then spritzed it lightly with water, and stamped it on Distress Mixed Media Heavystock 

I dried it with a heat tool and lightly colored in the rest of the background with Spun Sugar Distress Ink and a Blending Tool. I added a tiny bit of Pumice Stone Distress Ink in a few places just lightly and edged with Ground Espresso Distress Ink. The lighter spots are just from spritzing drops of water on the background using the Distress Sprayer. 

The next few steps I'm going to show you with different colors than the ones I used on the card, but the technique is the same.

I wanted to stamp on linen, so I cut a piece of linen from the Ideaology Textile Surfaces and chose to use Ground Espresso Distress Paint to stamp the image. 

You want to use a brayer to get the paint evenly spread onto the stamp, then just press the stamp onto the linen. You will want to wash your stamp right away. I use water and a Rub-it Scrub-it pad from Ranger and my stamps clean right up.

Once the paint is dry, then I picked some Distress Crayon colors that I liked for the project.

Scribble the Distress Crayons onto the Non-stick Craft Sheet, and using a Tim Holtz Water Brush, begin to water color the image. I dried mine often so I could see the color when the linen was dry. Water coloring with the Distress Crayons gives something a completely different look than with the inks or markers because the color has an opacity to it.

Here is a close up of the completed piece.  The texture of the linen goes perfectly with this stamp to give it a very vintage fabric feel. 

Here is a close-up of the pink floral.

For this second card the technique is fairly simple, it just takes a little patience, but it's worth it! This card is one of my favorites!

Again, with the technique pictures I'm going to show you with different colors so you can see how it looks, but the technique is the same.

Gather Distress Watercolor Cardstock, I used the vine background from the Vines & Roses CMS298 stamp set, and Distress Markers in various colors.

First you need to make a light background color. For this sample I decided to try an orange background. Using Distress Ink pads, pounce some color onto a Craft Sheet.

Spritz the ink with water until it beads up.

Swipe the smooth side of the Distress Watercolor Paper through the wet ink once, dry, then repeat. Remember not to do it too much for this technique since we want to keep the background light. Dab off any areas where it pools with a dry paper towel or flour sack towel.

Once it is dry you will see that some areas are a little darker than others and that's ok. We like that!

Now you get to color! Using your Distress Markers, color directly onto the stamp. Don't worry about the ink drying, just color the flowers, leaves and vines, flower centers, etc until you have the entire

stamp colored.

Next spritz the stamp a couple of times with water from the Distress Sprayer to reactivate the ink and also to make the stamp look like you watercolored the image.

 Stamp directly onto the background and dry immediately.  Voila!

I really love the soft beauty of the image with this technique.  I could just keep making pretty backgrounds all day with this stamp!

That ends Day 1 of my Creativation Card Samples. I'll be back on tomorrow with more.