Flowers and Smiles

Hello there
I've been having a little play with my Distress Oxide inks. At first I didn't have a clear idea of what I was aiming for but seeing how beautifully they layer and react with water a little inkling of an idea crept in.

I started by dabbing white card in fossilised amber and spiced marmalade which had been spritzed with water. I did four at a time to make the most of mopping up the ink.

Next I used spiced marmalade through a stencil and added a little more around the edges.

I die cut some Tim Holtz wildflowers and used the negative as a stencil. I started to build up the flower layers using the same colours. After I'd added a few flowers I spritzed with water, allowed a few seconds for the inks to react, before blotting with tissue to soften the images.

I then added another layer of flowers but this time did not soften the images. As you have probably noticed from the photos  it's not the same background each time. I obviously lost track when photographing!

Then I completely lost track and forgot to take photos at all! I finished the background with a little text stamping in peeled paint.  The sentiment was stamped using a stamp positioner just in case it didn't stamp perfectly first time. The die cut flowers were coloured by dipping in Distress Oxide ink and a little extra Distress Ink was also added to the flowers, before layering onto the card.

A cheery summery card to make up for a rather gloomy day. Thank you for taking the time to have a look. xx

Materials used:

smooth stamping card

Distress Oxide ink: spiced marmalade, fossilised amber, 

fired brick, cracked pistachio, peeled paint, broken china 

Distress ink: picked raspberry, festive berries

Archival ink: jet black

Tim Holtz wildflowers 2 dies

Carabelle Studio mask: around the world

PaperArtsy stamps: ZA08, MN61