Repeat Impressions Project of the Week-Distress Bokeh

Hello!  It is my turn to bring you the Repeat Impressions Project of the Week and I chose to do the Distress Bokeh technique for you.

Bokeh is a photography term and is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.

I wanted to try this technique using Distress Inks and a White Pigment ink.  I gathered some supplies:

I gathered some of my favorite Repeat Impression Stamps, a variety of Distress Inks/Daubers, White Pigment Ink, a stencil with holes (you could make your own using dies) and some white cardstock.

First, I added the ink to the cardstock.  I wasn't too worried about getting a perfect blend as I will be covering most of it in the next step.

Next, I used the White Pigment ink and stencil to add random dots all over the backgrounds.  You can use a sponge or a dauber, but I preferred to just use my finger for this part.  I covered most of the purple background but went a bit less with the dots on my yellow background.  After all of the larger dots were added, I used a finger dauber to add the smaller white dots which represent the brighter bits of light showing through the blurred backgrounds.

I stamped the Repeat Impressions Large Snowflake #8917 and Snowflake Cluster #8805 in various shades of purple.  I know, you are thinking snowflakes, isn't it Spring?  These snowflake stamps are some of my favorites and this background just called out for them :) Plus, it actually snowed a bit a little higher up today and that is a good thing for us here in California right now.

Here are my finished cards:

I stamped the Repeat Impressions Large Dragonfly #4401-O  and Happy Everything #3104-

F in black ink and finished it off the card with some Diamond Stickles and enamel dots.

 I stamped the snowflakes in a variety of purple inks from my stash and added the Snowmen Fall #4601-H sentiment, stamped in black.  For a finishing touch on this one, I added a punched snowflake and some enamel dots.

I hope you will give this technique a try, it is quite fun and very easy to make several at one time.

Something Incredible

Hi there!  I must be thinking of warm Spring days by the colors I chose for today's card.

Lately, I have been fascinated with all of the things you can do with background stamps.  Sometimes, I think they get overlooked.  I know I have quite a few and don't use them as often as I should.  Watch out, I might be going through a new phase!

I embossed this beautiful Flyaway Coverall stamp from Gourmet Rubber Stamps with Versamark Ink/White Embossing powder.  Using sponge daubers I applied three colors of Distress Inks in random sections.  I used Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots to adhere the Flyaway panel to a Light Aqua panel and then Tombow Power Tabs to adhere the Lt. Aqua panel to a Mint colored card.  Power Tabs can be a nice alternative to Tombow Foam Tabs when you want a little less lift than you would get from the foam tabs.

The Something Incredible sentiment is stamped with Distress ink onto white cardstock and layered to a Mint label diecut and then popped up onto the image panel with Tombow Foam Tabs.  

CAS Let it Snow

Good morning!  I hope this finds you off to a good start for the week. The season may be fall, but we have had some unusually cold weather last week with snow at the 8000 ft level.  Lucky for me I am only at 3200 ft elevation and we only had the cold and not the snow.  I am so not ready for the white stuff.  I do like              stamping snowflakes though and have tons of them in my stash.  

I am working on my CAS skills.  I actually completed this card in less than 30 minutes.....a new CAS record for me. :)  I started with some Gina K. Designs kraft cardstock (this is the best kraft cs on the market IMHO) and embossed it with the Snowflakes CB EF at the top and very bottom of the card, leaving a little ditch for my sentiment.  The sentiment is from Verve's Holiday Phrases set and the snowflake is from Penny Black.  The date on the side of the snowflake is 2001 and I bet that I have had it since then.....it has been well loved!  The stamping and distressing were done with the new seasonal Gathered Twigs Distress ink.  The red print is from the Memory Box Distressed Dot collection.  We all love our bling so I finished my card off with a few red gems.  Who doesn't love a little sparkle?

Todays card is for two challenges:  The Outlawz Sunday CAS1009 challenge which was to use your favorite stamp(s) and the CR84FN40 challenge which is to use: red, brown and kraft.  Isn't their graphic beautiful?
 

InLinkz.com

Watercolor Butterflies

Happy Thursday! Today I have a quick post to share a card that I created for a class that I taught a few weeks ago.  

My card was inspired by the card to the left.  I don't know who made it,  but I knew I liked it and saved it in my inspiration file when I saw it.  If you know who might have made it,  please let me know so that I can give proper credit. This is another great reason to watermark your photos, ya never know when someone wants to give you a little shout out. :) 

 For my card, I used the Hero Arts Friend definition stamp for the background, it was embossed  in white and then the panel was edged with Tea Dye ink. The butterfly is Memory Box's Cocoa Bean butterfly.  I colored my butterflies with three different colors of Lyra Watercolor Crayons and then spritzed the stamp with some pearl shimmer spray and stamped onto 140# cold press watercolor paper. This stamp has a matching die, so I then cut them out and edged them with Tea Dye Distress ink.   Don'tcha love it when you don't have to spend extra time fussy cutting your images?  Well, I gotta run.  See you soon.

CHA Sneak Peek....Feeling Lucky?

Ah ha, I bet you thought I was going to have a St. Paddy's card to share with you.  Nope!  What I am sharing is a couple of different ways to win some goodies.

First, I am giving away the Kind Words set from Verve........you can read all about it and enter to win on THIS post.  You have until Tuesday January 25th to enter.

Second is this:

Ranger and Coredinations have teamed up to create two great cardstock collections that coordinate with Tim Holtz Distress Ink and Ranger's Adirondack Ink lines.  They are going to pick 40 winners to send one of these fabulous paper pads to.  If you would like to enter, click HERE.   
I'll be back in a bit with a card to share.