The one with Distress Paint...

Hello Everyone,

Greetings from snowy (again! still!) New England!  It is a very pretty day today.  All of the old ugly snow is being covered by a very thick blanket of lovely, fluffy, new snow!  I think that my girls are going to have a very easy time finding their Easter Eggs in a couple of weeks! 

Yesterday, I received an order of Distress Paints from Blitsy.  (Blitsy is really good at separating me from my money!)  I couldn't wait to dig in, and got started playing as soon as I got home.  (Dinner was a little late.  Sorry, family!)

This photo is of my first sample cards: 

 

I loved the color combos at the top and I had some special goodies waiting for a Springy project, so I got to work on a tag. 

 

 

The lovely metal butterfly was a birthday surprise from my forum friend Lisa (Check out her amazing work here!) I thought about painting the butterfly with the Distress Paints for an enameled look, but after consulting with my DD, who loves how it looks plain, I opted to add just a bit of Picked Raspberry to the edges.  (She was in bed when I finished.  I hope she approves!)

You can see the edges better here.
 

All of the background stamps, as well as the sentiment and butterfly fastener are from Tim Holtz. 

 

 

 

I cut the doily frame with my electronic cutter, and aged it by spritzing with water, crumpling it up into a ball, very carefully uncrumpling it, and adding Gathered Twig Distress Ink with a sponge applicator.  Gathered Twig is my favorite of all of the brown tones in the Distress line.  I used it in many places on this tag, including the background stamping, inked edges, on the torn edges behind the sentiment, on the paper rose, (also gifted to me by Lisa!) and on the seam tape ribbon. 

 

The yellow chevron striped ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon.  It was included in a 10 yard variety pack that I ordered recently.  I will be looking for more ways to add ribbon to my projects, now that I have discovered this retailer!  ( The seam tape is also from RRR.)

 

The Distress Paints that I used for the background are Salty Ocean, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, and Spun Sugar.  I learned by watching a few online demos of the Distress Paints, that spritzing with water is a good thing!  So I spritzed directly onto the paints on my craft mat, as well as spritzing the paper both before and after dragging and dabbing it into the paint on the mat, to allow the colors to blend and run.  I built up the layers using my heat gun in between applications of wet paint.  I finished the background by blending some Distress Inks in the same colors, and very lightly inking the edges, as I wanted my tag to have a fresh, Springy vibe. 

 

I also used Distress Paints to color the seam tape ribbon.  I wet the ribbon, dabbed on too much paint, (oops!) crumpled it and dried it with my heat gun.  Then I added some Gathered Twig Distress Ink to grunge it up a bit.  The project was getting a little TOO pretty!

 

Wow!  I got a little long winded in my excitement about the Distress Inks!  I will leave you with a photo of my back yard at 8:00 this morning.

 

This is not one of those cool Photoshop techniques with a bit of color added to a black and white photo.  It really is that grey in my back yard today!

 

Have a wonderful day!

 

Elizabeth