Two cards, minimal supplies with Altenew Amazing You and Distress Oxide Inks

Hi,

I have been challenging myself to use all the stamps I have never inked before, so I have been stamping on all my scraps ready to use up with different techniques. For anyone who has been crafting for a while, we often get so caught up in all our lovely stash that we don't get on and make things. For anyone new to crafting, you. might not have all the amazing stash that you see long time crafters using. Today I thought it would be good to use minimal supplies, and see what I could come up with.

The kraft flowers look brighter in day light than on my desk, scroll to the end if you would like to see them in natural light (I have no natural light in my craft room so rely on a daylight lamp.)

Today I used the Altenew Amazing You stamps set and matching dies - I bought this set from another crafter when they were de-stashing, because I loved the sentiment that I used on the cards today.

I started with my stamped scraps, using every stamp in the set, except the sentiments, on white smooth stamping card and smooth kraft card. I used Versafine Onyx Black ink for all my outlines and sentiments today, my favourite black ink, and perfect for watercolour with any medium.

Then using just four colours of Distress Oxide ink, I did very quick water-colouring on my images. I tapped a little ink from each pad onto a plastic mat (recycled plastic packaging works just as well as any craft tool here) and picked up the colour with a Derwent Water Brush (a small paint brush and a cup of water would work just as well). I blended the Abandoned Coral and Fossilised Amber on the flowers and the Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint on the leaves. I didn't do anything fancy, just put one colour around the edge, added the second colour and blended them together a little. 

I picked the Distress Oxide as it had some pigment in it, giving it a little more opacity on the kraft card. It was fun to see how the colours looked on the different types of card.

Next I die cut the images out with the co-ordinating dies, but you could fussy cut using scissors if you have stamps without matching dies.

I used two 5"x7" card blanks, one in white, and one in kraft, and added a little Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray in Peach, which is a similar colour tone to the Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide, and has a lovely subtle shine when it dries. 

Don't do what I did and forget to cover your work table properly.... I now have lovely pale orange stains on my white desk! 😂

I learned my lesson for the kraft card blank!

I decided the kraft card needed something a little brighter, so I added some Altenew Ink Spray in Pure White - I took it outside to spray this time!! If you don't have any sprays, try adding ink to your plastic mat, mixing with water and using your paint brush to splatter on your card. You can guarantee a colour match this way. For the white splatters, a cheap white paint mixed with water will work just as well (The Works or The Range in the UK sell white gesso or acrylic paints at low price points if you like the look of the white splatters but don't have craft sprays.

Next I added my sentiments to the bottom right corner with Versafine Onyx Black. I used my MISTI and triple stamped as I was stamping over my paint sprays, just to make sure I got a good clear sentiment. If your are starting out in stamping, a stamping platform (any brand) is a really good investment, and makes stamping much less frustrating, as you can always stamp again if you missed a bit. They also mean you can do other techniques that are difficult or impossible with just a block. 

I laid out my die cuts roughly how I was going to glue them down, and took the photo above to use as a reference when sticking down.

I kept it really simple and did both cards the same, but with the opposite colours of white and kraft, sticking the leaves flat to the card and raising most of the flowers on foam pads.

A fun technique, using Distress Oxide inks as watercolour, which is great if you don't have any water colour paints. This whole project only used one stamp set with its coordinating dies (but it could have been fussy-cut) four ink pads (plus a black for outlines). The splatters could have been made with watered-down ink, so this type of card could be a great starter project from someone new to stamping. 

Thanks for reading, stay safe, and I hope you will come back again soon,

Lesley x