Playing with Distress Ink: 3

My last day of school was on Friday, so I had to say goodbye to many of my assistants and paras that worked in my classroom this year. And I also needed to say thank you. I could not run my classroom the way I do without the support, knowledge, and humor of my support staff. They are amazing! So I knew I needed to make some special cards just for them.

I have really been loving my distress inks, so I decided to pull them out again for these cards.

The first set I made was very easy, but they turned out so striking!

I started by heat embossing with a giant thank you stamp from Hampton Arts (retired - I found it at Goodwill). Then I pressed my ink colors onto my craft sheet and sprayed with water. When everything was nice and wet, I pressed the embossed image into the puddle of color and mushed it around (technical term). I dried, re-mushed, and dried, again and again till I got the mix of colors I liked. Then I just mounted the stamped image on a black card base and that was that!

The next set used the same distress ink technique (mushing and re-mushing), but I didn't emboss on it first, I die-cut after.

I used this die from Simon Says Stamp to cut into each inked piece of paper, saving the circles from the insides. I also cut the frame from black card stock so the contrasting colors would pop even more. I adhered the background to a black card base, then in-laid the frame and all the inside circles, using opposite colors for each card pair.

I love the inlay paper technique - it looks like you did a lot more work than you really did! Plus, it lots be use both the positive and negative space of the die cut, which reduces waste. I don't like to throw away any of my beautiful inked papers!

To finish off these cards, I added a flag with a white embossed Congratulations  with a stamp from Verses Rubber Stamps.

I really liked how these cards turned out! I'm going to make more of them and post them on Etsy, so if you'd like some of your own, head over to my shop and pick one (or two, or ten!) out for yourself!

Happy Crafting!