Saturday, April 08, 2017

Winnie & Walter Leading Lady - Take Two

Hellooo!  Thank you so much for your lovely response to my first Leading Lady post for Winnie & Walter last week.  I hope you'll enjoy this week's instalment too.

The brief was simple: do whatever makes you giddy, said Shay.  Well, if you know me at all, you'll know that Distress Inks make me giddy - I'm surprised I didn't use them last week, to be honest ;).  One of my favourite ways of using Distress Inks is to ink the solid reverse of a stamp, give it a light spritz of water, then stamp and let the colours slurp together.  Magic!

I've used standard cardstock for all these cards.  The smoothness of the card allows the ink to play on the surface for a little longer than, say, watercolour card, so you get a bit of time to work the colours by lifting one side of the stamp slightly away from the card then replacing it, which squeezes the ink between the stamp and the stamped area.  This trick also helps with coverage if your spritzing was a little uneven and your first impression had patches of white card showing through.  Make sense?

For this first card, I used the back of the large heart stamp in the From The Bottom of My Heart set (this set was a free-with-qualifying-purchase set for the January/February release, but will be on general sale in 2017). I inked the reverse of the stamp with Picked Raspberry, Ripe Persimmon and Spiced Marmalade, then spritzed, stamped and slurped.  The sentiment and small hearts are part of the set.


For this second card, I used the reverse of the heart cluster from Sending You With Evelin T Designs set with Tumbled Glass, Evergreen Bough and Broken China (I think!).  The other effect that I like about this technique is that the watery ink can leak outside the image as in this case, giving a ragged edge.


I like using Pine Needles and Forest Moss for Christmas/fir trees, and with this technique no two trees look the same.  Using the reverse of the large tree stamp from the Happy Owlidays With Evelin T Designs set, I stamped the first tree on the right, masked it, reloaded and stamped a second tree slightly behind, then the tree on the left.  Then I decided I wanted a hillside in the background, so I just laid some copy paper at an angle as a mask, and stamped.  Wouldn't you know it, the ink soaked through the mask, which explains those extra little marks.  Or we could just pretend that the snow is melting near that tree ;)


When I was inking the reverse of the tree stamp, I noticed that if I dragged the inkpad (Distress Ink Mini) down the stamp, it left a pattern as the ink pooled, so I thought I'd try stamping without spritzing to see what I got. Funky, eh?  Also, because the stamp isn't saturated with spritzed water, when you stamp over a masked image you don't get the soak-through.  I stamped that gorgeously cute robin, coloured him with Distress Inks (of course!) and fussy cut him.  Adding a bit of shadow with Hickory Smoke helps to ground the images.


So now I'm two Christmas cards nearer to my target.  (What target?  I just keep making Christmas cards until Christmas Eve, and hopefully I've made enough by then!)


I've got a $30 gift certificate to the Winnie & Walter store that Shay has generously provided for me to give away to one lucky commenter, so don't forget to leave a comment on my blog post.  And if you haven't left a comment on my first Leading Lady post yet, pop on over and leave me a comment there to increase your chances of winning.

I'll be back with more Winnie & Walter goodness next Saturday, see you then!

42 comments:

  1. Wonderful and
    creative cards.
    Love the techniques
    you used.
    Carla from Utah

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  2. Love all your cards, but the first one especially caught my attention! I'm going to try that technique with the back of a stamp--thanks for the inspiration!

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  3. Lovely cards and technique. One I will definitely try out soon.

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  4. Pretty cards! Thanks for sharing some technique ideas... looking forward to trying them out! Love the holiday card with the owls and the awesome trees!

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  5. Fabulous cards!! I like your "slurping" technique....lol! Really great effects on each of your cards! Love your hillside in the card #3 and the wonderful trees. Also, like the snowy effect of the no-misting technique. Looks great on your wintery card.....and not unlike the winter landscape outside my craft room window on this snowy Idaho April day! Eeek! Thanks for sharing your techniques!!
    <3 J

    jwoolbright at gmail dot com
    HerPeacefulGarden.blogspot.com

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  6. very cute and creative cards!

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  7. Ooooh! How fun to use the back of stamps for the smooshed ink effect. I've never thought to do that but can't wait to try it myself. Those little mufflered owls are the cutest.

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  8. I am an owl lover and love your use of stamps and color. Thank you for sharing your techniques with us. robeader53(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  9. Fun cards - love the CAS designs:)

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  10. I love the heart card. Nice colours and I love how they blend.

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  11. I like the cute variety of cards you created.

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  12. I like how you used the reverse side of the stamps!

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  13. Wow! I love this technique - the heart looks so beautiful with the colours you've chosen! All your cards are lovely!

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  14. OMG Shirley...I can't wait to try your slurping technique with the backside of a stamp. I am away from most of my stamp supplies, so not able to finish a card, but can make pieces for later use. I am totally inspired by all your fun, creative and artsy cards. TFS my friend and congratulations again for being a Leading Lady. Hugs..

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  15. Great cards. Such lovely colours.

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  16. Adorable cards!!! Love the colors!!!

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  17. Love Winnie Walter stamps and dies. Especially their word stamps and dies

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  18. Wow...so many wonderful cards!

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  19. Those Christmas cards are adorable with the cool effect of the inking on the trees, Shirley ... and the CAS beauties before them have my heart singing ... pops of bright colour with heaps of glorious white ... delicious! Hugs, Anita :)

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  20. These are so sweet! Love your trees!

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  21. Awesome cards Shirley. Such a great technique, with or without spritzing water. The trees without the water look crackled - very cool! xx

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  22. Great cards! I especially love the simplicity and punch of the first two.

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  23. So cool how you used the distress inks and the back of the stamps and swiping techniques. Love the different results.

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  24. beautiful cards :) loved the card designs. The owls are just darling!

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  25. Lovely and cute! Those owls are stealing my heart ...

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  26. I've surpassed 'liking' your cards and have jetted straight to LOVE! Another bout of fabulous creativity; each card is marvelous! The owls...oh my! Despite my terror of birds, they've stolen my heart!
    Hugs~c

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  27. The cards are inspiring and lovely techniques too.

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  28. I wouldn't have guessed that you used the back of the stamp on this first card. Wonderful cards - I'm going to have to look at my stamps differently.

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  29. I laughed at your target Christmas cards..... 2 is better than none, like me.

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  30. Love these cards! I like your tip on stamping on the reverse side of the stamp. Genius

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  31. Wonderful cards! Thanks for sharing some great tips.

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  32. clean and so beautiful cards!

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  33. Those Christmas cards are my favorites!

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  34. you are very creative, love your cards

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  35. I love those yummy colours of your heart card. They are screaming summer ice cream. And your Christmas cards are adorable. They make me want to create a few of those this weekend!

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  36. These card is fablous love who they are cas and pretty.

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  37. Love the tree effect and the cute little robin.

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  38. Those last pine trees are very cool!

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