Friday Focus - Distress Inks

Hi everyone and for those celebrating, happy Halloween!!! Jenny here with your Friday Focus here at Frilly and Funkie. This fortnight it's the turn of Distress Inks (full size and minis) to have an extra 15% discount applied at The Funkie Junkie Boutique so now is definitely time to stock up and get those ones that are missing from your collection.

Normally one of the team creates a project and/or a tutorial to show you a new idea for using the Friday Focus product, but I sat there thinking "Distress Inks, what can I do with Distress Inks that hasn't already been done?!!!" Then it occurred to me that there are crafting newbies who may not yet have been introduced to the delights of working with Distress Inks so if that's you here's just a few ideas. For those of you who have seen all of this before please take it as a refresher (note; I've used watercolour paper throughout this tutorial and if you want close ups just click on each photo).

To start with add your Distress Ink directly onto your stencils...

Spritz with water, then lay face down on your paper to transfer the pattern. You can use your hands or a brayer to make the transfer more even.

Use your Distress Inks to stamp in the traditional way.

Mix a little water with your Distress Ink on a craft mat and splatter your card using a small paint brush.

Repeat stamp several your images onto the paper so they can be layered.

Use a fine nib waterbrush to drag out some of the colour from the stamped outlines and achieve a watercolour look.

Distress Inks are great for blending around anything from fussy cut images to the borders of cards and tags to eliminate those unfinished white edges. And using one of the many brown shades will add a vintage feel. Blending tools are a must for this.

Add all of these steps together, apply some texture paste through the same stencil, throw in a stamped sentiment and use a distressing tool on the other un-inked edges to get...

Here are a few close ups...

Don't you just love the versatility of these wonderful, water-reactive inks?! And there are lots more uses besides. So if you are just starting your collection, have missing colours (there are 48 in all) or need extras for classes/workshops get them now from The Funkie Junkie Boutique while the price is so low.  Be sure to check out our Friday Focus sale section at the Boutique.  All the full size and the mini distress ink pads are on sale for an extra 15% off (does not apply to bundles).  

If you're out trick or treating tonight have a great time and enjoy your weekend whatever you're up to.

Thanks for joining me and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

A Grateful Welcome

Hello everyone and welcome. Rebecca here and I'm back to host the second week of the challenge at Frilly and Funkie. I love this time of year and really enjoy dressing my home for Thanksgiving. For those of you who don't celebrate this American holiday, just think about gratitude and how you can express it. Create an invitation, table decor, decoration for a door or home decor item with gratitude or the Thanksgiving theme in mind!

The winner will earn a Guest DT spot here at the Frilly and Funkie challenge blog, and everyone who enters will have the chance to win a randomly drawn $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

The guidelines for entering are simple: create a new vintage or shabby chic project following the challenge theme, link it below to your post (not just your blog) and also include a link back to this challenge in your post. You can combine our challenge with up to 10 challenges (including this one) to be in with a chance of winning. Make sure you follow these rules as unfortunately we have had to eliminate entrants from the prize draws in the past when they have entered too many other challenges. If you are entering through a public forum please use keyword F&F. Also, please be sure to turn off your Word Verification so our design team can leave comments on your blogs.

So now it's time to see what the Funkie side of the team have created for this theme (click on the photos for close up views and the links to see more on each team member's blog)...

Sue Carrington - Stamping Sue Style     Nicole Wright - Canadian Nickel Scrap'n  Linda Coughlinn - The Funkie Junkie

Jenny Marples - Pushing The Right Buttons

*************************************************

WEEK ONE

Let's see what the Frilly side of the team have created for this theme (click on the photos for close up views and the links to see more on each team member's blog)...

Rebecca Deeprose ~ Paper Primrose

Cec Wintonyk - CW Card Creations

Nancy Dynes - Tattered Treasures

Linda Coughlin - The Funkie Junkie

With all that inspiration to get you thinking it's now your turn to share your Thanksgiving and gratitude projects using the link below. We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Sending you blessings and hugs,

Challenge Winners - Autumn Colours and a New Addition to the Team...

Welcome to the Frilly and Funkie challenge blog for the start of a new week, and it's time to announce the winners of the 'Autumn Colours' challenge. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to enter with some fantastic projects. Sadly we had to discount a number of entries as they had exceeded our 'enter up to 10 challenges including ours' rule, which was so frustrating! However, we were still left with some difficult choices to make from those who followed the rules and the Design Team finally settled on a gorgeous card by #15 Lynn Price of 'Experiments in Paper'.

Lynn really captured those vibrant Autumnal Colours perfectly here and we were even more impressed when discovering that this was her first ever challenge entry! Congratulations Lynn on being our favourite for the 'Autumn Colours' challenge and winning the opportunity to be a Guest Designer here at Frilly and Funkie for a future challenge.

And Random.org has chosen a winner for our $25 gift certificate to The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Our congratulations this time go to #10 Art with Yogi.

A huge thanks from the Frilly and Funkie team to everyone who took part in this challenge and congratulations again to our winners. Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the codes for the winner's badge and to give us your email address for the Guest Designer details (Lynn) and for the gift certificate details (Yogi).

Our current challenge, 'A Grateful Welcome', runs through Tuesday, November 4th. We hope to see you entering this time around so that you too can be in with a chance to win. And remember, you can enter up to 10 challenges including ours, and a maximum of 3 entries per person to our challenge. Please remember to link back to our challenge in your entry and mention in your post that you are entering this Frilly and Funkie challenge.

And now for some exciting news... we have a new Design Team member!!! Please join with the whole DT in welcoming the wonderful Nicole Wright of 'Canadian Nickel Scrap'n' to the Frilly and Funkie family. We can't wait to share the results of Nicole's creativity with you over the coming weeks and feel sure she'll be a great addition to the team.

Have a great week everyone!

Saturday Step x Step and a Sad Goodbye

Hi everyone, Trace here. Well it is my turn for the Saturday Step x Step and that will follow, but firstly I would like to let you know that this will be my last post as a member of this wonderful team. Sadly life means that I am having to take a step away from blogging and so have to leave this wonderful team. It has been a huge honour to be part of this amazing and inspiring team and it is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye x

I would like to say a huge thank you to Linda for allowing me the honour of being part of such an amazing team; it is an amazing team and one I was thrilled to be part of. Huge thanks too to Jenny who works so hard to lead us all and help us out. And finally huge thanks to all my lovely team mates.

So now here is my Step X Step; this was my piece for the 'Autumn Colours' challenge and I promised you a tutorial...

I started by covering a piece of mdf board with some paper in a reddy orange. I then applied some of Wendy Vecchi's yummy Embossing Crackle Paste in various thicknesses across the piece and left to dry.

Here is a close up as it starts to dry and crackle.

I then added some Distress Stain and dried to add colour to the paste.

I loved how it coloured up the crackle.

Now I spritzed with the new Tarnished Brass Distress Stains Spray from a fair distance to get this lovely splatters of colour and metallic shimmer.

Now I used one of Wendy Vecchi's stencils and applied some Walnut Stain Distress Ink to add some soft flourish detail. I love building up all the layers in this way.

Here is the background so far, with that stencilled detail.

Now for some coloured paste, I added some of the Stain and some of Wendy Vecchi White Embossing Paste and mixed them together.

Now I applied some Tissue Tape; any tape will do to hold the stencil, but mainly to mask off the area next to where I was applying the paste as I only wanted a small part of the stencil.

I then applied my coloured paste and repeated this in the other corner of the background too.

Now for the heart; I drew around the heart from Wendy's stencil, cut it out three times and layered these up to give a bit of thickness. This was then coated with Glue n Seal before I applied a generous layer of Crackle Paste.

The flowers were die cut using Tattered Florals die, spritzed with water, scrunched up and left to dry to give all those crinkles. They were then sprayed with the new Distress Stain Spray on both sides and then with water before being dried.

I added some more colour with Distress Ink and Stain so they didn't look too flat. The leaves had been cut, spritzed with water, scrunched up and left overnight to dry.

I then spritzed the leaves with water and swiped over surfaces with various Distress Stains, spritzing them and drying to get a lovely blended colour.

I continued to spritz them with Distress Stain Spray and water to get the right look.

To add another colour and tone down some of the orange I also added some Crushed Olive Stain, applied with kitchen towel to main background surface.

Here are the flower layers after spritzing with lots of water to remove the bright orange and adding in some other colours before layering up.

I love how you can layer colour and water until happy

I added a row of stamping to the top and bottom of the board using Jet Black Archival Ink.

I love how all the colours and that shimmer from the Distress Stain Sprays work together.

So here are the flowers and leaves in place...

And the crackled heart all coloured up with Stains rubbed in with a baby wipe before a focal sentiment is added.

Hope you've enjoyed my tutorial and maybe even give it a go yourselves sometime.

Thanks again to all my wonderful team mates and all those who have commented on my blog... I will be back in blogland sometime I hope xx

keep those fingers inky!

and those hearts full x

trace x

Editor's Note; Trace, you will definitely be missed. We have loved having you on the team and thank you for all the beautiful projects you have contributed for our visitors to drool over! The whole team are sad to see you go, and even though we understand and fully support your decision, we look forward to the time when you are able to refocus on your art. Wishing you and your family all the best for the future xxx

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Ripe Persimmon	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Crushed Olive	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain - Barn Door	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Antique Linen	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Tarnished Brass
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Spiced Marmalade	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - Crackle	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste - White	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - Vintage Floral	Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - 3 Flourishes Stencil
Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stencil - Never Enough Hearts	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - The Beauty of Art	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Tattered Florals Die	Sizzix Alterations Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves Die	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Pad #3