Saturday Step by Step - Embossing With Distress Paint, Crayons and Alcohol Ink

Welcome to the weekend and to Frilly and Funkie's Saturday Step By Step! It's Sara Emily here, and today I'm featuring a technique using Distress paint and crayons and Ranger alcohol inks, along with Metallic Kraft Stock. Click on the photos to zoom in.

I cut silver Metallic Kraft Core to fit my embossing folder and embossed. I gave it a quick coat of Pumice Stone Distress paint. I'm not worrying too much that it's full coverage, as it's going to blend with the inks in the next step.

While the paint is still wet, I drop on drops of Denim alcohol ink and spritz with water to allow the inks to spread. I move the panel around to get the ink/paint to cover the panel to my liking and use my heat tool to dry. Not shown, I added more drops of alcohol ink, this time in Sailboat, again spritzing and blending, then drying with the heat tool. When that was dry and set, I scribbled with Picket Fence Distress crayon to hit the raised areas. Last, I sanded the edges, and rubbed Walnut Stain crayon around the edges, blending a little with my finger. I like to give it all a blast with my heat tool to allow the crayon to melt just a bit and to set the colors.

I inked Swirly Snowflakes stamps (I used the minis) with both faded Jeans and Wilted Violet Distress Oxides and gave them a spritz of water. I do this by spraying into the air and swooping my stamp through the mist; just enough to activate and blend the colors ever so slightly. After making the impression, I rub Walnut Stain oxide on my craft mat (Notice it's brand spankin' new! Thank you, Santa!) and spritz with water. I dip my stamped images into the puddle, dry and fussy cut. Investing in the Swirly Snowflake dies would be a wise decision. Last, I blended the edges with more Walnut Stain DOX. I finally got the bright idea to trace around the stamp face down over the stamped image and cut on that line. I ended up not using the one shown in the photo. I backed my snowflakes with chipboard for dimension and to make them sturdy.

 As a small child, I had dreams of being one of those pretty figure skaters I would see on the Winter Olympics, and I took every opportunity to be on the ice when our ponds and lakes would freeze over. I literally skated all day until it would get dark. When I moved south in my 30's I took up inline skating as a substitute. 

I couldn't find a Quote Chip that said what I wanted to say about my paper doll ice skater, so I made my own. I used a Big Chat sticker, and cut a Quote Chip down to size. The easiest and neatest way to do this is to use your X-Acto blade to make a cut front and back, and then use your scissors to complete the cut. I sanded it a bit and used Matte Medium to adhere the sticker. When dry, I blended with Frayed Burlap ink and scribbled Walnut Stain crayon around the edges and heated to melt.

A length of Metallic Trimmings stands in as the frozen pond. I colored it with more Frayed Burlap ink. Please ignore the fact I glued it crooked! I'm surprised my boy isn't sliding right off the edge of the card! I smudged the boy with crayon, and adhered him with foam adhesive tape. (So he doesn't slide off.) The Star Adornments were left over from a previous project--they were a glittery gold, covered with Distress Glitter Dust, but I wanted a mercury glass look. I dropped on silver mixative alcohol ink, followed with a drop of Mushroom alcohol ink.

I layered my panel over some old Core'dinations card stock and a few panels of hand colored/designed papers. Look for a tutorial on these very simple techniques in the future, but for now, this post is plenty long.

Here are three more versions using these same products. Linda sells so many paints, alcohol inks and embossing folders in The Funkie Junkie Boutique that the possibilities are limitless! What combinations will you come up with?

This is the first one I made, using an old Tim Holtz Snowflurries Texture Fade. To get this look, I started with Picket Fence paint in place of the Pumice Stone. After dropping on the alcohol ink, I sponged on more Picket Fence. I rubbed with Hickory Smoke crayon and wiped with my finger. I sponged on more Picket Fence, blending the crayon more still.

I embossed this busy one a second time, but didn't line it up properly in the folder. But I was pleased with it nonetheless, and may use it for a background on a future project or even to die cut something. I applied Walnut Stain crayon after the second embossing.

This one's my favorite, but I couldn't do it justice with a photo. I used a paintbrush dipped in rubbing alcohol to spread the alcohol ink over wet paint. When dry, I rubbed on Hickory Smoke crayon and wiped with a dripping wet finger and dried again. I splattered with watered down white chalky paint and chalky paint mixed with alcohol ink.

Here's another look at my completed icy card.

I hope you're inspired to get out your paints and inks or shop for some new colors and make some metallic backgrounds. In the meantime, there's still a few days to get your projects linked up for our 'Three is Not a Crowd' challenge. I can't wait to see what you'll make!

Hugs!
Sara Emily

Here are direct links to products I've used in this post. These products and more can be found at The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

Core′dinations - Tim Holtz Ranger- Metallic Kraft Core - 6 x 6 Kraft Core Cardstock Pack	AUGUST PRE - ORDER Sizzix Texture Fades Embossing Folder - Rosettes by Tim Holtz 662391	Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Swirly Snowflakes	Tim Holtz Sparkles and Christmas stamps	NEW Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Pumice Stone
Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Picket Fence	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Walnut Stain	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Wilted Violet	(February Pre-order) Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Pad - Faded Jeans
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Denim Blue	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Sail Boat Blue	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Silver Mixative	Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Mushroom	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Crayons - 6PC Set #3 TDBK47926 (February Pre-order)
Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Dust - Vintage Platinum	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium Matte TDAK47933 (February Pre-Order)	Ranger Multi Medium Matte 4 oz.	Ranger Embossing Powder - Clear - Super Fine Detail	Ranger ADHESIVE - BLACK FOAM ROLL 1/2" X 1/16"x 2.1 YDS.
(LATE SEPTEMBER PRE - ORDER) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Dolls, Christmas	(LATE SEPTEMBER PRE - ORDER) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Trimmings Metallic 2/PK	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Big Chat	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Quote Chips	VersaMark Watermark Ink Stamp Pad
(February Pre-order) Prima Art Alchemy by Finnabair-Metallique Wax- Brushed Iron	(February Pre-order) Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments, Star Adornments