Friday Focus - Distress Paints

Hi everyone, Jenny here as your host for this week's Frilly and Funkie Friday Focus this Easter weekend. And this time the spotlight falls on (drumroll please...) Distress Paints!!! That means all those yummy paints, now in all your favourite Distress colours, are 15% off the already discounted prices at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. Check out the Friday Focus tab at The Boutique this week to see all the colours available.

Those of you who've played with Distress Paints will already be converted I'm sure, but for those of you wondering what all the fuss is about I hope the following tutorial will show you one way of getting the most out of your paints.

Start with some thick uncoated paper or card as you'll be using water and your base needs to be able to stand up to this. You also need it to have some degree of absorbency to grab the paint as it dries and moves. I also adhered some die cut shapes to the card (those new Frameworks dies are great for this) to create extra patterns and texture on the finished piece. You may see there's a large crease on the card in the bottom right corner. That was on this piece of card when it came out of the pack, but knowing I'd eventually be chopping it up to the required size, that was not a problem.

What's so special about Distress Paint? For a start it is very 'wet'; that probably sounds ridiculous but it means you've got a lot of play time. Sometimes you need a paint to dry quickly so it won't mix and will layer. In this case I needed one which would remain fluid enough to mix together. Having splodged random patches on my craft mat I added some water and dragged my piece of card through it a couple of times.

The next important property of Distress Paint is it's water-reactiveness. The paint started reacting initially when I misted it with water on my mat. Once on my card the water started to help it move and mix. Notice though, it isn't going 'muddy' because the paints maintain their colour integrity despite this spritzing and smooching. That's another important property. Notice, I didn't cover the card completely - that's good!

Now grab that water bottle and mist the paint on your card again to get that paint blending even more. Once you've got some 'movement' you can start drying the paint with your heat gun to 'fix' it in place, but remember, the paint that is still wet continues to be activated further if you add more water so you can keep blending if required. See the left over paint? Tim Holtz makes me physically wince (sorry Tim!) every time I see him mop it up with a cloth!! Being a thrifty crafter I prefer to reach for blank card offcuts and dab them into that paint to get the blotchy patterns you can see below.

Stuck for which colours go well together? If in doubt think back to those early years in school where you learned about primary and secondary colours. If you pick yellow and blue tones they will mix beautifully to give you... purples! Only kidding, but hopefully you get where I'm going with this. If you are unsure try mixing a little drop of two colours to see if you like what you get.

With the paint dry it's time to get those white bits covered with complimentary Distress Inks. Blend them over the painted areas too to get some even richer, deeper tones.

You'll all be familiar with spritzing and flicking, splattering water over your inks to get them to react. Well the same thing will happen to the layer of ink over the paint. Once dry you have the most beautiful mottled background to work on.

I put the plainer pieces to one side for a future project and chopped up the die cut piece to fit a square card blank. Then I added some stamping using Archival Ink because it won't react to water.

I wanted to add some dramatic shading to this and really pick out those die cut shapes so I dribbled some Black Soot Distress Ink mixed with water across them (you could also get this result by using Black Marble Dylusions Spray). Many of you may gasp in horror at this choice of colour; if so you could reach for those brown shades or some deeper orange/blue colours to get a similar effect. I also stamped a little bee - it's one from my rubber stamp stash but if you need one there's a great version on a Wendy Vecchi set that I'll list below. And to add a little extra texture I poured Glossy Accents into a few of the honeycomb 'holes'.

To finish the card I added vellum and Kraft Coredinations spring greenery using those new Sizzix dies that I hope you picked up when they were discounted at The Boutique last week. Sanding the Kraft card and inking the edges before shaping the leaves makes a big difference to the finished elements. The daisies were also die cut, shaped, coloured and glittered (where have I seen a version of that before?!) After layering them I added some pieces of filigree metal, a splattering of White Linen Dylusions Spray and a simple sentiment. And here's the finished result...

I hope you can see from these close ups how the Distress Paints combine beautifully together and with Distress Inks to create the most beautiful base for some simple finishing touches. If you haven't played with them in a while or felt nervous about trying them I hope this has given you a few ideas of your own. And of course with all the colours in the Distress Range now available in paint form, you can begin/expand your collection at those fabulous Friday Focus discounted prices HERE.

As ever there's a linked list of products used below (with alternative FJB suggestions). The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice this card even qualifies for our current challenge 'Flights of Fancy'; it's not too late to enter if you haven't already done so to be in with a chance to win one of two fabulous prizes.

Thank you for joining me today. I hope you feel inspired to create and have a lovely weekend. Don't forget to come back tomorrow to see a knockout Saturday Step by Step with the wonderful Nancy. You're in for a treat with this one.

Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Wild Honey	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Wild Honey	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Mustard Seed	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Mustard Seed	NEW Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Scattered Straw	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Salty Ocean
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Salty Ocean	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Broken China	*Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Frameworks Die - Honeycomb	$23.95 Stampers Anonymous Classics #12	Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink - Orange Blossom	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Dyan Reaveley′s Dylusions Ink Spray - Black Marble	Stampers Anonymous Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi Stamps - Busy Making Art	Ranger Inkssentials Glossy Accents	*Tim Holtz Sizzix Alterations Garden Greens Bigz Die	$6.39 Core′dinations Kraft Core By Tim Holtz - 4.25x5.5" Paper Pad
Sizzix Alterations Die - Mini Tattered Florals Movers and Shapers Die by Tim Holtz	Tim Holtz Distress Glitter Clear Rock Candy	Dyan Reaveley′s Dylusions Ink Spray - White Linen	Corner Filigree Metal Pieces

Flights of Fancy

It's Trace here again for the second week of our current challenge, 'Flights of Fancy'. To enter all you need to do is make any vintage style project that is inspired by the onset of Spring. Your project must include wings somewhere... either in the form of birds, bees or butterflies. The winner will earn a Guest DT spot, here at Frilly and Funkie and everyone who enters will have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique!

The guidelines for entering are simple: create a new project, link it below and make sure you add a link in your post (not just your blog) back to this challenge. 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. Also, please be sure to turn off your Word Verification so our Design Team can leave comments on your blogs.

We have already had some wonderful entries but let's see if we can inspire more of you to join with some fabulous inspiration from the Funkie team;

Jenny Marples (Buttons) - Pushing The Right Buttons

Trace Metcalfe - inkypinkycraft

Sue Carrington - Stamping Sue Style

Linda Coughin - The Funkie Junkie

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

WEEK ONE

It's Trace here and I have the pleasure of hosting the next challenge. The theme is 'Flights of Fancy'; to enter all you need to do is make any vintage style project that is inspired by the onset of Spring. Your project must include wings somewhere... either in the form of birds, bees or butterflies. The winner will earn a Guest DT spot, here at Frilly and Funkie and everyone who enters will have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique!

The guidelines for entering are simple: create a new project, link it below and make sure you add a link in your post (not just your blog) back to this challenge. 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. Also, please be sure to turn off your Word Verification so our Design Team can leave comments on your blogs.

So without further ado here is the gorgeous inspiration from the wonderful Frilly team;

Rebecca Deeprose - Paper Primrose

Cec Wintonyk - CW Card Creations

Nancy Dynes ~ Tattered Treasures 

(go to Nancy's blog to see the matching box)

Linda Coughlin - The Funkie Junkie

So now it's up to you. Hopefully you will be inspired to play along with your vintage creation, be it frilly or funkie, and be in with a chance of winning. Make sure you pop by next week when the Funkie team will be sharing some more inspiration!

Keep those fingers inky!
Trace xxx

Challenge Winners - Time After Time

Welcome to the Frilly and Funkie challenge blog and the start of a new week. It's 'time' to announce the winners of the 'Time After Time' challenge. We would like to thank you all of those who took the time to enter. There were some amazing and very diverse entries for this one and the Design Team sorely wanted to pick more than one winner!!! In the end the team voted for this fantastic entry by #8 S@ndy Diller.

This was such an imaginative design and it really caught our attention. Congratulations Sandy on being our favourite for the 'Time After Time' 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 go to #1 Penny Odell 'Crafts by Design'.

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 (Sandy) and for the gift certificate details (Penny).

Our current challenge, 'Flights of Fancy', runs through Tuesday, April 22nd. 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.

Have a great week!

Saturday Step by Step - Using die cuts with a twist...

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by today. I'm hosting today's Saturday Step by Step here at Frilly and Funkie, and it's all about using a die (or dies) in new or different way. I have lots to share with you, so grab a mug and something soothing (or stimulating if you haven't had your morning coffee yet!) and spend a few minutes while I show you what I've been playing with... This isn't a new idea, but it's one I've wanted to use for a few years and never gotten around to! I love bows…of all sorts and while most of mine are either shabby and scrunchy or soft and flow-y, I had seen a bow that was rather prim and proper and made with a punch, a few years ago, before the 'bow-tie' dies were released. I've created some versions using dies in my collection...
 
Lets start with the first one I made. These are two fairly generous ovals, quite full in the middle….
 
To create this double bow, I die cut two of the larger (scalloped) ovals from sheet music. There are two of the smaller, plain ovals cut from dictionary pages...
 
In order to create 'rounded' bows, I coaxed the middle of the ovals around a thick brush handle, in order to prevent fold lines...
 
A small dab of quick drying paper glue at one end...
 
Bring the ends together and press for a few seconds until a bond forms. You will want to repeat this for all four ovals...
 
A bit of the same glue to hold each pair together and then you will need a 1/2" x 1-1/4" piece of paper, coated with two strips of double sided adhesive. When the wet glue is dry, join the two halves of the bow on top of the small, tape coated paper, to form the bow...
 
I scored a two inch length of paper, 1/4" wide and wrapped it around the middle to hide the overlap. After glueing it in place on the back, the excess length of the strip was cut off...
 
A strip of dictionary paper was folded, ends trimmed and adhered to the bow to form tails. It then became the anchoring feature in this card...
 
The background was embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder. Another strip of dictionary paper forms the central ribbon tag and a die cut scalloped square and plain square support a stamped sentiment. For the next variation, I used some plain, narrow oval dies and some gorgeous Pion papers...
 


I've kept these card designs simple. The gorgeous seed packet is included in the Vintage Garden, Pion collection and it's irresistible. This one worked so beautifully with the background paper. The butterfly was also cut from one of the accent sheets included in this collection...
 
Using a typewriter font, I printed out a birthday wish and colored it to work with the packet color. It is adhered without fanfare on the bottom of the packet. The dimensional bow adds a luxurious touch to a card with a 'country' feel... The next bow used three stamped images of a butterfly from the Flower Market stamp set from Artistic Outpost. I used a sheet of scrap paper as you can see...
 
I positioned the die over the right and then the left wing of the butterfly. The body was cut out of the third image and set aside...
 
The sides of the bow are assembled as before, each wing forming half the bow...


The body was glued on, to hide the join and two simple strips make up the tails of the bow...
 
This is another very quick card, made with an assemblage of tags and cards, layered onto some Vintage Garden, Pion paper along with some tags and images included in this collection...
 
The simple stamped sentiment comes from the Flower Market stamp set. Some half pearls and a single heart, cut from Venise lace, were colored with alcohol markers. The tags and interesting images are all part of the Pion paper collection (except for the round green tag, heart and pearls)...
 
This 'winged' bow adds a delightfully quirky element and makes me smile ;)

I hope this encourages you to take out some dies and spend some time playing with them. All sorts of wonderful discoveries can happen!

Sending you ((hugs)) and blessings,

Rebecca

Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades - Collage & Notebook Set	Pion Design Paper - Vintage Garden 12x12" Scrapbooking Paper	Venise Lace Trim1.375 Inches Wide	Artistic Outpost Flower Market Unmounted Rubber Stamps	Ranger Archival Ink - Coffee
Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink Applicator, Stamp Handle and Felt	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Frayed Burlap	Ranger Inkssentials Wonder Tape - 1/4"	Melissa Frances Cream Pearl Embellishments