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