Technique of the Week: Oxide Background by Dianne Johnson

This post is less of a technique and more about trying out the new Distress Oxide inks. I was skeptical in the beginning, but now I know I LOVE these new inks.

by Dianne Johnson

Oxide inks are a hybrid of Pigment ink and Dye ink. Where Dye inks soak into your paper, Pigment inks sit on top and take longer to dry. The Oxides have the best of both of these worlds. They blend like a dream, and they stamp better as well. They also incorporate the best of the water-reactive properties of regular Distress ink. there are 12 colors currently available, and Ranger is overwhelmed with orders, so we have to get in line; but we WILL get them in! We are taking paid pre-orders for the inks, either the full sets, or individual colors. We are also taking paid pre-orders for the re-inkers.

Right now we have 8 of the 12 colors for demo'ing, and we will be happy to demo them for you.

For my card, I first blended Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, and Broken China, adding a little Wilted Violet at the end. I sprayed the card, using the Tim Holtz spritzer bottle, which makes large and small droplets. 

You can almost do no wrong with these inks, whatever I have done looks good. However, I wanted to stamp and emboss with White Diamond embossing powder, and I decided that my inks were a little too light for the white to pop out properly.

Starting over with new colors was no problem, because playing with these inks is just so much fun. For the second try, I started with Wilted Violet, and added Broken China (I LOVE the combo of these 2 colors), Cracked Pistachio, and Spiced Marmalade. I spritzed it to get the water spots, and decided it was still too pale. I made sure to dry the spots and went over the card with some Faded Jeans, Fired Brick, and intensified the colors in the Wilted Violet, Broken China, and Cracked Pistachio.

This time I thought the colors were dark enough, and so I added more droplets with the spritzer, and dried the card thoroughly. I stamped my image and sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed with White Diamond embossing powder by JudiKins.

I hope you'll give these new Oxide inks a try. I think you'll find them as fun to work with as I did. For additional photos of this process, please visit my Backporch blog post here.

As you know, Art 'n Soul is Magenta's Retailer of the Year for the seventh year in a row, and this allows some privileges. The reason I mention this is because we have advance viewing of the new Magenta Spring Collection, and one of the stamps for Spring is a new one by yours truly, a Zen Bouquet of flowers. I also have several sentiments in the collection. 

Since I received my stamps just yesterday, I decided to give you all a sneak peek of two of my new stamps on the card this week. These are available for pre-order at Art 'n Soul now, along with the entire 2017 Spring Collection. Please come by and see our sneak peek catalog and place your orders. You can be among the first in the world to receive the beautiful new Magenta stamps!

You can also order Nuance, either in sets or individually. The first 12 sets of the newest 5 Nuance colors sold out in a day. We will get more, but to insure that you get the colors you want, place your order today.

You can view samples of the first 25 colors at Art 'n Soul, and here is a promo photo of the latest 5 colors in the collection.

The colors are Old Rose, Chartreuse, Bright Green, Lagoon, and Anthracite. There's nothing else like these new colors, and they make a wonderful addition to the Nuance family.

A MAGENTA TRUNK SHOW IS COMING!

Be sure to mark your calendars for mid-March because Magenta is sending us a trunk show! The Magenta trunk shows are always packed with so many beautiful stamps and stencils, so you will want to shop early for the best selection. We are expecting the trunk show to arrive around March 15th or 16th, so check back with us for the exact date, and keep an eye on our Facebook page!

You can check out our latest Newsletter here and check out the great classes we have scheduled, including a great one this very weekend. We also have fabulous classes scheduled with Lynell Harlow, founding member of Dreamweaver Stencils, and Sally Penley, who is an amazing local artist. 

In case you have missed any of our Newsletters, there is also a link at the top right of this blog where you can look at all of our archived Newsletters.