Technique of the Week: Distress Oxide "Smooshing" by Dianne Johnson

You may have heard me say that I don't think you can do anything wrong with Distress Oxide inks. Honestly, I like everything I have done with these inks, and I have actually tried to mess it up (such a putting orange onto purple, or yellow onto blue); but nope! Still like what I have gotten. And they are SO MUCH FUN to play with! Oxide inks are a fusion of dye ink and pigment ink. The dye ink soaks into your paper and the pigment ink sits on top. This combination gives your finished product a matte, almost chalky look that is soft and beautiful. Blending Oxide inks is a dream, and they react with water even more interestingly than regular dye based Distress inks.

I have been playing a lot with blending Oxide inks, but I wanted to try smooshing with them. There are different types of what I would call "smooshing", which I would describe as getting wet ink onto your paper in a somewhat messy, unpredictable way. You could put the ink onto acetate or a piece of saran, and apply said inked plastic to your paper...

OR you could put ink on your work surface or craft mat, spray it with water to wet it and drag your paper into it. This second type is what I did for this card.

I assembled some oxide inks to apply to my craft mat: Wilted Violet, Broken China (my current favorite combo); then also Cracked Pistachio and, just to be a rebel, Fossilized Amber.

I started with Wilted Violet and Broken China, and rubbed them firmly onto my craft mat. I spritzed each one with pearly water (mix 2 oz water with 1/4 tsp Perfect Pearls powder).  I love how these inks look when you spray them. They bead up and look opaque. That's because of the pigment in them.

I used a piece of 5.5" x 4.25" Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock for this project, and placed it onto the ink on my mat and picked it up. Beautiful colors! I kept "smooshing" the color from my mat onto the watercolor cardstock, and I just love the combination of these colors.

I then dried the panel and cleaned my craft mat and added the Cracked Pistachio and then the Fossilized Amber colors and sprayed them. I placed my panel into the new colors and "smooshed" it around. The colors beneath did re-activate somewhat, even though I had dried them. The result was that I got a little muddiness, but I actually really liked the effect.

I spritzed some water drops onto the panel and picked up some more of the ink from my mat. I was super happy with the colors on my panel, so I decided to make it into a card.

I cut my panel to 3.75" x 5" using the largest die from the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Stackables die LF768. I chose my Zen Dragonfly from Magenta (44.018.K - and yes, all Magenta stamps come in cling, so just put a "C" in front of the number for cling). I chose the "Have a Beautiful Day" sentiment stamp that I also designed for Magenta (07.969.F). I stamped both of these stamps with Versamark ink, using the MISTI stamping tool.

I embossed the stampings with White Diamond embossing powder from JudiKins. The panel was mounted onto a piece of So Silk Fair Blue cardstock and onto a base card of 110# Neenah Solar White cardstock. I added a few sequins and it was all done.

This was a VERY fast card to make, and you could use this background for almost any kind of card. We have the Zen Dragonfly and the "Have a Beautiful Day" stamps in stock at Art 'n Soul right now; and we will be ordering more of the fabulous Oxide inks very soon. Ranger has been super behind on orders for these inks, but they have really ramped up their production, so we are going to try again to get some in for you.

Thanks for hanging in there with me this far! If you want to see some more step by step photos, please visit my Backporch blog here.

If you have not seen this week's Newsletter, you can link to the latest one here. You can also see our store Calendar here.

Please take the time to scroll through the classes. There is a description and photo with each class. We have some fabulous teachers and classes coming up, including:
Linda Presley from Rosie's Roadshow this weekend!
Helene from Magenta May 21st and 22nd
Sally Penley May 27th
Terry Medaris June 10th (Including trunk show)
Linda Malcom from Lost Coast June 24th
Kae Pea from Rubbermoon July 31st and August 1st
This is a fabulous lineup, and we are working on even more! Please scroll through the class information, or better yet, come into the shop and look at the samples that we have.

If you are interested in taking a class, you can come by, or you can sign up by phone with your credit card. Just call us! Our contact information is at the top of this blog.

Journal Club meets today, May 12th, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.  This club meets the second Friday of every month and is open to all skill levels.  If you have been thinking about starting a journal or just want to learn more about this art form, stop in to check it out.  This is a great group where you can relax and work on a project while learning from others.   Even better, it's free!