CCM #204 Get Inky/Messy

Our challenge today at Crafty Cardmakers is to get inky and/or messy.

I started with a sheet of plain white card which I inked up with Tim’s Distress Oxides, and then spritzed with water to give that watercolour effect. I love these, and with any luck set 3 should be winging it’s way to me this week! Wish he would hurry up and release them all. I would not have bought the original DI’s if these had been available at the same time, or at least not the full set. Storage is a nightmare for so many inkpads and the originals aren’t much use for actually stamping, although these are, and these just seem to blend so much easier than the originals. These also give that lovely ‘chalky look’. Can you tell I love them?

I diecut out the centre of a 6” scalloped card with Spellbinders Adorning Squares. I have had this die for years and never used it!!!! I am sure that’s like 99% of us and not at all unusual. Anyhow this is one of those dies that you can cut in lots of different ways, and according to the packaging you can mix and match to create 20+ designs. I nearly gave this away last week, lol, so glad I didn’t because Now I have actually bothered to use it, I can see it popping up again soon.

I then created a square thin frame from my inked background and put another slice of it behind the apeture I had die cut into my card. Popping the diecut back in, having die cut the centre from that too. I’m really annoyed with myself, I swear it was dead centre when I popped it back in, but because there are so many ‘little areas’ that could stick back up I placed it under a heavy weight and left it to set…. and at that stage I think it might have shifted slightly so that it’s now slightly too far over to the right. Because the intricacy of the design is part of the overall design I didn’t feel I could cover up my mistake with something. I did try a few combinations of things but it detracted from the inky centre which was to have the butterfly on it.

I added the frame I had previously cut on foam pads, and having lift the butterflies wings stuck it down and added a row of gems for it’s body.

I like the way you can just catch hints of all the different colours through the diecut areas and the larger square area revealed in the centre.

I am entering this into:-

2 Crafty Critter Crazies - #10 Anything Goes with a Critter
4 Crafty Chicks - #387 Watercolour Backgrounds
Allsorts - #452 Old Favourites (Distress Oxides)
Country View Challenge - Jan: Anything Goes
Crafts Galore Encore - Jan: Anything Goes
Everybody Art - #417 Butterfly or Heart
The Paper Girls Challenge - #144 Watercolours
Happy Little Stampers - Jan: Watercolour Challenge
House of Cards - Jan: Mixed Media
Paperminutes - #522 Multicolour
The Corrosive Challenge - #1 Jan: Anything Goes