Category: Distress Ink

  • Elegant Koi | by Rosemary Dennis

    Elegant Koi | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello everyone! Rosemary here on the blog today sharing a card I made using the gorgeous new Elegant Koi die, as well as the new Honeycomb Cut Out die and the older Floral Cross layering die set. Let’s have a look at what I made.

    When I first saw the Elegant Koi die set (and the Koi Duo die set) I almost immediately thought of Kubota Garden located in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle. The garden is spectacular and has several ponds with numerous koi slowly swimming about. It is fun and relaxing to watch them swim by.

    I started by die cutting my koi from cardstock. I die cut the main body of the koi from orange cardstock from the Memory Box Sunrise cardstock pack. The rest of the koi was die cut from off white and gray. I then added some ink to the gray and off white pieces to give them more depth. I used what distress oxide ink was left on my blending brush to add the color.

    I set the piece aside to dry. Because I wanted my elegant koi to have an elegant pond to be swimming around in I decided to use the Honeycomb Cut Out die to create some tiles for the bottom of my pond. I used Memory Box glossy black cardstock for the tiles. I also die cut a template with the Honeycomb die so that I could layout and adhered my tile background perfectly.

    Once I had the background created I added some light inking using distress oxide inks in Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean to the panel. I kept the color mainly at the edges, but did add some in the center of the panel. Once done with the ink blending I made sure to wipe off the ink that got on my black tiles.

    To provide even more of a look of an elegant pond I used the leafy stems and flowers from the Floral Cross layering die set to create some waterlily type flowers. Light inking was used on these pieces as well. Now it was time to complete the pond. I adhered everything using liquid adhesive.

    My sentiment is from the Crystal Lingo stamp set which is unfortunately no longer available. I did ink up the sentiment strip with the same inks used for the background so it blended in a bit more. I finished with small drop of Nuve Jewel drops in Limoncello.

    I hope you enjoyed today’s card. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

  • Whale Watching | by Christina Rannow

    Whale Watching | by Christina Rannow

    Hello! Christina here to share another card featuring products from the latest ocean-inspired release. I adore this release, and I have many favorites so far, but this whale from the Block Print Whale Duo is at the top of the list! I paired him with the new Corner Waves Die for a fun cool blue ocean scene. Let’s jump in!

    For this card, I started with the wavy ocean water. I die-cut the corner waves multiple times from two shades of teal cardstock as well as white cardstock. I inked the edges of the teal pieces and then spattered them with Uncharted Mariner, Peacock Feathers, and Salvaged Patina Distress Inks, and with a couple of Distress Oxide Sprays -Salvaged Patina and Uncharted Mariner. I stacked these, along with the white wavy pieces, onto a light blue cardstock panel trimmed to 4 x 5 1/4 inches. As I was stacking them, I layered the white pieces under the lighter teal pieces, letting only a small border peek above, and used foam tape to attach all the pieces, fitting them together like a puzzle.

    Next, I die-cut the whale and his spout. I used blue cardstock for the whale and teal for the spout. I gave both pieces the same treatment as the wavy water pieces, inking the edges and adding plenty of spatter. Then I assembled the diecut pieces and attached them to my card front, tucking him slightly behind the water. 

    To finish things up, I added the Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiment diecut, choosing black and white cardstock, and a scattering of sparkling sequins for embellishment. 

    Thank you so much for visiting today and reading about my latest ocean-inspired card design using products from the latest release. See you again soon!

  • Birthday Fishes | by Rosemary Dennis

    Birthday Fishes | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello, hello! Have you seen the new Birch Press Design release? It is full of absolutely amazing fish themed designs. I have so many ideas rolling around in my head. I’m starting off with a fairly simple design today. Let’s have a look.

    When my package arrived in the mail my niece and her family were on a vacation in Bali. The photos she shared on Instagram got some ideas going and one of them was this card. Along with all the dies there is a really fun stencil set that allows you to create beams of sunlight shining in the ocean. I immediately knew I was going to use the stencils for my card.

    I inked up my panel of cardstock with Tumbled Glass distress oxide ink and then used on of the stencils and Peacock Feathers distress oxide ink to add the sunlight streaming into the water. Once that was done I splatted the panel with water to create little bubbles.

    I then inkblended another panel with Mowed Lawn distress oxide ink, Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey. I die cut the kelp and little fish from that panel using the new Sea Kelp and Mini Fish die set. I added a bit of a darker green distress oxide ink (I don’t remember which one) to the kelp for some color variation.

    The I figured out the arrangement of the kelp and fish. Since this card was going to my great niece who was on vacation in Bali with her parents I found a round Memory Box Tabs birthday sentment and inked it up with some of the green ink. I purposefully chose the sentiment tab with the wavy birthday to mimic the ocean waves. I adhered everything to my panel with glue and then added it to a cardstock base.

    I just love how this turned out. Well, that’s it for me. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

  • Honey Bee Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Honey Bee Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello friends! Have you been amazed by the projects the design team has created with the most current release? Well, I have! I have been buzzing with excitement to get something made and today is the day! Let’s have a look at what I made.

    I had several ideas in mind and tried at least one of them, but wasn’t super happy with how it was turning out. I decided to shift gears and use up some yellow glitter paste I had out on my desk. I really wanted to use the Honeycomb Cut Out die and so I used it to create a stencil to use with the glitter paste.

    After doing a quick test to see how my DIY stencil would turn out I decided to diecut it from some sturdier cardstock. For this I chose (and sacrificed) a piece of Memory Box glossy black cardstock. As you can see it would have also made a pretty neat background, too. I die cut a piece of heavy white cardstock with a rectangle die and then taped that to the back of my DIY stencil. The stencil worked pretty well with only a small amount of the paste seeping under. I peeled off my stencil and let my panel dry.

    While my panel was drying I die cut my bees using the Block Print Buzzing Bumblebee from a piece of watercolor cardstock that I had initially planned to use for my background panel, but it was a bit of a fail. I think the bees I die cut from it are kind of fun and funky!

    Once the glitter paste was dry and full disclosure that did take a long time because of the amount of paste that was applied using the stencil. I let the panel dry overnight to make sure it was fully dry before assembling my card. I even at one point placed something heavy on top so that it would dry flat.

    Since I was going for a mixed media vibe. I splattered the fully dry panel with distress ink in Gathered Twigs and appropriately Wild Honey. For the bees I die cut enough so that I could cut some apart to build the bees for my card. The wings were die cut from heavy weight vellum. I assembled my bees and then what kind of sentiment I would use. I settled on the Big Hello Sugar Script. Initially I die cut the hello from heavy weight cardstock and then splattered it, but there was too much splatter. So I used another piece of glossy black cardstock and stacked it on top of the splattered sentiment. Everything was adhered with liquid adhesive and then I added my panel to a kraft cardstock base.

    Well, that’s it for me. I hope you enjoyed today’s card. Thanks for stopping by and have a truly lovely day.


    Supplies


    57598 Block Print Buzzing Bumblebee
    57594 Honeycomb Cut Out
    57201 Big Hello Sugar Script
  • Creative Cherry Blossoms | by Christina Rannow

    Creative Cherry Blossoms | by Christina Rannow

    Hello! Christina here to share a springtime card design featuring many of the new dies from the Block Print Garden collection. I used one of my favorite die sets in this collection, the Block Print Stems and Berries, and switched out the berries for some custom florals reminiscent of cherry blossoms – perfect for spring! Follow along as I explain how I created these custom cherry blossom flowers in order to transform the Stem and Berries into a beautiful springtime design. Let’s get started!

    My first step was to create the background. I ink blended Twisted Citron and Salvaged Patina Distress Inks on a white A2 cardstock panel. Then I splattered the panel with plain water for a little distressing and thinned white gouache paint for white spatter.

    Next, I die cut and assembled all the elements for my card design. I used white cardstock as well as pink, fuschia, chartreuse, and dark brown colored cardstock for the different elements. To create the cherry blossoms, I used various dies from multiple sets to create the custom florals. Here is a snapshot of the dies I used. 

    My next step was to assemble and finish up my card design. Starting with the sentiment and after the background panel had completely dried, I heat embossed “Thinking Of You” with white embossing powder directly onto the panel. Then I attached the stem from the Stem and Berries set with liquid adhesive down the center of the panel before attaching the cherry blossoms. For some dimension, I used liquid adhesive for some of the florals and thin foam squares for some others. 

    That completes this springtime card design featuring many of the new dies from the Block Print Garden collection. I hope you like my creative use of the dies to create something completely new and different. Thanks so much for reading, and see you again soon!


    Supplies


    57599 Block Print Stems and Berries
    57603 Block Print Fun Floral
    57589 Block Print Garden Heart
    57605 Block Print Star Flowers

    Supplies


    sh44005 Key Lime Paper Pack

    Supplies


    cb516 Sentimental Banners
  • Peace Love Joy | by Rosemary Dennis

    Peace Love Joy | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello, hello! Rosemary here on the blog today with a snowy scene card that was so much fun to make! Let’s have a look.

    For my card I used the new Littletown Home, Wavy Hillside, and Peace Love Joy word die sets. The next few photos will show a little bit of my process for creating the card. I try to remember to take these kinds of photos, but sometimes get so involved in the process that I forget. This time I remembered!

    I started by cutting piece of light blue cardstock from the Lagoon 6×6 cardstock pad to 5 1/2 by 4 1/4. I pulled out several distress oxide inks in shades of blue and blended them onto the top of the cardstock. I knew I would be covering up the bottom so no need to waste time and ink there! Once I had the blues blended to my liking I added in some black using Black Soot distress oxide. I used Blueprint Sketch, Prized Ribbon and Chipped Sapphire for the blues (could only fit the Chipped Sapphire in the photo).

    Once the ink blending was done I put the panel into my splatter box and liberally splatted the panel with white acrylic paint. I let the panel dry and moved on to the next step in my card process: creating the wintry hills for my little houses!

    I used Glossy Accents to cover the hill pieces, but I didn’t cover the cardstock pieces completely as you can see in the above photo. I did this because I wanted a more realistic snow look to each piece. Giving it the look of high and low areas in the snow that are there in real life. I then covered each piece with Rock Candy glitter and let them dry.

    Now it was time to make the little houses, trees and sentiments. I die cut the houses from white, grey and yellow cardstocks and then adhered them together. Glossy Accents was added to the roofs and then Rock Candy glitter for that icy, snowy look. For the trees I simply added some liquid adhesive and then sprinkled on the Rock Candy Glitter. I had a scrap of the light blue cardstock so I ink blended that with the blue distress inks I used and die cut the shadow layer of each word from that. The words were die cut from white and then adhered to the shadow layer with liquid adhesive.

    For the snowy hills I adhered the bottom one with foam tape. The middle layer was adhered with thin foam squares and the top layer with liquid adhesive. I layered the hills this way so that I could tuck the trees behind the bottom hill layer and the houses. The trees were adhered with a combination of liquid adhesive and thin foam squares. The houses were adhered in the same manner. The sentiments were adhered simply with liquid adhesive.

    I hope you enjoyed today’s card and seeing a little bit of the process I used to create the card. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

    Supplies

    57567 Littletown Home

    57543 Peace Love Joy Confection Script

    57563 Wavy Hillside

  • Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiments with Florals |By, Natasha Vacca

    Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiments with Florals |By, Natasha Vacca

    Hello Crafty friends, it is Design Team Member Natasha Vacca here today. Today I am sharing the beautiful new Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiment die set. I paired this with the beautiful Anemone Bunches 3D embossing folder from Memory Box. So let’s get started!

    I started by creating the floral card panel using the beautiful Anemone Bunches 3D embossing folder. I ran the folder with a piece of Hammermill cardstock through my die cutting machine. Once the paper was dry embossed I started to ink the floral background card panel. I used a combination of Distress Oxide Inks, as well as some Dye Inks to color the florals, leaves, as well as the background.

    I continued to color the dry embossed background, until I had the colors and texture I was looking for. Once the background was complete, I trimmed the panel using my deckle trimmer. I then added more distressing using my distress tool and then inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

    Next I added splatters to the card panel using gouache from my stash. Once the splatters were dry, I adhered the panel to a top folding card base. Next I die the the sentiment – Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiment. I die cut the shadow layer using white cardstock. I then inked the shadow layer using Distress Oxide Ink. Next I die cut the Happy Birthday sentiment 3 times using a green cardstock from my stash. Before I die cut the 3rd layer, I heat embossed the panel, then die cut the sentiment from the embossed panel. I then adhered the letters together from the Happy Birthday sentiment and added the sentiment to my card front.

    I had a lot of fun creating today’s card and I hope you enjoyed it! I will be back soon!


    Supplies


    57551 Happy Birthday Vintage Sentiment

    Supplies


    ef1042 Anemone Bunches 3D Embossing Folder and Cutting Dies
  • Bold Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Bold Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hey there! Rosemary here on the blog today and I’m sharing a card that took me way out of my comfort zone! My card uses the “blackout” technique that I have been seeing on blogs and Instagram. Full disclosure it took me quite a few times to get a panel I was happy with, but it was fun trying out this new technique.

    For this technique you start out with a panel of white (or some other light color) that you emboss with a 3d embossing folder. For my card I used the beautiful Open Studio/Memory Box Gracious Floral embossing folder. After much trial and error I settled on using white distress heavy stock cardstock. After trimming down my panel to A2 size I misted it with water, placed it in the embossing folder and then ran it through my diecutting machine. I let my panel dry thoroughly before moving on to the next step.

    For the second step in the process you apply to the debossed (or backside) of your embossed piece. As you can see I used distress inks and detail blender brushes to apply the ink. With this technique you can get fairly messy with the application of your inks because in the next step you will be engaging in what to me was the scarry part, lol!

    The scarry part is applying the black ink (the reason it is called the “blackout” technique)! I learned through trial and error, again, that you have to apply the ink with a firm swiping motion on the cardstock. If you are too timid with the application of the ink you run the risk of getting alot of black ink in places you don’t want it. Now as you can see from the photos the ink does get left in certain areas, but that is because parts of the embossed image are not as deeply embossed as others. I hope that makes sense.

    There were still spots where I did not get full coverage and for those areas I used a small black ink cube and used a corner of the cube to apply the ink. Using the corner allows you to get into those small areas without getting more ink on your image. To finish off the card I used the new Big Hello Vintage Sentiment die set and a sentiment from the Crystal Lingo stamp set. I die cut the bottom layer of the Big Hello Vintage sentiment from heavy weight vellum and the top from Memory Box glossy black cardstock. I used liquid adhesive was used to adhere the pieces together and to the front of the panel. I heat embossed the sentiment in black on vellum, die cut it and adhered it with rolled up medium sized glue dots.

    Overall, I’m pretty happy with how my blackout panel turned out. It got me out of my comfort zone and trying something new. Was it perfect? No, but that is okay because this is a handmade card after all! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

    Supplies

    57549 Big Hello Vintage Sentiment

    8155 Crystal Lingo clear stamp and die set

    EF1026 Gracious Floral 3D Embossing Folder and Die

  • Lush Leaves with a Gelli Print | By, Natasha Vacca

    Lush Leaves with a Gelli Print | By, Natasha Vacca

    Hello Birch Press Friends, it is Natasha here and I am excited to be back on the blog today! Today’s card was inspired by a fellow design team member, Seeka! She shared a creative way to use embossing folders on a gelli plate and I had so much fun giving this a try! So let’s get started!

    For today’s card I started with the beautiful Lush Leaves Contour Layers die set! I die cut 2 leaves using an alcohol ink background from my stash. Once the leaves were die cut, I added Distress Ink to the edges and then adhered foam tape on the back of each leaf and set them aside. Next I die cut 2 more leaves using the Twilight Purple paper pack from Memory Box.

    Next I created a gelli print background using the Geometric Crystals embossing folder. I added paint to my gelli plate and then added a piece of paper with a dry embossed background using the embossing folder. I pressed the paper lightly onto my gelli plate, then I removed the background. My gelli plate now had small squares from the folder. I added a bit more paint, then pressed a new piece of paper onto my gelli plate. This was such a cool background and such a fun way to use my gelli plate!

    Next I trimmed the gelli plate panel using my deckle trimmer. I distressed the edges, then applied Distress Ink to each of the sides. I then adhered this onto a green panel and then added this to an A2 card base. Next I adhered the purple leaves, as well as my alcohol ink printed leaves to the card front. I used both liquid glue and foam tape.

    Next I die cut the new Big Hugs Vintage Sentiment using white card stock. I die cut this 2 times, then adhered each letter together with liquid glue. I then heat embossed a piece of white cardstock with a green/gold embossing powder. Once this was dry I die cut the hugs sentiment one more time. I then adhered the embossed letters on the top with liquid glue. On the shadow layer I added distress oxides, as well as distress ink to the edges. I adhered my sentiment, as well as a few gems from the Treasure Chest Fairy Gemstones collection.

    I had a lot of fun creating today’s card! I will be back soon with more inspiration!


    Supplies


    57547 Big Hugs Vintage Sentiment
    57521 Lush Leaves Contour Layers

    Supplies


    EF1016 Geometric Crystals 3D Embossing Folder
    GEM101 Treasure Chest Fairy Gemstones
  • Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello | by Rosemary Dennis

    Hello everyone! Rosemary here on the blog today. Hope your April is off to a great start. It is a little bit of a cold start to April here in the Pacific Northwest, but that is the PNW for you, lol! Today I’m sharing a card created using the sweet Prime Peony Duo Contour Layers dies and a foiled sentiment from the new Sugar Script Sentiments 2 set. Let’s have a look at what I created.

    I started off my card by deciding that I wanted to use some pretty patterned papers and do a little bit of inking on the papers once I had them die cut. I pulled out the lovely Memory Box Anemone Plaid and Anemone Grove 6×6 pads and went with a purply-blue plaid for the flowers and a dark green plaid for the stems. I die cut all the pieces and then added some distress ink in Milled Lavendar to some of the pieces.

    I didn’t add any additional color to the stems as they were dark enough already. I then adhered all the pieces together. For the flowers I used a combination of liquid adhesive and thin foam squares to provide lift to some of the petals. Liquid adhesive was used soley on the leaves. I also decided to use the green flower centers that were die cut when I die cut the stems as I liked the look. In the close up photo above you can see the shading on flowers that was added with the distress ink.

    After the glue had set on the flower for a little bit I adhered the stems with additional liquid adhesive. I die cut a piece of the Anemone Grove paper with a rectangle die and adhered that to a white cardstock base. I then die cut Memory Box white woodgrain cardstock with a Curved Capped Pinpoint Layers die and added some Milled Lavendar distress ink to the top portion of the die cut and then lightly around the edges. I adhered that piece with thin foam squares.

    The flowers were then adhered to the panel using liquid adhesive. I finished the card with the sentiment that I foiled in matte gold and a few purply blue fairy gems.

    I hope you enjoyed today’s project. Thank you for stopping by and have a lovely day!

    Supplies

    57504 Prime Peony Duo Contour Layers

    BPF505 Sugar Script Sentiments 2 Hot Foil Plate and Die Sets

    Supplies

    94646 Curved Cap Pinpoint Layers

    pp1026 Anemone Grove 6×6 pack

    pp1025 Anemone Plaid 6×6 pack