Category: Distress Ink

  • Using Color to Change the Mood | by Tracey McNeely

    Using Color to Change the Mood | by Tracey McNeely

    Hi there its Tracey here today and I would love to share a bit of Autumn inspiration with you. I love summer, but the nights are getting cooler, the days are getting shorter and the sunflowers are in full bloom, which for me means fall is on its way.

    Using fall colours along with the Viloa Plate Layers die set will change the mood to autumn. This die typically would be used the most in the spring or summer. I have created four cards to show you how you can create a whole different feel with your layered dies just by changing the colour. This is a great way to maximize the use of your dies. Remember that each one of the layers in a die set can create a beautiful card all on it own. I gave this die set a late summer, early autumn vibe.

    This first card uses all three layers of the Viloa Plate Layers die set. I wanted to make the flowers look like sunflowers so I chose my colours carefully. The layer C die has holes it will show your bottom layer which is typically your card base. What ever colour that is will show through. I added a soft blue cardstock panel to the card base. Layer C was cut from brown cardstock and Layer B from golden yellow. Then I ink blended a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide ink leaving it a bit lighter in the centre of the panel. Once it was dry I cut it using Layer A. If you wait and make sure your panel is dry before die cutting the cut is always so much cleaner. All the layers were glued together and then glued to the cardbase.

    Card two uses only Layer A from the Viloa Plate Layers die set. It was cut golden yellow glitter paper from the Delicate Pastels Glitter Pad. The card front was covered with a panel of light yellow cardstock and the glitter piece was glued directly onto the card front giving it a nice tone-on-tone appearance but with the added bonus of sparkle!

    The next card uses only Layer B from the Viloa Plate Layers die set. It was cut from a golden yellow cardstock. I ink blended Wild Honey Distress Oxide ink around the edges giving to give the die cut a bit of depth. The card front was covered with a panel of soft blue cardstock. The die cut was glued directly to the panel.

    The last card uses Layer C of the Viola Layer die set. This might be a favourite of mine. It was cut it with the soft blue cardstock. The Layer C die creates beautiful stitching lines when it cuts which make it a perfect die to use all on i’s own. I ink blended Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink around the edges of the die cut. Once again I did this to add some depth to the design.

    All of the sentiments are from the You Are Awesome stamp set. They were all embossed with a gold pearl embossing powder on brown cardstock.

    When you have a set of Birch Press Design craft dies you can use just one die or all of the dies together o maximize your investment. Just by choosing a colour palette you can change the mood of your dies and your cards. All of your dies can be used year round!

    Thank you so much for stopping in to craft with me today and we’ll see you next time!

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  • String Art Hugs | by Tracey McNeely

    String Art Hugs | by Tracey McNeely

    Hi there, it’s Tracey here with you this morning. Today I might be using the wrong design principles to create a sparkly card that looks right in my eyes.

    I started by ink blending the Midnight Mandala Stencil with Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide Ink over a panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock. I cut the panel down to a 3 7/8″ x 3 7/8″ square making sure the flower in the centre of the stencil was right in the centre of my ink blended panel. I had to do a little math and use my T-square to move out 1 15/16″ from the centre point of the flower.

    I cut of piece of royal blue cardstock from the Twinkling Jewel Glitter Pad to a 4″ square. I adhered this panel to a a 4 1/4″ card base. Next I adhered the ink blended panel over the glitter panel. This leaves a tiny 1/16″ border around the ink blended panel.

    The String Art Circle was cut twice, once with a bright green cardstock and once with the same royal blue glitter cardstock. I adhered the green string art circle to the centre of the ink blended panel and then I inlay the green centre. Next I adhered the royal blue string art circle over top slightly offset.

    The sentiment is from the Big Lingo Type Hugs die set. I cut the shadow using white cardstock and the inner letters from the royal blue glitter cardstock. I glued the letters over the shadow. Before adding it to the card I added tiny pieces of foam tape to the back of the word hugs and then placed it over the centre of the string art circle.

    So much glitter and sparkle! The best is that the glitter on the Twinkling Jewel Glitter papers stays put, no getting all over your hands and workspace or recipient!

    You could use any of the Birch Press Design stencils to create magnificent backgrounds to use along with any of the stand alone die cuts. Add in some of the beautiful glitter paper and you have a gorgeous card whether you used sound design principles or not! Thank you so much for creating with me today and have a great weekend!

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  • Stenciled and Stitched Balloon Card | By Leigh Houston

    Stenciled and Stitched Balloon Card | By Leigh Houston

    Hello, friends! I am so happy you stopped by today. I’m here sharing how I made this stenciled and stitched balloon card using Birch Press Design’s Party Balloon dies.

    These Party Balloon dies are truly a must-have for creating birthday or celebratory cards. I love their stitched details! To start my card, I die cut my largest balloon and added stenciled details using Poppystamps’s Romantic Blooms stencil and Distress Oxide Inks. I then die cut two smaller balloons and added color with the same shades of Distress Oxide inks, being sure to keep a highlight area for some realism.

    To add some more interest to the balloons, I stitched through the stitch holes using gold metallic thread and a simple backstitch. I then adhered some of the same thread to the back of the balloons to create their strings.

    To finish the card, I splattered a sky-colored background panel with some white paint. I then cut my “celebrate” sentiment from gold mirror cardstock. I popped up my largest balloon with foam tape and adhered my balloons to the cards, wrapping their strings somewhat loosely around the back of the panel to add to the floating effect. A few sparkly sequins and this card was finished!

    I hope you like this simple but pretty celebration card! Links to the products I used are below. Thanks again for stopping by and I’ll see you again soon with another card project!


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  • Creating Multiple Cards with One Design | by Tracey McNeely

    Creating Multiple Cards with One Design | by Tracey McNeely

    Hi there it’s Tracey. Today I am going to show you how easy it is to use one basic card design and by changing just one element you can make multiple cards each with a different theme.

    Each one of my four cards uses the newly released Kinsley Layer Set. The background paper for each of the die cuts was custom made using Distress Oxide Spray Inks. I sprayed some ink on my glass media mat and then sprayed some water onto the ink. I picked up the water with a foam blending tool and ran it back and forth across a panel of white cardstock until the whole panel was covered. I left some time so the first coat dry and then gave each of the panels a spritz of the same colour Distress Oxide Spray Ink direct to paper to add some subtle interest. I let the panels dry completely and then I cut four of the Kinsley Layer Dies Layer C from each panel. I chose to use only Layer C because on its own it creates a beautiful stitched pattern.

    Next I used the new Jumbo Lingo word dies to create glittery sentiments from the Twinkling Jewel Glitter Pad to co-ordinate with each of the die cuts. I used Jumbo Lingo Hello, Jumbo Lingo Thanks, Jumbo Lingo Hugs and Jumbo Lingo Happy. I cut the shadow from vellum cardstock and the individual letters from the glitter cardstock.

    Each white A2 sized card has a 5 1/4″ x 4″ mat that I adhered the Kinsley Layer die directly to and the sentiments added to the top with liquid glue. The mat was then adhered to the card base directly making the card nice and flat for mailing.

    Thanks so much for stopping in today. Give it a try, choose a simple background and change up your sentiments to make a collection of cards to have at the ready. You never know…

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  • So Glad We’re Friends by Jeanne Jachna

    So Glad We’re Friends
    by Jeanne Jachna

    Thanks for stopping by! Have you seen the newest release in the store? You’ll love the new layered dies and stamp sets. You can see them all here.

    My card features the new Viola Plate Layer Set over a rainbow distress ink background. I used only the A Layer from the set because I wanted to show you the intricate and delicate design.

    I inked the rainbow colors with a cosmetic brush. You can find different sizes at Amazon. The smaller brushes make coloring thinner areas easier.

    Do you see the glittery sparkle in the distress inking? I mixed ultra fine glitter with Ranger Glossy Accents and spread it with a spatula over the inked background. While it was still wet I placed the Viola die cut over it. When it was dry I added a Pierced Rectangle Frame for a more finished look and a JUMBO Lingo Hugs die cut.

    I hope the happy colors make you smile!

    Finished Size 4.25 x  5.5″

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  • Two Cards from One Die Cut | by Tracey McNeely

    Two Cards from One Die Cut | by Tracey McNeely

    Hi there, it’s Tracey back today with a little inspiration from Birch Press Design. I created two colourful cards from one die cut.

    These cards were both made with the Grandiose Bevel Plate Layer A die. For the first card I cut one Grandiose Bevel Plate Layer A from 110# white cardstock and set it aside. I ink blended a 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ panel of Bristol Smooth cardstock with a rainbow of Distress Oxide ink to make a rainbow of pink, orange, yellow, green and blue.

    I tapped a bit of water over the panel and picked up some colour with a paper towel. Once dry I die cut the Grandiose Bevel Plate Layer A die from the panel and because I am going to inlay the pieces into the white panel and use the outline for my second card. My die cut machine is a Gemini Jr, so the cut is facing up. A piece of 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ cardstock is placed over the back of the die and I flipped it over so I could see the coloured pieces. There are a LOT of pieces to inlay so this helps keep it organized.

    I covered the back of the white die cut with strong double sided adhesive tape so the pieces would fully inlay. I used an embellishment wand to help me pick up the tiny pieces to inlay.

    Once I was done inlaying the pieces I attached it to a white card base with foam tape for dimension. I finished it off with the Hello Honey Script die that I added with foam tape.

    For the second card I used the frame cut from the first card. I cut two additional white Grandiose Bevel Layer A dies and glued them together, then put the coloured frame as the top layer. To finish it off I added the Thanks Honey Script die with foam tape.

    Thank you so much for stopping in today. Come back tomorrow for more inspiration on the blog.

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  • Sprayed Midnight Mandalas | by Tracey McNeely

    Sprayed Midnight Mandalas | by Tracey McNeely

    Hi there, it’s Tracey back again today. You’re getting a double dose of me this week. I am a big fan of adding colour to my projects with Distress Oxide Inks and today I have a special treat for you. I have five cards that were created with the Birch Press Design Midnight Mandala Stencil and Distress Oxide Spray Inks!

    I used only two colours and one stencil and no two cards are the same. The process can be a bit messy so I use a homemade spray box. It is a 12 x 12 x 5 1/2″ priority mail box that I use whenever I splatter, flick or spray ink or watercolours inside the house. NOTE: I NEVER spray anything toxic inside the house such as spray paints or adhesive

    The first two cards are very simple, I put a piece of white cardstock inside the box and laid the Midnight Mandala Stencil over top. The first card uses Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Spray. The bottle was primed and just sprayed a few times over the stencil. Then I lifted the stencil to reveal to design on the white cardstock panel. The stencil got a quick wipe off with a baby wipe and then the process was repeated with Peacock Feather Distress Oxide Spray. I set the two panels aside to dry.

    For the next two cards I sprayed the entire background of the white cardstock panels with each colour of Distress Oxide Ink. One card was sprayed pink first and the other blue first. Once they were dry I laid the stencil over top of the coloured panel and then sprayed the other colour over top.

    The last card was a combination of both colours of Distress Oxide Spray Ink. The difference with this card is that I did not wait for the first colour to dry before spraying the second colour. I sprayed the pink at the top of the card front and the blue at the bottom. What ended up happening as they met in the middle was a beautiful shade of purple. TIP: Do a bit of trial and error with the colours you choose when wet colour mixing. You don’t want to end up with a muddied panel.

    All the panels were trimmed down to 5 1/4″ x 4″ and adhered to a white card base. The Honey Script Hello, Honey Script Thanks and Honey Script Hugs dies were used for the sentiments. All the shadows were cut from vellum and all the words were cut from white cardstock and glued together. They were attached to the card fronts with foam tape.

    This was a fun project to put together, really easy and I ended up with five unique cards.

    Thank you so much for stopping in today and I hope you are staying well. See you next time here at Birch Press Design.

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  • Party Balloons | by Tracey McNeely

    Party Balloons | by Tracey McNeely

    Hi there it’s Tracey here today and I have a card and video for a bright and fun birthday card using the Party Balloon die set along with the Modern Alphabet die set.

    I used the two largest balloons from the Party Balloon die set and I cut them with Bristol Smooth cardstock. I ink blended Distress Oxide inks on to each balloon. Once done I flicked some watered down Perfect Pearls on to the balloons for some extra interest and shine. I added the balloons to my card front with tape runner and the large pink balloon intentionally hangs over the edge of the card front. I drew the balloon strings on to the card front with a ruler and fine tip black marker.

    The Mod Alphabet die set was used to cut the word ‘happy’. I cut both the shadow and the smaller letters with white cardstock. I coloured the smaller letters with Copic markers to match the colours of the balloons. I glued the alphas together, added foam tape to the back of each letter and set them aside. The word ‘birthday’ from the Best Friend stamp set was stamped in the bottom right of the card. Then I trimmed where the balloon was overhanging the card with scissors.

    I lined up the word ‘happy’ and finished the card off by drawing a line across the neck of the balloons.

    Thank you so much for joining me today and I hope I I’ve inspired you to make something pretty today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll see you next time!

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  • Highlighting Sentiments | By Leigh Houston

    Highlighting Sentiments | By Leigh Houston

    Hello, friends! I am so happy to be here today to share this card I made featuring my favorite Birch Press Designs sentiments. I really wanted the sentiments to take center stage on this clean and simple card!

    To start my card, I made a card base using the Birch Press Designs Amour Layering Set. I cut the base using Amour Layer A, then layered smaller hearts mounted with foam tape from Amour Layers B and C. I colored in the smallest hearts using an aqua alcohol marker. This provided the perfect simple but pretty card base for the sentiments.

    I then die cut my sentiments from heavy 110# cardstock. I used small sponge daubers and my favorite shades of Distress Oxide Inks to ink blend a rainbow gradient onto the sentiments. I stamped the “and” from Birch Press’s You Are Awesome stamp set, which has such a wonderful array of sentiments (this one definitely makes my “most used” list of stamp sets!) A few sparkly sequins and this clean and simple card was finished!

    I hope you enjoyed this project! Products used are listed below. I’ll see you soon with another card project. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!


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  • Floral Star Helloby Jeanne Jachna

    Floral Star Hello
    by Jeanne Jachna

    Hello my crafty friends! I hope you’re having a great day! It’s Jeanne here and I’m sharing a rainbow color block card made with the new Floral Star layered die set.

    I love using color block technique when using die cuts. The repeated crisp clean lines of the background and the die cuts themselves are a match made in heaven.

    I determined a good size for the base would be 4 1/2″ . I split the panel down the center and then marked where the petal tips would be on the graph paper. I cut the red, yellow, purple and green squares 2 1/4″ square and adhered them together on their reverse side. I used the graph paper as a template to cut the blue and orange pieces.

    I cut all three layers of the Floral Star Layer Set from white card stock. I inked the “B” layer with distress ink masking off each section with sticky tape. I applied the ink with a mini cosmetic brush that I found on Amazon.

    I assembled the three Floral Star Layers and adhered them to the card base aligning the colors on the die cut with the colors on the background panel.

    A Big Sugar Script Hello cut from gold glitter paper adds some sparkle and shine! The “Thinking of You” stamped sentiment is from the You Are Awesome stamp set.

    I can never resist a rainbow! It includes ALL my favorite colors!

    Finished Size 4.75″ Square

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