Even More Distressing

So, after I created this card last night, I realized that all my current posts have a bit of a theme to them: They are all about distressing! I didn't set out to do this. It just appears that it's something I'm terribly interested in right now. It must be all the shabby cards I’ve seen lately on Splitcoaststampers.

So, the technique that I used this time is called Direct-to-Paper. And here's how I made the following card:

Copyright Stampin' Up!® 1990-2006

View the card and see the supplies I used here, at my gallery: Distressed Thanks.

First, like I mentioned, I went to Splitcoaststampers for a little inspiration. I saw a card like this one in the gallery and I loved the idea. I haven't stamped with this set very often. I believe this is only the second card I've made with Lexicon of Love. I assure you--I do like the set! I think the perfect stamping that's required with a stamp like this intimidates me a little bit. But I digress...

I looked around in my stamp collection and found two shape stamps that I liked: a sort of square background stamp and a stamp with three little circles, both in my Fun Filled stamp set. I started off by inking them up with a blue and light green Craft ink (a pigment ink that's like paint; see this post for more info: What is Craft Ink?). I stamped each image three times before reinking it. I tried to make a mess of my cardstock. Then came the fun part: using the Direct-to-Paper technique!

When I first heard that name I thought "What on earth could 'Direct-to-Paper' mean? Isn't that what stamping is? Stamping 'directly to paper?'" But the term actually refers to you taking your ink pad directly to your paper! Ah! Now it all made sense.

All of my Craft inks are these cute little ink pads called Stampin' Spots. They are one inch by one inch squares that come in a set of 12. Lots of fun--and perfect for applying ink directly to paper! So, after stamping a few squares and circles around on my cardstock, I started distressing my paper even more by tapping and scraping my little ink pads directly over the surface of the cardstock. I was gently reckless...if that's even a proper use of the word!

When I do crazy things like this, I always try to go slow so that I'm not adding more ink than I'd like to (I do the same thing with watercoloring). A good thing about the inks I was using was that they are already light colors and they wouldn't be too bold if I did make a mistake. Also, when I added way too much Creamy Caramel to the upper left hand corner of my card, because it's a slow drying paint-like ink, I was able to wipe some off. Whew! You can compare the look of these Craft pigment inks to Classic dye-based inks by looking at this card: Very Distressing. Craft inks have a much softer look.

Now, if you'll notice, the center of the accent piece looks a little different. That's because my ever-clever husband had a really nifty idea: He suggested I made the oval piece look like it was a magnifying glass (I think he liked my Cracked Glass card a lot; he was still thinking about it!). So I got out my bottle of Crystal Effects and we put some on to see how it'd look. At first it warped the cardstock a little and had me worried, but this morning it had settled back down and looked just fine. Now it's the kind of card you just have to touch--Lots of fun!

I plan on sending a copy of this card to my dad (this one is MINE!). He asked me to make him a handful of cards to send out to friends. I find it so difficult to design cards for men so I'm glad I ran across this design. I think it's a great card for a guy!