distress crayon shading over archival inks...

it's fun to go back to basics & revisit favorite techniques...

one of mine is

wrinkle free distress...

this background is done on a piece of 

distress watercolor cardstock...

I used tumbled glass, broken china, brushed corduroy and a tiny bit of rusty hinge...

these pads got swiped onto the craft sheet & misted with water...

I put the cardstock into the inks,

dried it and I got this...

on aside note...

see that face profile on the right?

interesting how that happens sometimes...

YIKES!

one of my MOST favorite SiSi's from the new release is the "spring bouquet"...

I sometimes use the full image,

 in a vertical orientation like this...

on this sample I added layered flowers...

this set is versatile...

it makes a good single layer card too...

and...

I like to change it up & use only a part of

 the stamp/stencil...

like this...

just mask off the daisy portion, ink the stamp, remove the tape & stamp horizontally...

ok...pretend you see a photo here...

we both have a crummy cold & that's my excuse...

plugged up snotty head...

HE got it first...

kissed me & this is all his fault!

after stamping, place the coordinating stencil over the stamped image & add ink, using the blending tool...

for the flowers I used tea rose archival & the leaves got inked with fern green...

those little flowers on the right ended up in a blue background area, so I added cornflower blue...

I stenciled some stripes from

 the "yikes stripes" stencil, 

using tree branch archival...

I also added some random dots, 

with the new lots of dots stencil...

and used tree branch again to add some random vintage text in 3 areas...

my sentiment was stamped with jet black in the left corner...

then I grabbed the new distress crayons to add shading...

I touched the wet detailer water brush to the tip of the crayon & that gave me good control for adding the shading...

if you don't have the detailer water brush...

I have to say it's a favorite tool...

I love that the nylon tip stays pointy & has not changed since the first day...

I use it with markers, stains, archival inks & just to add water spots...

and it's great with the distress crayons too...

it's well worth it...

here's my finished card, with that 

cute mat mini "have a heart"...

it's hanging from the dot line (just say it)...

if you go back & look at the original background, you'll see that I added more distress in the lower right corner, under that smaller flower......

because I stamped with jet black archival 

(it's waterproof), 

I knew I could add more distress,

 without making the image bleed...

I used the water brush to add some water under the flower, then dropped in some faded jeans & broken china

 (swiped on the craft sheet & picked up with the water brush) 

& let the water activate the distress...

lessons I learned...

I'm certainly no watercolor expert...

but I had fun & I was reminded that...

practice makes perfect...

just keep going!

and...

keep the archival colors lighter when adding shading with the crayons...

I wish I would have kept the leaves a

lighter fern green, because the distress crayon shading would show up much better...

this was my first time using the crayons over archival inks & I WILL be playing lots more...

the crayons over archival are very forgiving, 

since the color can be removed with water...

again...

because archivals are waterproof, 

there's no problem adding water...

I'm happy that they work well together, 

just as I expected they would...

here's my flat card, 

with the horizontal image...

so grab your inks...

have a play &

make art!

wendy

ps...not all valentines need to be red!