We are on our way...

Please come and join us for the New adventure!


Servus and welcome to some exciting news today!
 Emerald Creek are demonstrating their new products and range at CHA! (and today's post over at the Dares blog also starts a new challenge you can join in of course).

Among them are some lovely stamp sets from blogger and DT member Nicole Wright who will be launching the first in her own series of quarterly releases under Nicole Wright Designs with stamps to start and also some great dies coming... and we - the lucky DT - were given some of the stamps to create with...

...and to my great pleasure and delight they were Japanese themed stamp sets! (thank you, Nicole! ;): Fallen Blossom and Upstream

To learn more about them and to check out my talented DT members' creations hop over to Emerald Creek Dares!

I love Japanese art, culture and poetry, so I decided to combine stamping, art journalling and writing my own haiku on this special occasion!

 On my Japan inspired journal page I used Distress inks only (ink pads, stains and spray stains) - but in a more painterly, mixed media way this time!

I hope you like this slightly different approach on using them. Distress inks were one of my very first products I bought when I started my stamping and blogging career and discovered crafty blogland and Tim Holtz' awesome grungy and vintage style and techniques and I still love using them - even though I have turned from pure stamping and distressing towards using more mixed media. But I would never want to be without my Distress products and I always enjoy going back and using those good old distress ink techniques alongside the younger mixed media products and techniques.

 For my page's background I cut some white card to size and treated it with the Tim Holtz "Wrinkle Free Distress" technique (one of my all time favourites as I just love the splattered patterns and randomness about it). You will find a the list of colour tones I used at the end of my post (and you can also see them in the photographs).

If you want a larger image just click on the photographs. 

I also used Distress stains and spray stains (alongside the Distress ink pads) by applying some of the paint to my craft sheet and loading a soft brush (with which I sprinkled on the inks). Especially the "squeezed lemonade" created some beautiful splatters as it mixed with the blues and thus gave me some shades of green - perfect for a pond's colour palette!

You can of course use any of the three forms of Distress ink products for each technique shown here and don't have to follow my list precisely. I combine my Distress products as I have them and in which form I have them and apply them to my craft sheet first to dip my brush into the little puddle of ink for painting.

To create a visual frame I inked the edges with "chipped sapphire" Distress ink, using a blending tool.

For a special effect (more on this later) I used some left over acetate from one of my Sizzix dies packages and applied Ranger Alcohol inks in various shades of blue. 

The koi and some of the cherry blossoms were stamped onto some heavy white printer paper in Ranger jet black archival ink and then painted using Distress stains and spray stains and a thin soft brush.

I fussy cut the cherry blossoms and the koi. The acetate was cut into wave-like swirly shapes.

I wanted to create several layers: working with the transparency of the alcohol ink treated acetate that would change the colours of the background underneath, and by adding a lily pad that was painted using Distress spray stains, water and a soft brush.

The first layer of my lily pad was done using the Wrinke Free Distress Technique. As you can see I didn't use any green, but mixed some "squeezed lemonade" and "tumbled glass" for starters:

Then I went in with some diluted "pine needles" Distress stain and water to paint the edges and the leaf's veins. The result looks like a watercolour painting, as the Distress inks react beautifully to water and each other.

The haiku was printed out, cut out, swiped through some "tattered rose" Distress stain on my craft sheet and then inked around the edges with "chipped sapphire" Distress ink after all the word tiles had dried.

The acetate waves were glued onto the background using Ranger Glossy Accents so none of the tiny glue dots would be visible. The lily pad was fixed to the page using two pieces of Ranger adhesive foam tape.

I love how the acetate waves change the colours of the koi and the water and create a lot of movement on my page!

Using the Distress inks, stains and spray stains to paint with them is great fun and helps create quick and spectacular watercolour effects! You can mix them on your sheet like any other kind of paint...so the possibilities for colour tones are almost endless!

Products used:
- Emerald Creek "Nicole Wright Design" stamp sets "Fallen Blossom" and "Upstream"
- Distress Inks: chipped sapphire, faded jeans, broken china, evergreen bough
- Disress Stains: tumbled glass, tattered rose, pine needle, weathered wood, salty ocean
- Distress Spray Stains: rusty hinge, red brick, squeezed lemonade, broken china, gathered twigs
- Ranger Glossy Accents
- Ranger Adhesive Foam Tape
- Ranger Alcohol Inks: Stream, Juniper, Sail Boat Blue
- Ranger Blending Tool
- heavy white card and printer paper
- clear acetate
- Ranger Heat Tool


And now its your turn, we want to see what you are making with your NEW Christmas presents, NEW purchases, NEW techniques, NEW CHA stuff even if you are one of the lucky few to have yours right away.

The challenge is open and awaits your wonderful projects! Hop over to Emerald Creek Dares by clicking on the image:

Hugs and happy crafting,

Claudia 

xxx