Let's get Distressed with Stampendous!

Creating with a distressed look can still have happy and fun results as I've shown with my card today. Happy bright colors, with torn edges, smeared inks, piles of texture is so interesting...don't you think?

I've used my Stampendous Creative Palette, and added several drops of various Dreamweaver Color Solutions Alcohol inks, with several drops of blender solution, and let the colors swirl. I grabbed a few panels of Stampendous Mixed Media White cardstock, and placed them over the surface to grab the beautiful colors. A few more drops of blender between each panel keeps the solution wet enough, while the colors become more pastel.

Obviously, the panel I used for this card was my first, and the most saturated. When the ink was dry, I stamped the Cling Blossom Bunch in Black StazOn ink. The edges were torn and ink was smudged. A heavy sprinkling of Powder Blue and Purple Color Fragments with Shabby Blue Embossing Enamel over the top of them was heated from underneath for the Fran•tagé Encrusted Jewel Technique that is perfect with the distressed look. This panel overlaps a second panel which had been stamped with the Cling Vintage Note, smudged with gray inks, and ink-stenciled with the Dreamweaver Small Cathedral Window. This same stencil is used to add pattern to the purple card base, along with more ink-distressing around the edges.

For a bit of juxtaposition, bright yellow is added here and there, including on the clip with the sentiment from the Perfectly Clear Life Words...oh, and of course, a bright and happy silk ribbon bow from May Arts! Not the usual depressing distressing, eh?

Check out more...

Stampendous Blog

Amy Hurley-Purdie

Pam Hornschu

Jamie Martin

Janelle Stollfus

A Very "Distressing" Week with Stampendous

Who says that distressing your creations has to be stressful? Stampendous carries a perfect line of products, and fifteen amazingly talented team members, to help you create whatever look you want. From CAS (clean and simple), to distressed, to OMGeee over-the-top, we've got it all!

One of the industry's favorite artists, Andy Skinner, has designed some über-cool Cling Stamp images for Stampendous, and the distressed look is pretty much a given when using his designs. Below is a video where he shares his love of mixed media design:

I created the above mixed media piece using Andy Skinner's Cling Industrial and Nature sets. See the crackle edging all around the "frame"? It's just the crackle image from the Industrial set stamped in Rich Cocoa Memento ink on sage green cardstock. Period. How cool is that? What appears to be an artist's canvas is simply Core'dinations Vintage cardstock, sanded a bit here and there, and inked around the edges. The barn, fence, trees, and birds are all elements from Andy's Nature set, and were stamped in black ink, as well as a second tree on another piece of cardstock. All were colored with a wash of a wet paintbrush and Inktense Watercolor Pencils from Derwent, with more Inktense coloring and shading here and there.

Spoonfuls of Stampendous' Fran•tagé Spoonful of Rust mixture were added at the bottom, and heated from underneath to save all the yummy texture and color from blowing all over the workspace! All the essential elements for Fran•tagé-style distressing comes in just that one cool container...various sizes and colors of embossing enamels, Color Fragments, Mica chips, etc. You seriously NEED to have this product...well, and so many other products under the "Fran•tagé" category on the website. They're a distressing extravaganza! Oh, and all of those strange bits of ephemera that you've been saving for the perfect mixed media project? Just throw some Essentials over the top, and heat from underneath, and your ephemera becomes one with your project, just as you envisioned.

So, head on over to the other team members links, check them out, leave some love, order the cool stuff HERE, and begin to DE-STRESS yourself with a bit of DISTRESSING!

Stampendous Blog

Pam Hornschu (you're here)

Kristine Reynolds

Louise Healy