Conquering Your Creative Fears

Hello friends!  Cheers to Wednesday, you've made it halfway through the week!  Today I am sharing over on the Butterfly Reflections Ink website.  Would you believe that I own ALL the Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks, but am too afraid to use them!?  It's true!  I see the beautiful backgrounds and unique watercolor designs that other artists create with these water reactive inks, but when I try to do it, the end result looks like I let an unattended 5-year-old loose in my craft room!  I struggle with uniform blending, too much/too little water and the root of all evil - comparison.  Theodore Roosevelt said, "Comparison is the thief of joy" and I remind myself of this every time I'm scrolling Instagram and Pinterest.  Today, I'm here to conquer one of my own creative fears and hopefully I can encourage you to do the same!

Today's card uses the new Fall Fox stamp set by Sugar Pea Designs.  This is a "slimline" card that measures 8 1/2" long by 3 1/2" inches high.  You've probably been seeing a lot of these similar style cards on social media and they are growing in popularity.  The great thing about these slimline cards is that they will fit into a #10 business sized envelope without having to pay additional postage.  

The base of my card is Cajun Craze cardstock.  I was asking all of my crafty friends what paper to use when I want to blend the Distress Oxide inks and the universal answer was Bristol Smooth!  So, I cut a sheet of Bristol Smooth paper to 8 1/4" by 3 1/4".  I grabbed my Picket Fences Blender Brushes and began to rub the ink along the paper in a circular motion.  The top color is Fossilized Amber, the middle color is Spiced Marmalade and the darkest (bottom) color is Aged Mahogony.   I kept rubbing the blender brush through the colors until the lines faded and the colors seemed to blend more seamlessly.  Honestly, this was a lot less scary than I though it would be!  I also die cut the grass from the same blended cardstock using the Tucked In Turf die and adhere it to the bottom of the scene.

Using the lightest piece of brown paper from the Lawn Fawn Knock on Wood paper pack, I die cut the birch trees using the  Lawn Fawn Birch Tree Lawn Cuts and adhered them to the blended background with my tape runner.  Then I added the background to the card base.   I stamped all of the images in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  I colored each image with my alcohol ink markers.  I added highlights to each colored image with a White Gelly Roll Pen.  Then I die cut the images out with the coordinating Sugar Pea Designs Fall Fox Sugar Cuts.  I stamped the sentiment at the top of the card in a medium brown ink.  I began to add the images to the card using foam adhesive for added dimension.

Woohoo!  I can now say that I have actually used the over $300 worth of Distress Oxide inks sitting in my craft room.  And, it wasn't nearly as scary as the image I had conjured up in my mind!  I hope today's post will encourage YOU to face your own creative fears, whatever they might be.  Go ahead and give it a try.  After all, it IS only paper!  : )
Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

XO, Crystal