Crystal Komara
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Conquering Your Creative Fears

9/18/2019

4 Comments

 
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!
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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.  
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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.
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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.
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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

4 Comments
Glennice Flynn
9/18/2019 09:36:32 am

That is awesome!! I would LOVE a class in using Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks. I have so many colors...

Reply
donna Garafalo
9/18/2019 12:52:36 pm

Great blending. I too cringe when trying to do backgrounds.......

Reply
Monica Fowler
9/18/2019 06:00:10 pm

Excellent choice of topic! You can read my mind! So glad you are blogging again.

Reply
Margaret Krotowski
9/19/2019 04:08:12 pm

Great job blending and I love the color combinations on this card.

Reply



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