In fact, I did this video almost two months ago! But I didn’t want to share any love for this product until they were back in stock at stores. There was a storage on them for awhile, but now you can get your paws on them again.

I am thrilled to be able to play with them all I want now! Here is a video showing one of the many ways you can use them – to create a fun background with the Hero Arts and Studio Calico Lattice background…

I love that you can get little spots of color with the marker tip, and then can spray them like mad to get blending like watercolor…

When I showed this card to Tim awhile back, he asked me how long it took to color all those shapes. Honestly? 5 or so minutes. And that is nothing compared to what I normally spend on a card – ha. (I am slow.) So I think it is worth it.

Here you can see the pearlized look you get since I used water with Perfect Pearls mixed in. (If you don’t want that shine, you can just use regular water. Both are lovely.)

So many people have asked me if I really love these markers. The answer is yes. They take all the things I love about Distress Inks and puts them in a marker form – so I can get detailed spots of color. What could be better? And this background is just one of many ways to use them. (The best of which is for multi-color stamping – more on that another day.)

You can get the Distress Markers individually (get the colors you like best and just try them out) or go ahead and take the plunge to get the whole set…

I love new toys. Almost as I love giving them away…

And I have a set of Distress Markers to give away! YAY! (Thanks, of course, to the fabulous Heidi at Simon Says Stamp.) Just leave a comment here by Sunday at 11:59pmEST for your chance to win. Good luck – this is a great giveaway!

Distress Markers	Hero Arts Studio Calico Lattice Stamp	Hero Arts Studio Calico Wonderful World	Memory Box Heart Delights Die
Sizzix Big Shot	Perfect Pearl Pigment Powder	B&W Enamel	Versamark
Hero Arts Black Dye Ink	White Embossing Powder	Mister	Heat Gun
Hero Arts Snow Notecards	Best Watercolor Paper	Neenah White Cardstock 25 Sheets	Neenah White Cardstock 250 Sheets
Craft Sheet	Small Fiskars Trimmer	EK 1/16 Thin Foam Dots

Just popping in to share a card. This was a card I created for class, but didn’t like. But I never pitch anything – I figure every card (good or bad) will makes someone smile when they get it in the mail.

This one uses a new technique I shared over in the Clean and Simple Card Making Class. If you are in the class, you will recognize the technique. Very easy to do – just some Distress Inks and water…

Supplies are all linked below in the thumbnails.

Fun to play with color like this. Oh, and it isn’t too late to join in the class and get the discounts, prize chances, lifetime access, etc. Go HERE for more info.

I also have some fun links for you tonight. Lovely stuff:

• You MUST stop by Kelly Rasmussen’s blog this week. She is doing some amazing cards with Hero stamps. Lovely work.
• I have really enjoy Marion Vagg‘s work lately. So very classy.
• Cheiron makes the most beautiful cards. THIS makes me happy.

Finally, we have a winner of Amy’s class – SuZeQ. I emailed ya.

Thanks for stopping by!

I wanted to share a card I did for Ranger awhile back. Used lots of Liquid Pearls for it, so it has a lovely pearl shine in real life…

Yum yum pearly shine…

You can find the complete instructions on this card HERE at Ranger. However, my favorite part is the background canvas piece. It is sticky back canvas with a white heat embossed background. I then rubbed Liquid Pearls over them for the shine. One-of-a-kind – love that.

I have a video for you tomorrow. See you then.

The sweet folks at Ranger asked me to be part of their Great Pumpkin Challenge. We all started with a plain pumpkin and used Ranger goodies to turn it into a fall decorative piece. Here’s mine…

Here’s the scoop: I tore lots of strips of Sticky Back Canvas. White heat embossed Hero Arts images all over the strips. Painted them with Distress Inks. And sprayed the living daylights out of them with Perfect Pearl Mist. And thanks to the Sticky Back Canvas, they stick right on easily. For the “M” I just printed it and traced it onto canvas. Fun…

Be sure to head over the the Ranger blog all this week. They will be showcasing several decorated pumpkins by other artists each day. You can find them HERE.

Take care!

The folks at Simon Says Stamp are having a huge event – STAMPtember – where they will be having free gifts, big sales, prizes and more all month. They asked if I could do a few things for their blog and I was honored to do so. Be sure to stop by the post HERE where Heidi shares some did-you-know-facts about me, along with a silly, embarrassing photo of me floating on the Vomit Comet. (For real.) And you can go HERE to see all the details on this video shown below. Oh! And both posts have a giveaway. If you do go post a comment, please say happy birthday to Heidi – SSS’s owner. Her big day was yesterday. (Love you, Heidi. I admire and respect you tremendously.)

So here is the video I did for Simon Says Stamp, using Metallic Rub-Ons and Alcohol Inks. I also show the new Snow Cap Alcohol Ink. I am in LOVE with this stuff. It is amazing. You can completely transfrom dark metal and other colored embellishments. I show it in action in the video, but recommend you check out Tim’s info about it HERE. He, after all, is the master.

Fun stuff, huh?

By the way, when you do alcohol ink, you need to be sure to use the felt pieces on the inking tool. And use foam pieces when you blend Distress Inks. Same tool, just different things you stick to it.

Before heading out, I wanted to remind you to check my last couple of posts for a chance to win some prizes. See you soon!

See, I tease him for always creating “dark cloud” projects and he teases me for creating “bags of Skittles” projects, often with cutesy things such as owls. It’s all in respect and fun.

So when he asked for a few years ago to create some projects for his Ideaology booth at CHA, I knew just what to create:

A colorful owl.

Yes, I was being a bit of a smart aleck, but it was so much fun to create…

So Mr. Holtz Owl was created from cut pieces of Grungeboard. And all the embellishments? They are all from Ideaology.

Paperclips for feathers. The number zero for eyes along with a few gears. The beak? That is a leaf. And the feet? Those are game spinners/clock hands.

All the coloring was done with Distress Inks. The only non-Holtz goodies are the branch (Prima) and the letter stamps (Papertrey).

So much fun to create. I did this a couple of years ago and don’t think I have shared it here yet – sorry if I did.

And there you have it: The Mr. Holtz Owl.

Have a good week.

Project Supplies:

Heidi over at Simon Says Stamp seriously rocks. First, she let me steal borrow her baby Abby while at CHA…

Then sweet Heidi emailed me to let me know she has the all new Distress Stains and the newest Hero Arts stamps in stock. Even better – she is giving a discount code to my readers. Just use the code “JOY” to give you 10% off your entire order until Midnight July 25 EST. Awesome enabling, huh?

First up? Check out these new Distress Stains…

You can get buy all the new ones HERE in a group… or all of the Stains both new and old HERE in another group. Or you can just buy them individually HERE. My favorites of the new: Picket Fence (it is white – so cool on kraft), Barn Door, Pumice Stone and Scattered Straw. My favorites of the old: Broken China, Peeled Paint, Antique Linen and Wild Honey.

Simon Says Stamps also has the new Hero Arts stamps in stock HERE. A few people asked about my favorites.

THIS one is amazingly delightful. It is fine-lined and perfect for a subtle background. It is supposedly a holiday stamp but can so be used for anything…

THIS next one is equally awesome. I think good Christian holiday stamps are hard to come by and this is perfection. I can imagine the nativity embossed in white with lots of inks resisted on top. So lovely. And the greetings? Perfection.

Next we have THIS oh-so-useful set. Could work great for holiday cards but also any card you send in the winter. (You can see a fab video by the fab Shari Carroll HERE using this set.)

Everyone needs a good holiday greeting set like THIS one. And I love these fonts…

Check out THIS musical background. So classy…

Oh… think of all the fun techniques you can do with THIS set! Love love love.

THIS guy has such pretty ornaments…

Can’t forget Halloween, too! THIS set is a hoot…

THIS Halloween set is cute, too. And that cloud? I will be using that all year round. The cat, too…

And this last bit of enabling makes me oh-so-happy. Hero now has Pool notecards, envelopes (with the unique flap), layering papers and designer patterned papers. L.O.V.E.L.Y.

Again, just use the code “JOY” to give you 10% off your entire order until Midnight July 25 EST. Awesome, huh?

Happy shopping.

One product I get a lot of questions about is Distress Stains. The most common question is: “Do I really NEED them?” The answer?

YES.

To find out why I think they are fabulous, head on over to the CLASSroom with Ellen Hutson. I am a guest on this fabulous education blog today. And there is a giveaway. Yay! Here is a peek at one of the three cards I share…

And I share step photos on stamping with Distress Stains...

… and coloring flowers with them…

Fun fun fun. Be sure to go HERE to the CLASSroom to see all the finished cards and step photos.

And since Ellen and her team are so wonderful, they put together a great prize! Just leave a comment here  for a chance to win these goodies. Yay!

Enjoy!

Before I share some projects, I thought I would give you a heads up that registration for Summer Card Camp closes on Wednesday (6/29). We are already having a lot of fun and sharing fun tips, so be sure to go sign up! The student gallery is overflowing (over 200 entries already on Day 2!) and looks incredible. You can see a glimpse of it HERE.

Moving on…

I thought I would share a couple projects I did for Ranger awhile back.

This one uses a Ranger Glossy ATC. ATCs are perfect to put on the front of a small card. I stamped on this glossy ATC with a fabulous Tim Holtz stamp and Versmark ink. After heat setting it, I generously added Peeled Paint Distress Ink. Resist rocks. The hearts started out as white patterned paper from Basic Grey, but I inked them with Distress Inks to get purple…

HERE is the Tim Holtz stamp. Isn’t is lovely? I used it once right-side-up and another up-side-down…

This next one uses Ranger tags. They are so perfect for inking! I started by covering it with Barn Door Distress Ink and spraying it with Perfect Pearl Mist. After it dried, I stamped and Copic colored on vintage text paper and added it with sewing. Finally, I used a bit of glitter pen to add some sparkle…

Off to rest. Night!

Card Supplies:

Here, I started with a piece of Sticky Back Canvas. To “cut” canvas, I just do a little cut at the edge and tear it. It tears straight and leaves a lovely frayed edge every time. Next, I white heat embossed the circle image on it. I then pressed a ton of various Distress Inks right over on it until it looked absolutely awful. Next, I sprayed it about ten times with a Perfect Pearls + Water mix until it looked worse. But when it dried? Awesome…

By putting on lots of Distress Ink and spraying it, it blending nicely, coloring the canvas and leaving some shine. I also took a Basic Grey flower embellishments and changed it up a bit, adding pearls and twine and such…

For complete instructions, visit Ranger HERE. For supplies, see the small images below.

The background of this card was stamped with THIS fabulous Tim Holtz stamp. The fine lines in the image make it perfect for a subtle background. I lovey it…

And if you don’t have Sticky Back Canvas, I highly recommend it. So many fun techniques you can do with it – it is fun for Copics, stamping, paint, Distress Ink and more. SO much easier to work with then regular fabric. Claudine Hellmuth is brilliant.

Oh, and it comes in natural now, too…

By the way, did you know Ranger now has a bigger Mister bottle? I love the Mini Misters, but this bigger size is so much handier. Less refilling but just as great of a fine mist…

Happy day.

Card Supplies: