A 'Tuesday Tutorial'

Hi everyone in Blogland and beyond. As you may have seen from Linda's recent post on the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog, she has received a pile of new goodies from Ranger, including the new Distress Paints and new stamp sets!!! You can find them HERE at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.To celebrate this fact I wanted to share a step by step with you for creating a quick, colourful, adaptable card using Distress Paints and Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mini Blueprint Stamps.

First some close ups, then the tutorial.

I chose to use Distress Paints for this because using them to stamp with gives such a great depth of colour and then they are superb for blending without going muddy.
You will also need four squares of white card (mine were 2.25" square) four squares of vellum (mine were 2.5" square) and some white cardstock for the background panel (mine was 148cm square - I know! what can I say, I'm a child of the 70's who had to learn to use imperial and metric at the same time!!)

Choose three colours that will blend well (test the results first if you are not sure). For the first card I used Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry and Salty Ocean (inspired by Tim's Tattered Florals tutorial!) For this second version I used Wild Honey, Seedless Preserves and Barn Door.
Splodge each paint on your craft mat. Make sure you put your splodges close together so the stamp will be totally covered. When pushing your stamp onto the paint wiggle it around a little to get the colours blending together a little. Then stamp each image onto a separate square of card.

Next put some more dabs of paint onto your craft mat with a tiny spritz of water. Push your large background piece of white cardstock into the paint, spritz with a little water and allow the paints to blend together a little. If you get too much water on at this stage or the colours run too much for your liking you can use some tissue to mop up the excess.
Now dry with your heat tool. It is important to do this as it 'fixes' the paint. You can go back into the remains of your paint mix to fill in any gaps once the first layer is dry without fear of the original layer being affected. Blend/dry until happy.

Put your background card through your embossing machine using an embossing folder. I used the Retro Circles Texture Fades folder, but any highly patterned folder will do (would lay my life on it that the new Bottle Caps one would be perfect - gotta get it!) Don't worry if there is a little overlap when you are embossing your background. As long as it is not along the middle of the card it won't show.
Now distress the edges of the background and the little image squares - doing this seems to give card a thicker feel and the look of handmade paper. Plus it will hide any cutting mistakes!!

Finally make up the card by adhering the background to a square white card base, sticking the image squares onto the vellum, and then layering these little squares on top of the background using some dimensional foam (squares/tape etc.)
Now I'm thinking this card is uber-adaptable. Try different colours (checking their 'blendability' first) and different folders. Then of course you can use any combination of the Mini Blueprint Stamps (as they are all roughly the same size) depending on the card theme/recipient.

So now it's over to you! Please let me know if you have a go with this - I'd love to see some variations on a theme, and trust me, once you've done it once you'll find it is a fairly quick card to put together. I've put links to the products at the bottom of this post.
Take care everyone, and have some rewarding crafting time. Hugs, Jenny x

Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Set of 24	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Mustard Seed	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Picked Raspberry	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Salty Ocean	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Wild Honey	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Barn Door	Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Paint - Seedless Preserve	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Mini Blueprints 4
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Mini Blueprints 3	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Mini Blueprints 2	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Mini Blueprints	Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades - Rays and Retro Circles Set	Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades - Clock and Steampunk Set	Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades - Damask and Regal Flourishes Set	Ranger Inkssentials Non-Stick Craft Sheet