That's Life: Distress Spray Stain

Showing posts with label Distress Spray Stain. Show all posts

Monday, 12 October 2026

Don't Stop Believing....

Hello everyone and Happy Monday!

As another week flies by, it's time for a brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and this week, we want you to THINK PINK because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now I'm not a pink girlie but I do love vintage pink and gold as a combination, and to honour all those strong women, and not forgetting all the men too ~ I've created a tag using my favourite colour combo with one word ~ HOPE because hope is never lost in this journey, because whether you are currently receiving treatment or the people who work so hard to find a cure, we always have to hope!

So, let's get started, it's time to get for me to share all the details of this tag....

This make uses a Size 8 Etcetera Tag and Mixed Media Heavystock Tag as a base.

TAG

To begin with I created my background, and for this I began by stamping some detail using the Stampers Anonymous Tiny Prints Stamp Set by Tim. I inked the stamp with Ground Espresso Distress Ink and randomly stamped the print directly onto the tag, just catching areas here and there as I didn't want a solid coverage.

I then spritzing the tag with a little water before spritzing the surface with Victorian Velvet, Pumice Stone and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stains. I then added a very light misting of Tattered Rose.

Once happy with the blend, I heat dried the tag, inked the edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then machine stitched a border around the outside.

Adhere the tag onto a Size 8 Etcetera Tag, using Matte Collage Medium.

To complete the tag, I threaded some inky ribbon through the hole at the top. The ribbon is dyed using Victorian Velvet and Antique Linen Sprays and whilst wet, I scrunched it up into a tight ball to create the wrinkled effect. Once dry, it can be looped onto the tag and secured into position with a mini pin...

LEAVES

With the background complete, it's time to move onto the focal point and start building the layers. I began by creating the leaves that frame the image and for this I used the SA Leaf Prints stamp set by Tim and the co-ordinating SSS die set.

I used the same Distress Sprays as I used on the background but this time I coloured some Distress Watercolour Card.

Once dry, I then stamped a selection of the smaller leaf print images onto the coloured card using Ground Espresso Distress Ink before die cutting the leaves with the co-ordinating die set. I used 5 leaves.

Now it's time to add some vintage sparkle to these and for this I used the brand new Liquid Tinsel. I chose the Fine Antiqued Liquid Tinsel and painted the medium onto my leaves, trying not to cover the stamped detail. Allow for this to dry.

PHOTO

Whilst the glitter is dry, I worked on the photo and used one of the images from the idea-ology Photo Booth pack. I used a water brush to colour tint the image with Distress Crayons and then added some rips and tears around the edges before machine stitching the photo onto a piece of felt that I cut with pinking shears.

I couldn't resist a little more of the Liquid Tinsel and added tiny dots of this to background.

A arranged the leaves around the photo and attach them to the tag, adding some curly moss tucked into the arrangement. I also attached a pink ephemera piece, from the Palette Ephemera Pack and placed this on the left of the photo.

Well at this point, we've added the sparkle to the photo and to the leaves, so why not add a little more!! Which is exactly what I did, and I brushed some of the Chunky Antiqued Liquid Tinsel onto the moss.

In the top right hand corner of the leaf arrangement, I added a 'hashtag' Type Chip. I cut this chip in half and then tucked the hashtag into the leaves.

To complete the arrangement, I added a couple of die cut hearts which I cut from the leftover scraps of card that I used for the leaves. The two hearts are die cut using the heart dies from the Sizzix Love Birds die set by Tim.

SENTIMENT

We're nearly there and all that's left to do is add the sentiment...

I used the letters from the Vault World Travel Die Set and cut them twice from gold metallic Kraft card. I layered the individual letters over one another to form more of a substantial letter and then attached them to my tag, placing the word HOPE in the bottom right hand corner.

Finally, I added a Tiny Clip onto the right hand side of the photo....

...and that completes my tag and project for this week. I hope you love what I've made and enjoyed the techniques I've used to create this piece.

As always, if you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!

Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today...

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

SSS/Tim Holtz Stamps and Dies Bundles: Leaf Prints

Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz: Mini Etcetera Tag

Sizzix: Big Shot, Love Birds, Vault World Travel

Distress Spray Stain: Pumice Stone, Victorian Velvet, Antiqued Linen

Distress Ink: Walnut Stain, Ground Espresso

Distress Spritz: Tattered Rose

Tim Holtz idea-ology: Cello Sticker Tape, Photo Booth, Metallic Card, Mini Pin, Palette Ephemera, Type Chips, Tiny clip

Mediums: Black Soot Archival Ink, Matte Collage Medium, Foam Pads, Liquid Tinsel

Surfaces: Size 8 Mixed Media Heavystock Tag, Distress Watercolour Card, Felt

Ribbon

Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun

Moss from my own stash

Monday, 20 July 2026

Can I have your attention please....

Hello everyone and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. This week, our theme is all about ADDING SOME TEXT and with this in mind, I thought what would be better to add some text than creating a project with a typewriter as the focal point.

So, let's get started and it's time to share all the details of how I made this week's project!

For this make, I used a Stampers Anonymous Size 8 Etcetera Tag, a size 8 Mixed Media Heavystock Tag and one of the Etcetera Facades.

ETCETERA FACADE

I chose to use the pointed arched shape Etcetera Facade from the pack of 4 and flipped the tag so that the point of the facade is downwards.

I covered the facade with the Typewriter advertising paper from the Neutral Palette Paper Collection and adhered it with Matte Collage Medium, applying a coat of the medium over the top.

I then used Walnut Stain Distress Crayon around the edges, blending the colour with my fingertip.

TAG BACKGROUND

For my background and for this I used the Size 8 Mixed Media tag.

I placed the Typo Layering Stencil over the top of the tag, and then spritzed Tim Holtz Resist Spray through the stencil, focusing on the right hand side and the top right corner. Remove the stencil and wash immediately.

Once the spray was dry, I misted the tag with a light spritz of water and than added the colour using Distress Spray Stains, Oxide Sprays and Mica Sprays in the following colours:

DISTRESS SPRAY STAINS: Ground Espresso, Chipped Sapphire, Speckled Egg and Crackling Campfire

OXIDE SPRAYS: Speckled Egg

MICA SPRAY: Crooked Broomsticks

I applied the Distress Spray Stains first, and after another spritz of water to blend the colour, I heat dried the surface before adding splatters of Speckled Egg Oxide Sprays. Finally I misted the Mica Spray over the top.

Once the surface is completely dry, I moved onto the stencilling and adding some detail to that background.

STENCILS

The stencils that I used for the background were from the following set, Mini Layering Stencil Set 48.

To add more layers to the background, I began by applying Lost Shadow Oxide Ink through the Halftone Stencil using a blending tool. I then added Walnut Stain Distress Ink through the Digits Stencil. I applied each of these layers to random areas over the surface of the tag.

To complete the background, I stamped the triple line border stamp from The Inspector set across the bottom of my tag using Black soot Archival Ink.

Once I was happy with my tag, I inked the edges and then machine stitched a border round the outside before I attached my tag to the Etcetera Tag using Matte Collage Medium.

I attached my finished tag to the facade using foam pads, or you can use the risers supplied in the facades pack.

STAMPING

Moving onto the stamping and for this I used the Curiosity Shop SA/Tim Holtz stamp set and the co-ordinating SSS die bundle.

I stamped the image of the typewriter on Mixed Media Heavystock Card, using Black Soot Archival Ink and then embossed it with Clear Embossing Powder. I added some shading to the image with Polychromos Pencils before die cutting the image with the co-ordinating die set.

I then stamped the paper that slots into the typewriter and once again used the die from the co-ordinating set to die cut the image.

On this piece, I used the hearts from the Lovebirds Sizzix/Tim Holtz die set and cut three hearts from inked Mixed Media Heavystock that was in my stash. This was inked with Lumberjack Plaid Distress Spray Stain.

I then attached the hearts to my little stamped paper image. Underneath the hearts, I stamped the "in my heart" sentiment from the Tiny Text stamp set in black ink.

I placed the paper into the slot on the typewriter, securing it at the back and then added a small piece of Cello Sticker Tape.

After inking the edges of the image and attaching this to my tag using foam pads, I placed an ephemera piece from the Memoirs Ephemera Pack, directly underneath it, so that they typewriter appears to be sitting on it.

On either side of the typewriter, I added a small piece of Mummy Cloth.

On the right hand side of the image, I added a small pointy finger. This stamp is from the Tidbits stamp set and I coloured it with Polychromos Pencils before fussy cutting around the outline and attaching it with foam pads to my typewriter.

I had a few die cut hearts on my desk from a previous project which were slightly smaller in size than the ones that I used on the note. I thought these worked perfectly around the top of the typewriter, so I decided to attach three of them.

FINISHING DETAILS

Now for all those tiny finishing details that matter...

Once again, I used the Tiny Text stamp set to stamp the sentiment, "Love You". I stamped it with clear Versamark Ink onto a piece of black card and then embossed it with gold embossing powder. I then used the Tiny Text co-ordinating die set from SSS to cut the sentiment. I added some red stitching to either side of the small banner before placing foam pads on the back and adhering it into position on my tag.

To complete the sentiment, I added 2 small idea-ology Screw Heads to either side and altered these with Black Soot, Antique Bronze, Crackling Campfire Distress Paints to create more of a vintage, rusty look to the metal.

To complete the tag, I added some small offcuts of embossed silver metallic card that I placed around the edges of the tag. You can see them at the top, and on the left and right hand sides. These are always in my snippets box, all those precious pieces that I never want to throw away and were from a previous project that I made and the card was originally embossed using the Foundry Embossing Folder. After cutting these into tiny pieces, I attached them to the tag, and then altered them with the same colours of Distress Paints as I used on the Screw Heads.

Finally, I added some rope through the top of the tag, and pinned a Mini Pin to secure it into position.

So that 's my project finished and I hope you love the piece I've made and been inspired by the techniques I've used.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today...

Love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

SSS/Tim Holtz Stamps and Dies Bundles: Tiny Text, Curiosity Shop

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous: Size 8 Etcetera Tag, Mini Layering Stencil Set 48, Typo Layering Stencil, The Inspector, Tidbits, Facades

Sizzix: Big Shot, Lovebirds, Foundry Embossing Folder

Distress Ink: Walnut Stain

Distress Spray Stain: Speckled Egg, Chipped Sapphire, Ground Espresso

Oxide Spray Stain: Speckled Egg

Oxide Ink: Lost Shadow

Distress Paint: Black Soot, Antique Bronze, Crackling Campfire

Distress Crayon, Walnut Stain

Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Cello Sticker Tape, Screw Heads, Memoirs

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Foam Pads, Versamark Clear Pad, Antique Gold Embossing Powder, Resist Spray

Polychromos Pencils

Surfaces: Mixed Media Heavystock Tag, Mixed Media Heavystock Card

Glass Media Mat

Heat Gun

Friday, 20 March 2026

Simon Says Stamp In My Heart Blog Hop ~ Day 1

Hello everyone and welcome to Day 1 of the In My Heart Blog Hop!

I'm so excited to be joining this hop, and you might have arrived here from Miriam Prantner's blog, but if not, and you want to catch up with everyone who is participating in this hop, then don't worry because you can head back to the beginning, by clicking HERE and if you would like to see the entire product release, then pop on over to HERE.

For my card, I was inspired by watching the flowers come to life in the garden, and knowing that spring is finally on its way. But of course, spring also brings another special occasion ~ Mother's Day and with this card, I wanted to celebrate all those special Moms out there who deserve to be made a fuss of. And even though my Mom is a bright star in the sky, that would never stop me celebrating and honouring her and I used some of the gorgeous products from the release, together with a few Tim Holtz products to make a very special card for my best friend, my mom!

So, let's begin ~ it's time to share how I created this card and the arrangment of flowers.

CARD BLANK and LAYERS

I started by making a card blank from Kraft card measuring, 17.5 x 13.5cm.

I then cut a panel of Mixed Media Heavystock card, and lightly misted the surface with water before applying Speckled Egg, Bundled Sage and Pumice Stone Distress Spray Stains. After another mist of water to blend the inks, I heat dried the panel.

I then inked up the 'dots" stamp from the Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Dots and Floral stamp set using Peeled Paint Archival Ink, and stamped onto the panel. For a panel of this size, you will need to re-ink the stamp and repeat to get a continuous pattern.

After machine stitched a border around the edge of the stamped panel, I mounted it onto the centre of my card blank.

I then cut a panel of green card from the Cool Kraft Stock Stack measuring, 14.5 x 10.5cm and matted this onto a layer of mixed media heavystock inked with Mustard Seed Distress Ink, and a second layer of the green card, each time leaving a narrow border showing around the outside.

Attach the panels to the centre of the covered card blank to form the base layers for the floral centrepiece.

EMBOSSED PANEL

For my next layers, I used the AALL & Create Quirky Postage Dies and cut a panel of Mixed Media Heavystock using the largest size of postage stamp, together with the inner solid layer.

I inked the die cut cardstock with the same sprays as I previously used on the background, heat dried the inks and then inked the edges of each piece with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

Taking the inner die cut layer, I placed this inside the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Intertwined Embossing Folder and ran this through my Big Shot.

I then added a machine stitched border before attaching this piece to my postage stamp die cut and wrapping a piece of velvet ribbon around the bottom section of the panel, securing the ends at the back.

On either end of the ribbon, I added two idea-ology Mini Clips.

Using foam pads, I attached the layers to my card front.

CIRCLE OF FLOWERS

For the circle itself, I used the SSS Stitched Circles die set, approx 8.5cm in diameter and the SSS Basic Circles Die Set. Using the Stitched Circle die, die cut a piece of Kraft heavystock. You only need the solid section from the die cut, discard the remaining waste or you can use it as frame for another project.

I then took the next size down in the Stitched Circles die set and using a circle, slightly larger in size, I placed this on the outside of the Stitched Circle die. Run this through the Big Shot and you will be left with a frame and a solid circle. You need both of these. Repeat this process three more times but this time I cut the pieces from gold metallic Kraft card. You should now have one solid large circle in Kraft, one smaller circle in the mixed media heavy stock and four frames. Place any leftover circles to one side for another day.

Ink the edges of the Kraft circle with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then layer the frames over one another to form a raised edge to the circle.

Add colour to the remaining solid mixed media heavystock circle, using the same Distress Stray Stains as used on the background. Once dry, attach the solid circle to the centre of the frame.

To create more of a vintage feel to the gold metallic frame, I lightly sanded the surface and then used Crackling Campfire, Antiqued Bronze Distress Paints and a light touch of Black Soot Distress Paints. Apply these in layers directly onto the metallic surface, building up the colour to create the rusty look to the frame.

Attach the circle to the card front with foam pads.

FLORAL CENTREPIECE

The flowers and stems are die cut from Distress Watercolour Card using the Jaunty Stem Die Set.

I used two layers for each flower and then coloured the petals and stems with Distress Inks in the following colours:

Flowers: Fossilised Amber, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed and Saltwater Taffy

Stems: Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage and Rustic Wilderness

Once all my die cuts were watercolored, I layered the pieces to create double petals, added the centres and completed each flower with some white pen work. I then attached all the die cuts to my circle, arranging them to fill the circle and using foam pads to add height and dimension.

FINISHING DETAILS

We're nearly there and all that's left is those finishing details....

Using the Mom set of EZ Strips, I cut the "To the best mom ever', which I matted onto Kraft card and 'I love you" from the sheets.

I attached the first sentiment across the bottom of my circle of flowers.

With the other sentiment, I placed this into a die cut label frame. The label is cut from metallic cardstock using the dies from the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Specimen Die Set and I attached a screw head to either side of the frame. I then altered the surface using the same technique as I used on the circle.

The label frame is attached to the centre of the velvet ribbon strip using Matte collage Medium to secure it into place.

Finally, I added some Cello Sticker Tape pieces around the edges of the card...

...pinned a Mini Pin to the corner of the background layer, which I folded back, and completed the card by placing a Snippets Ephemera Piece, '5 For' to the top right hand corner.

So, that's my card finished and I hope you love what I've created and enjoyed the techniques I've used.

Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the blog hop from the blog comment section! So, this means you can leave a comment here and on every stop along the way to increase your chances. Winners will be notified and they will be posted on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday, 25th March and all winners will need to contact/email Simon Says Stamp to claim their prize.

Also, don't forget that you will have the not yet released Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Day 3x4 stamp automatically added to your card that contains any purchase from the In My Heart Collection. The gift with purchase will expire on the 22nd March at 11;59pm EDT or whilst stocks last.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and don't forget to go and check out Day 2 of the hop tomorrow!!!

See you soon, love Emma x

HOP ORDER:

Simon Says Stamp Blog