Hello, Inky Goodness

This fortnight at Shopping Our Stash we are, "Blending In" by which we mean we'd like to see cards and projects that feature ink blending. Dye inks, pigment inks, alcohol inks... any kind of ink you feel like using. I chose Ranger's Distress Oxides because they are the creamiest; and because I just got my hands on the newest shade, Uncharted Mariner and I was excited to see how it fit in with the rest of the line. Don't worry though, even though the ink is new, everything else involved in this card is exceedingly elderly, I promise!

First the blends: I don't suppose anyone will be surprised to hear that Uncharted Mariner pairs very well indeed with all of the darker blues and greens in the Ranger Distress lineup. Blueprint Sketch, Prize Ribbon, Rustic Wilderness and Evergreen Bough make for especially nice transitions, imo. From there you can happily head into lighter blues, purples and more. I also liked the color shift from Broken China into Uncharted Mariner, but I found that I needed to do a bit more overlapping of the two colors because there is a bit of a gulf between the intensity of the two shades.

Once I had a bit of a play with the blends themselves, I started adding more inky goodness in the form of stamping and stenciling. (Sorry, I used too many different items to list them all AND most are no longer available anyway; on the plus side, you could do this with ANY combination of stamps and stencils you like!) I also added another layer of texture by using some of my favorite (also ancient!) embossing folders and on a couple of them I rubbed my Glacier White Pigment Ink Pad on top for extra definition. I had seen this done on top of darkish watercolor and admittedly the white stood out with more contrast than it does on top of the un-set Oxide blends, but it's still a cool technique.

When all of my panels were finished and dry, the hardest part was choosing which one to make into a card first. But then I stumbled upon my old, but still beloved, Dina Wakley Scribbly Birdies and Small Scribbly Birds and that made it pretty easy. I stamped them on some older gel-printed panels, cut them out, and added them --with a bit of vintage sheet music and some Big Chat Stickers to complete the design.

Be sure to check out the Crew Cards over at Shopping Our Stash, then start planning how you'll be "Blending In" with us!