Lindsay Dickason Designs: Distress It: Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Entry #1

With some projects, I have the idea all mapped out. I'll even draw a quick sketch and jot down a few notes about what I want to create and how I want to create it. This time, however, I just sat down at my craft desk and let the creative juices flow!

It all started with the CZ Design DUDE wafer die. I totally love this die! They only thing I knew going into this crafting sesh was that I just had to use this die. I began by die cutting the word from black card stock and cutting the shadow from lime green card stock from the Lawn Fawn Really Rainbow 6x6 Petite Paper Pack. The die cutting machine I use is the Tim Holtz Vagabond 2 and I absolutely love it!

For the background, I used Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks. I recently bought my first set, and I’m in looooooove! I "smooshed" the colors Faded Jeans, Cracked Pistachio, and Broken China onto my nonstick craft sheet, sprayed with water with my Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer, and started sliding my card stock through it to pick up all the color. This technique creates beautifully random designs. What is cool with Distress Oxide ink is that since they are a mixture of pigment and dye ink, there is an opacity to them so you can create multiple layers, even layer lighter colors over darker ones. Cool, right?!

Once completely dry, I added some distressed stamping effects with an older Stampin' Up! stamp set in Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink. Then, out came my uni-Posca black paint pen and I splat, splat, splattered it all over the background. Splatters are so fun!

I die cut the background with the largest of the Simon Says Stamp Wonky Rectangles Wafer Dies (for just the right touch of whimsy and playfulness). Then, to finish off the distressed look, I ran my Tim Holtz Paper Distresser tool around the edges. I also thought the card needed a little dimension, so I cut the dude shadow from white fun foam to pop it up from the card (though in the future I think I'll try black fun foam). I scoured all my stamp sets for anything with the word "Hey" on it, white heat embossed it with Hero Arts white embossing powder on black card stock, and popped up the word with a foam square. Lastly, I adhered the piece to a Neenah Desert Storm card stock base with my Advanced Tape Glider, and stamped the words "Happy Birthday" inside.

I’m pretty happy with how this card turned out! Maybe I'll try not planning ahead again to see what else I can create on the fly! Also, this is an entry into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Distress It.