I cut a piece of card stock into a 6 inch square and started blending Squeezed Lemonade from the centre in a roughly circular motion. I took a little Scattered Straw and blended that in from each corner, making sure to make sure both colours overlapped each other a little to make a nice smooth blend between them. Once I was happy with the blend I heat set it with my heat gun; this isn’t strictly necessary because the ink will dry without the heat but it does take longer, and I’m much too impatient for that.

Any blending of colours needs to be done before those inks are dry but if you want to add a second colour over the top of an existing one, and you want to keep the lines crisp, then you need to make sure each layer is fully dry before you attempt a second.

I placed my stencil over the heat set yellow piece, using some low tack tape to hold it in place from behind, and gently began to apply the Carved Pumpkin over the top. I wanted there to be some variation in the orange tones, but I only had that one colour, so I left it quite light in some areas and I increased the vibrancy by repeatedly working over other areas. The trick is to work very gently, building up the colour gradually rather than increasing the pressure which will just eat up the paper.

Once I was happy with the inking it was just a matter of die cutting a circle that fit nicely into the centre and embossing my chosen sentiment onto it. I decided I wanted a bit of gold so I swiped Versamark against the edge of the circle & each side of the main card piece, and added gold embossing powder to tie it all in together. (I am going to do a much more in depth post about heat embossing very soon.)

Lastly, it was just a case of popping the circle up on some foam pads to add depth, and gluing on some gems for added sparkle.

This was a fairly quick & easy card to complete, it just relies heavily on ink blending which can be somewhat tricky. However, if you’ve ever struggled with ink blending but haven’t tried Distress Oxides then I urge you to give them a go because they are a brilliant way to practice the skills needed whilst being so much more forgiving than any other ink I’ve tried.

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Please be aware:

As part of my Design Team and Guest Design work I do often receive free products to use, but I only ever recommend products that I genuinely love.

Also, I know how incredibly lucky I am to have these opportunities, but you don’t always NEED the newest products or the ‘full set’.
So please don’t feel that you need everything.
I like to show a variety of brands and products; this way there will be something for everybody to enjoy.

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— SUPPLIES —

— My Basic Supplies That I Use On Every Project —

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*Affiliate links are used, where available; this means that I may get a small commission if you purchase using one of these links, at no extra cost at all to yourself. A huge thank you goes to anyone who does purchase using my links, it is so highly appreciated.

T.

• Distress Oxide ink pads
  • Carved Pumpkin
  • Squeezed Lemonade
  • Scattered Straw
• WOW! embossing powder
  • Metallic Gold Rich
  • Opaque Bright White
• Versamark Ink Pad
• My Favourite Things – Aim for the Clouds sentiments stamp set
• Neenah Classic Crest card stock – Solar White
• Unbranded 6×6 Sunburst stencil – AliExpress
• Hobbycraft 6×6 Kraft card base & envelope
• Various unbranded gems – eBay
• Unbranded make up blending brush – Amazon
• Ranger Matte Multi Medium glue
• Unbranded foam adhesive squares