Trees and Leaves

Please to finally post something again as I have been less present than usual on my blog. I was spurred on by the Allsorts challenge which had me at "trees" since I can't resist buying tree stamps....

Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my last post, many of you enjoyed the Alcohol Lift Ink technique. It's not that a similar effect couldn't be done another way, but it certainly was the easiest! And since you enjoyed that technical post... here's another one for you.

Today the technique is compliments from the Distress Oxides.


I wanted to create a background of Autumnal leaves to my tree image and wanted leaves and trees to use the same hues but the background had to be less bright.


I happened on this property of Distress Oxides when, by chance, I used it on photo paper and found that the dry "pigment" part of the ink, a whitish powder, was rubbing off the photo paper at the slightest touch.

And when the pigment is taken away there is no "Oxidation" effect anymore but the brightness of the Distress dyes comes to the fore.

Even at the stamping stage you can see that whilst the dye ink has been transferred to the photo paper a lot of the pigment stayed on the stamp.



Next I started buffing the stamped image with a paper towel and you can see the difference in brightness between the buffed area and the untouched image.



To assemble the card I used a Stitched rectangle die (from one of the MFT Blueprints), and the STAMPLorations Crazy Double Running Stitch Rectangle to cut the background and the mat. I then added the Hello (Tim Holtz/Sizzix Sentiment words) and a leaf brad.

And now for the full reveal...

Stamps used:
The leaves are from the Paper Artsy ELB33 set.
The trees are from the Crafty Individuals CI-429 set

Hope you like my card and have enjoyed reading about the D.O technique!

Thanks for coming by,
I am also entering the SSS Monday, SSS Wednesday, and Unikostudio challenges.