Hi Everyone! In today’s experiment I had a piece of cardstock that I painted with Distress Crackle Paste or Distress Texture Paste- the crackle version. And I had a stencil that I had laying around for another project. I wanted to see what it would look like if I used Distress ink on top of the crackle texture through a stencil. So I decided to give it a whirl!
I sometimes use Zig 2 way glue on the back of my stencils to make it sticky so that it stays in one place. In this case I didn’t have that on the stencil probably because I was using it primarily with very wet mediums (like sprays) which can reactivate the glue and make the stencil more difficult to remove. So in this experiment, I used a piece of paper that I pasted with the Zig two way glue pen, so it’s nice and sticky. I have another sticky paper mat that I use on my stamping platform and that one has Zig on both sides, but this one just had the glue on one side of the paper. So I just taped the mat down and the stencil was larger than the cardstock I was going to stencil, so it would stick over onto the sides of the sticky mat which I taped down to my work area.
I decided to use Distress Oxide Mermaid Lagoon and Uncharted Mariner with one of the makeup brushes that I get on Amazon and stencil through the design.
I try as much as I can to not move the stencil while I am stenciling. It’s a bit easier with the ink pad rather than, say, a spray. Sprays will just bead under if the stencil isn’t stuck down really well. I used the Mermaid Lagoon first and then shaded with Uncharted Mariner to get a little difference in tone.
The stenciling came out great, but I wanted to try coming over the top with Distress Spray Stains to see if I get that oxidation reaction that I call Distress Oxide Resist. As I have said before it’s actually more of an oxidation that a resist, but the appearance is similar to other resist techniques. I wasn’t sure how well the Distress Spray Stain was going to stick to the crackle paste, but I gave it a shot with Distress Vintage Photo Spray Stain. But, BUMMER! The Spray Stain just obliterated the stenciling! Well that seemed like an epic fail! But since it was not sticking I decided to try to wipe the whole thing off and start over. I spritzed a little water and wiped the cardstock down and it left a stain on the previously very white crackle texture, and the Vintage Photo Spray Stain settled into the cracks giving the cardstock a more vintage vibe.
I decided to start all over and bring the Distress inks though the stencil again. There was still a hint of the image, but I didn’t bother trying to line it up. I just repeated the stenciling, but skipped the step of spraying with the Distress Spray Stains.
I let the piece dry overnight to see if the ink would dry properly. The Vintage Photo stained the white, and there were also random splotches of the stain and with the inks stenciled over the top it was looking better than I expected.
I let that fist piece dry and I repeated the steps on a second piece, but I started with just staining the crackle texture with the Distress Spray Stain in Vintage Photo and also Tea Dye. Then I stenciled with the same two inks- Distress Oxide in Mermaid Lagoon and Uncharted Mariner and let that one dry as well.
Both pieces ended up with a cool vintage look, like old worn wallpaper. The second piece had areas that had less of the crackle texture, so the staining was darker. I really liked the way they ended up. So even though when I was first doing it, I was thinking “That’s a fail!” and “probably never going to do that again”, the final results changed my mind. I really liked the cool, textural but still somewhat muted background. Since then I have also scanned the pieces into the computer and used them in some of my Photoshop work, so yay! Win-Win! 😉
Enjoy
