Clare Curd Crafts: Take the 'Stress' out of Distress Ink

Hiya crafty friends,

I don't know about you, but I lose track of what colour inks I have. Plus, I have been meaning to update my craft organization for a while. So... admittedly heavily influenced by Jennifer McGuire's recent post, I decided to make a reference of my Tom Holtz Distress Inks. And as you know, we crafters like to make something that would normally be plain a little prettier, don't we :)

Step 1.
Using my Silhouette Cameo and used the trace facility to get the outline of the butterfly stamp from Indigo Blu - Wild Meadow set. When I had the outline, I measure the stamp and made the outline in the software the same size. Then I fitted as many as I could onto one sheet and then cut them from white card.

Step 2.
I then placed the stamp directly onto my craft mat (you don't need a stamping block for this project)...

Then I took the ink I want the record and inked up the stamp

Step 3.
I then took one of the cut butterflies and carefully line it up with the stamp and gently rub all over the back of the card.

And the image is now transferred to the card.

As I water colour with my Distress Inks too, I wanted to make a record of this too. So,

Step 4.
I took my ink, a spritz bottle and paint brush...

And dabbed a small amount on my crafts mat...

and then sprayed a small bit of water alongside

Step 5.
With my paintbrush I took and bit of water and ink and mixed them together

Step 6.
Then I applied it to and card butterfly in a gradient manner.

Step 7.
I then went back to my cutting machine software and added the name of each of the inks (which I download from the Ranger Ink website) to the butterflies. I printed them off and then cut them out and adhered them to the corresponding inked butterfly.

Step 8.
I was a bit daft, but I didn't think of adding the hole on the cutting machine...doh!! :) So I used my Crop-a-dile Big Bite to make them instead.