2022 Topic 16 : Splosh {by Nikki Acton} with Ink and the Dog stamps

Hi everyone, it's Nikki with you today, and I'm here to share with you some Christmas gift ideas using a selection of Ink and the Dog Christmas stamps.

I am a great paint lover, so my Distress Inks are often neglected these days, but for this theme I decided to use them as they are great for sploshing and creating effects with water.

I started with my backgrounds using a few techniques. Firstly adding ink to card, spraying and dripping water to remove ink. I also spritzed my stamp with water before 'stamping' on the inked surface to remove more ink. This gives a wonderful subtle impression of the stamp used.

I repeated with some different ink colours and also added some text to some. The stamp above is from PaperArtsy Ink and the Dog XM4.

 

For each background I used a couple of colours - for the browns I used Tim Holtz Distress Inks  - Frayed Burlap and Tea Dye along with Tim Holtz Distress Oxide - Vintage Photo. The reds were Distress Inks in are Aged Mahogany and Festive Berries, the greens - Shabby Shutters and Pine Needles.

 

I also added my ink to my craft mat, added water and 'swooshed' my card through it before adding some salt. This is a great technique allowing the watery ink to pool in some places and the salt to absorb some of it. The results vary depending on the card stock but are nearly always effective.

 

I decided to make a Christmas box for a small present, some chocolates or table gift along with a gift card holder. I cut these out of kraft card.

 

I cut some sploshed backgrounds for my layers and also stamped various elements from PaperArtsy Ink and the Dog stamp sets XM1, XM3 and XM4.

 

Some more sploshing as I spattered some elements using PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic - Cherry Red (FF86).

Next to adhere all the pieces to my box and gift card holder.

On the box I used various stamps on brown backgrounds, leaving the red and green for the belly band. The little 'Merry Christmas' is easily cut out from the larger Christmas words stamp.

 

The label stamp didn't fit into the space on my gift card holder (should have thought about that before I made it!) - but was easily trimmed to fit.

 

I added distress ink to the edges of all my elements to add the vintage feel and frame them.

The belly bands, with the addition of some die cut foliage, twine and stars become the focal point for both designs.

 

Now to decide who I give them too!

If you are not familiar with the Ink and the Dog collection from PaperArtsy I encourage you to take a look - there is a wonderful selection of vintage images, not just Christmas ones. Happy sploshing!

Nikki

Blog: Addicted to Art

Instagram: @a2a.craft

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2015 #22 Xmas Giftwrap Masterplan {by Alison Bomber}

 2015 Topic 22: Masterboards

Hello all, it's Alison here from Words and Pictures to share my Christmas masterboard master plan. I'm a masterboard first timer.  When I saw the theme I thought I'd challenge myself to something new and sign up for it.

There are any number of ways to build the layers of a masterboard - so I decided to stick to my favourite things.  No, not raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, but certainly brown paper packages tied up with strings.  That's been my Christmas habit for a couple of decades now... brown parcel paper zhuzhed up in a variety of ways (different decoration for each recipient so I can tell which parcel is for whom).  This time around, I'm zhuzhing for one recipient with a masterboard.

And since we're on my favourite things, I built my layers with some more of them - crackle, book pages, the colours blue and brown, stencilling, wrinkle-free-distress technique, heat embossing, white spatter and of course stamping, stamping, stamping.

In another first, I've yielded to the need for collage photos to give you a quick rundown of the layers:

i) strips of book page, whitewashed with a wash of Snowflake Fresco Finish paint

ii) rough areas of Blueberry applied with a wide brush, and Crackle Glaze added to the Blueberry bits with a palette knife

iii) rough coat of Snowflake over the Crackle Glaze; stencilling holly with Blueberry

iv) wrinkle free distress technique using Chipped Sapphire and Pumice Stone, followed by stamping the checkered tree from Hot Picks Xmas 08 (HPXM08) in the same two colours

v) stencilling the holly again, this time in Snowflake; stamping the swirly tree from the same set in Coffee Archival and clear-embossing it

vi) stamping the swirly tree in Versamark and embossing with Vanilla White; stencilling Harlequins in Pumice Stone

The final two layers - stamping the lovely greetings stamp (same set again, HPXM08) in Potting Soil Archival and then plenty of spatter in a mixture of Snowflake and Chalk.

For once I have the perfect excuse for as much spatter as I like... it's snowing of course!  I love that wherever you look you have so many different things going on.

Once I had the masterboard done, then the rest happened very quickly.  I always knew I wanted to cut some pillow boxes.  I did them two ways, masterboard with a kraft label, and kraft with masterboard labels.  The additional decoration comes in the form of pine cones, tiny wooden stars and some thick white twine.

I had a few other gifts ready for wrapping (I'm not usually this organised, I promise!), so I did my usual brown parcel paper and then cut wide strips of the masterboard to decorate each parcel.  Again the pine cones and white twine finish off the look.

I'm not ready with all my Christmas shopping for this person yet, but I still have two sheets of the masterboard left to play with, so I'm sure it will run the course.  I've already cut some tiny tabs and tags as you saw, and it occurred to me as I photographed them that those round and oval ones in the foreground would make great baubles on a simple Christmas card too. 

I really enjoyed myself with the masterboard - and I just love how the ideas come bubbling up once you have the thing ready for cutting and playing with.  If you've never done it before then why not give it a go?  Do as I did... grab some of your favourite things and layer, layer, layer.  With luck, you end up with some really stylish co-ordinated gift wrapping (and cards!).

Thanks so much for stopping by today - it's always fantastic to hear what you think, and I hope you'll be able to drop in again soon both here and over at Words and Pictures.

Alison x

Ho Ho Ho ..... Wow are you looking on top of things thing Christmas Alison! Adore how you have pulled this all together so perfectly! Cunning masterplan indeed! Love your very competent collage photos (impressive) showing so magnificently the steps! And brilliant how the kraft, twine, pine cones and masterboard wrap into a whole lot of pretty parcels! And I've hummed that Julie Andrews song the whole way through your post! LOL ~Leandra

We would love you to join in with challenge #22: Masterboards If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Masterboards link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Dec 6th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.