Sharon Briss: Distressed Lustre

Shar posted this in Designer greeting cards on June 6th, 2011

I love my Ranger Distress Inks. They are fun to work with and so easy to use. Today, I am going to show you how to combine your Distress Inks, some cool paper from PaperTemptress and some Rogue Redhead (my stamping company) images to come up with two different card sets. Aren’t the Lustre collection of papers yummy? We’ll be focusing on the Laser Silver Lustre today with all it’s lovely striped texture.

Supplies for the main panels:
Images from Floriculture and Relish Reading plates
Laser Silver Lustre paper (PaperTemptress)
StazOn Ink – this tutorial uses Jet Black
Ranger Distress Inks – 1 to 2 base colors, 1 yellow and 1 to 2 of the browns
Alcohol Ink applicator and Blending Foam or Sponges or Cotton Balls

First off, forgive the dark pictures. It was raining all week in Massachusetts when I photographed this tutorial so my studio’s usual fabulous natural light did not come through. My pictures came out slightly dreary, just like the view from my window.

Let’s get going with this super simple technique. Start by stamping your image with StazOn ink onto the Laser Silver Lustre paper. I used a sentiment and the Lily of the Valley from Rogue Redhead’s Floriculture plate. Stamping straight is easy with this paper and its subtle textured look. I just line up with the lines on the paper. Trim your piece down to the size you want and you are ready to start distressing. I always trim my images down after I add my sentiment in case the words go a little crooked. That way, I can trim the piece so that the sentiment always looks dead on straight.

Now, choose the Distress Ink you want for your main color. I choose Peeled Paint for this project. Use an applicator with blending foam to apply the ink to the paper. I work from the scrap paper inward and use circular motions. Keep adding more ink and working it as desired until you are happy with the result.

Next, take one of the brown Distress Inks and start applying that around the edge of the image. I used Tea Dye for this one. To create a deeper edge, I also applied some Vintage Photo but not as far into the image as I had applied the Tea Dye.

To finish up and bring up the image and sentiment, I applied a little Scattered Straw with a sponge just to my stamped areas.

Once completed, I matted my panel with Copper Stardream and used Caramel Pearl Linen as my card base. Each paper has its own different sheen so the effect was quite nice.

Here’s my finished card:

and from the side so you can see all that great sheen:

I also created a second card using the same color scheme:

While I loved the wonderful earthy colored panels I had created, I wanted to try some other color combinations. I took out my Rogue Redhead Relish Reading plate for the next two cards.

The first one uses this cute image of two children swinging and a sentiment along with Victorian Velvet, Worn Lipstick, Vintage Photo and Scattered Straw Distress inks. The card has a Burgundy Brawny RC 100lb base and the Distressed Laser Silver Lustre is matted with Nero from the Incandescent line which has some metallic sparkle for some more of that wonderful shine. As a background panel, I used Cranberry Brown Bag Kraft paper which I ripped to show the brown bag side.

I used the same formula for the next card, using the book border from Relish Reading and another sentiment. For inks, I chose Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Vintage Photo and Scattered Straw. As this card’s colors provided more contrast, I again matted with Copper and used a pairing of Tuscan Sun Brawny RC 100lb and Blueberry Brown Bag Kraft paper.