Distress Inks 101

We suspect that Distress Inks are among the supplies that are present on nearly all of your desks. :)
There are countless possibilites to use them and we hope you'll find it inspiring to read about Kasia's tips & tricks and see her beautiful artworks.

We are also having a Discount Week on all Distress Inks and Reinkers in our store. (read more below).

Hello dear friends! I hope you are spending a beautiful day with your creative passion.

I'm here today to tell you a little bit about Distress Inks. I'm sure most of you already know them pretty well, but there are so many techniques that you can try out, so there is always something nice to share. 

Distress Inks from Ranger are acid-free water-based dye inks. You can find them now also in smaller pads that are perfect for stamping or to be packed when you're traveling! 

 

Remember to use them with Ink Blending Tools (they also come in mini sizes!) that can help you control your inking.

 

You should also remember to store your Distress Inks upside down to protect them from drying out.

I organize them writing their names on the boxes - it makes my work way faster.

Like I said, there are so many techniques to have creative fun with Distress Inks, but today, I'd like to focus on my favorite ones.

 

Inking edges? I know you've already heard about it, but what about inking edges and then adding a few drops of water to the inked surface to create an even more aged look?

 

Painting with Distress Inks! Simply tap a chosen Distress Ink on your craft sheet or acrylic block and spray with water. Take a soft brush and use the Ink to color stamps, resist canvas or just have fun and simply paint.

 

 

Distress Inks work like watercolors so you can get many interesting effects. Ink edges, add some stamping and your background is ready.

 

 

Stencils and Distress Inks - that's a perfect combination. You can layer stenciling but remember that you must start with the largerst patterns and the lightest colors.

 

 

Here's an example of using different masks and inking:

You can also try a version of printmaking. To create a unique and colorful background, tap two or three colors of Distress Inks on your acrylic block. Then spray some water and touch your block with a tag or a piece of paper to make the print. Dry and repeat with different colors.

Stamping with Distress Inks. There are many ways to do that and each time you'll get a different effect.

1. You can stamp on wet paper; 2. stamp and then spray some water on the print or 3. you can even spray with water directly on the ink on your stamp. Experiment and find your favorite method.

Do you know about Distress Reinkers? Basically, they are used to reink your stamp pads but hey, let's get creative. :)

You can create your own sprays with them (just add a few drops of ink to a spray bottle and fill it with water), but you can also paint with them. Mix the Reinker with water on your palette and simply splatter with a paintbrush.

 

{artwork by Agnieszka Anna}

As you can see, there are so many ways to play with Distress Inks. All you need to do is to try, experiment and have fun.

If you use them with water, the effects can be quite unpredictable and that is what I like the most about them. I hope you'll have great fun! 

 

 

Are you feeling inspired by today's post? Visit our store, choose your favorite Distress Inks (or Reinkers) and enter this code at the checkout to get a 10% discount:

 

RasinK

 

You have one week to do that - from November 27th 'till December 4h.

 

One more piece of news:

We have partnered up with an amazing French blog called Le Jardin du Mixed Media and we're proud to be sponsoring a prize in a very inspiring challenge.

Make sure you visit Le Jardin for some fantastic mixed media art and join in the fun! The challenge is open 'till December 15th.

Art Exercises

How about some creative exercises?

Today we have some really great ideas by Agnieszka of how to practise your art muscle! ;)

Hi, everone,

today I'd like to show you some of my new art journal spreads.

I've decided to work with colors and composition as one can never have enough exercise, right? :)

I started with priming pages in an old book with gesso. I applied gesso with Catalyst Wedge No6 which is a very useful palette knife. Catalyst tools are made of flexible silicone and perfectly fit in a hand. They are also great to use with acrylic paints.

Next, I glued different sorts of materials on my pages - cardboard, scrapbooking papers, paper tape, etc. I decided to arrange them in simple geometrical shapes which is a very easy composition exercise.

Then, I applied colors. You can obviously use paintbrushes or palette knives but also your own fingers. The more tools you'll use, the more interesting the effect.

Acrylic paints are just perfect - they dry quickly and if you're not satisfied with the result, you can always paint a new layer on top of it.

You can use gel medium to mix with acrylic paints to achieve a transluscent effect so that the paper underneath remains visible.

I often do such creative exercises and I strongly recommend them for you - they give a lot of joy and really improve your eye and hand.

Supplies from Mixed Media Place:

p.s. We have some great news for you!!! Finnabair's new mixed media lines are finally on our shelves! You can learn more about  Art Basics, Art Ingredients and Art ExtraVagance products on Finnabair's blog and find them in our store!

p.s. We also hope you haven't missed our Izinks discount week! Read more about these incredible inks in Tusia's post and buy your favorite colors with a 10% discount - it's just enough to enter this code: GzK5mmP7  at the checkout.

Izinks 101

Have you ever wondered what Izinks are all about?
They are a very clever little supply! ;)

Today, we have Tusia explaining how they work, sharing some beutiful examples of her artworks & a video tutorial.
 
But that's not all - we also have a Discount Week for you at Mixed Media Place store (September 9-16)!

Read more about it below but first, let Tusia inspire you to splash some inks. :)

Izinks are pigment inks that are watersoluble but permanent after drying.
When wet - they are similar to watercolors. When dry - they are permanent like acrylic paints. Each bottle has a dropper.

Below you can see a background created with Izinks. As you can see, the blue color is transparent. I used water to dilute the Izink ink so it could be transparent.

You can create a watercolor effect if you spray some water on top of wet Izinks. The colors will mix as if they were watercolors, but when everything dries, the colors will be permanent.

Below you can see that if you do not dilute Izinks with water and leave them as they are, it will create a totally opaque effect or a transparent one.

I created a video for you - I wanted to show you Izinks in action. :)

I created this art journal page:

And here is the video:

Thank you for watching :) Tusia   Wouldn't you like to try out these amazing inks?
This week you have a chance to grab a 10% discount on all Izinks in our Mixed Media Place store!
Starting today (September 9th) 'till September 16th you can get all your favorite colors of Izinks and see for yourselves the magic that they do. ;) All you have to do is to use this code at the checkout:

GzK5mmP7

  And here are just some (!) of the delicious colors of Izinks we have available at our store:

  We also think that white, silver & gold are an absolute must! :)

   Happy creating, everyone!

Gel Medium 101

We believe that right next to gesso, gel mediums are mixed media artists' best  friends! :)

That's why we thought to celebrate the fact and offer you a special discount week on all Talens gel mediums and Amsterdam acrylic paints!
(see the end of the post for more details)

But that's not all -

we also have our lovely talented Linda sharing all sorts of inspiring tips & tricks about how to use gel medium in your art!

Hi there creatives, today it is all about Talens Gel Medium and great ways of using it.

First of all, gel medium in general can range in thickness from watery to very thick and have lots of different finishes. The Talens gel found in Mixed Media Place store has two different finishes: Matte and Gloss. Today I want to show you a few ways of how I use gel medium.

Matt: I typically use matt when I make collages and don't want a glossy result on my project. I also use it to increase the transparency and reduce the gloss of acrylic paints.

Gloss: I often tend to use it on canvas and on projects I want to have a glossy finish. When I use it in my art journal, I usually put a sheet of wax paper or something similar between the pages, the glossy effect sometimes makes the pages stick together and this prevents it from doing so.

I also use gel medium to glue, seal, prime, reduce the use of paint (mixing it with paint is cost effective), image transfers, altering heavy goods to a canvas (extra heavy gel medium is perfect for this), making texture and the list keeps going. Below you can see some of my projects where gel medium is playing a big part of the result.

The cloud below is made out of acrylic skin made of gel medium gloss mixed with blue paint. When dry, I stamped on a cloud and cut it out.

These hearts needed 3 days of drying time, but it was worth waiting. I stamped on one, painted the back on another and the rest I kept as they where because I loved the pink color they had taken from the stencil.

Here I've used gel medium to create the pattern:

which is as simple as putting a layer of gel medium mixed with acrylic paints through a stencil:

Finally, I have a short video making an image transfer with gel medium creating this beauty using Talens Gloss Gel Medium:

Are you feeling inspired and encouraged by Linda's creativity? :)

The good news is you can grab any Talens gel medium that suits your needs AND any color of acrylic paint by Amsterdam in our store and get 10% off on all these products!

Simply enter this discount code at the checkout:

%aS2mmP%

 The discount works from August 8th 'till 15th