I’ve had my Distress Markers for a while now, but only found a few minutes to have a go with them, so today I made a determined effort to do something more creative. I’ve watched the Tim video of him at the CHA, and loved what the pens will do,especially being able to colour straight onto the stamp. What really amazed me though was just how many impressions you can get from just one inking of the stamp.
I had also bought the Papillon (CMS106) stamp set, Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous, and wanted to have a play with that too.
I had bought some Tim Die cuts on e-bay, dies that I haven’t got yet, and frankly, at the price, they’re a fantastic way to get a good selection. Loads of people are selling them on there, mine came from DIECUT HEAVEN, and I got the Sewing room set,some Weathered clocks, Cogs and Bird & Cage, and I think each set cost me around a £1, and the Sewing set for instance contained 10 each of the Mannequin, cotton reel and button.
In the main, I used Clarity card for stamping on, again, only bought recently, but highly recommended by a lot of people I know. I can see why, having tried it. Its a silk coated card, and is indeed a beautiful surface to work on. Its A5 in size, and they pack it in either 25 or 100 sheets.
So back to my Tim Markers & stamping:
This was the stamp I saw him using in his video, blending the inks on the stamp, then ‘huffing’ on it to re-wet the ink. So for my first go, I used :Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Frayed Burlap,Tea Dye, Aged Mahogany , Brushed Corduroy, Spun Sugar, Barn Door and Rusty Hinge.
As he explains, you can take your time at this, there is no rush to get the ink on, because you reactivate it by breathing on it.
You can see here that I got 4 impressions from just one inking, obviously getting paler each time, just by breathing on the stamp between impressions.The first one is on Clarity card, the second on a piece of white card that had been coloured by dipping into water that had had alcohol ink dropped into it, a technique from Andy Skinner, ( I’ve linked this to his video tutorial) the third onto a white pearlescent card tag, and the fourth onto a piece of white copy paper.
Being quite pleased with the success of this, I tried it again, using mainly Blues & Purples:
The first one I did onto one of the Die-cuts, which is just a plain white cardstock, the next two onto Clarity card again, and the final and palest onto a piece coloured using the Andy Skinner technique.
Looking at this picture now, I think I have number two & three the wrong way round, but the imprints were so close together in colour I wasn’t sure which way round they were.
The pens blend together wonderfully, and even working dark to light, you just scribble the pen onto scrap paper and the colour returns to true.
Another stamp set I had was the Wallpaper & Wood set, also by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous. I tried the Wood stamp using a combination of Distress Inkpads & Distress Markers.
Again, I got three really good impressions, and would have got a fourth,really pale one.
For these, I first swiped all over the stamp with Pumice Stone Distress pad, then added Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo in thinner swipes & patches. Finally I added Walnut Stain, Tea Dye and Brushed Corduroy with the brush end of the Markers. All three pieces were done on Clarity Card, which is just 
a tiny bit bigger than the stamp.I also stamped one of the mannequins with the Wood stamp using Walnut Stain Distress pad,and then using a
nother piece of Clarity card,I stamped the Wallpaper, this time using a blue selection of Distress pads; Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Broken China & Tumbled Glass. I applied the pads using a slight swiping and twisting motion, so I got more of a blend of colour without any sharp edges.
Finally I stamped yet another mannequin, this time using the Papillon background with Archival Black ink.
So I have a few nice pieces now, and something to expand on. I think I might get some nice tags from the Wood background, and I am also thinking that the Butterflies would look good stamped over the pale Wood background as a second impression, using the first Impression to cut them out and mount over the stamped image, slightly raised, like the sort of thing you see in museums.
And perhaps a dress for the mannequin, cut from the Wallpaper background? Now that reminds me that I have a box full of fabric swatches somewhere- maybe a nice silky/shimmery piece of fabric draped over the mannequin? Methinks that the Tim Holtz magic is working, because Mr Mojo is definitely edging closer than he was this morning!
