Instructions

Hello everyone! It is Anna-Karin here today with a fun resist technique using the very cool Distress Micro Glaze, together with Distress Inks, a stencil and some stamping.

I love resist techniques and the Distress Micro Glaze is perfect for various resist techniques since it is a water resistant sealer.  I made a tag, but the techniques can be used for card making, art journaling, scrapbooking and more.  Use a different colour combination or stencil for a different look.  The fun bird from Bird Crazy was watercolored with Distress Inks.

Start by die cutting a tag from Watercolor Paper. We are going to work on the rougher side of the paper.

Stamp the tag with a graph background stamp, using Frayed Burlap, or another light coloured Distress Ink. We want the ink to be light so that parts of it will practically disappear later.

Place a stencil on top of the tag and apply Micro Glaze through the stencil with your finger. You only need a very small amount and try to avoid a thick layer collecting at the edges of the stencil shapes. The glaze will be slightly thicker at some of the edges, but you can wipe that off with a cloth after the next step. If you want a more distressed look, don’t apply the glaze uniformly; leave some areas with less glaze.

Dab Mermaid Lagoon and Hickory Smoke Distress Stains on your craft sheet. I used more of the Mermaid Lagoon.

Mist the tag with water using a Distress Mister. You will see that the water beads up on the glaze while it turns the stamping on the non-glazed areas into watercolour.

Press the tag into the ink and lift up to reveal the magic. As you can see, the glaze resisted the ink, while the areas with just a little glaze give a cool distressed look to the background.  Leave to dry or dry with a heat tool.

When the tag is dry, ink the edges with Hickory Smoke and Black Soot. The new Hickory Smoke ink is such a great neutral grey, I love it.

Distress the edges, which give a great chunky look to watercolor paper.

Stamp a bird twice on watercolor paper with Jet Black ink. It is important to use a waterproof ink since we are going to use water.

Smear Spiced Marmalade and Hickory Smoke Distress Ink on your craft sheet and mist once with water. Pick up with a brush. Watercolor one of the birds fully, starting with a lighter shade (i.e. with more water) and finishing by dropping in darker shades in some areas. You can get made shades from just one color of Distress Ink by varying the amount of water. Color only the wing and beak of the second bird.

I used the new Bird Crazy coordinating Sizzix set, which makes it so quick to cut out these fun birds. It works great together with the Sizzix Magnetic Platform, which holds the paper in place to prevent shifting.  Use this die cutting sandwich: Magnetic Platform, Cutting Pad, paper, die facing down, second Cutting Pad.

From the second bird, die cut the eyes, beak and wing.

Adhere the smaller pieces with foam tape for dimension.

Stamp a sentiment on a tag die cut from Shrink Plastic with Jet Black ink. Leave to dry, and then tear the bottom part of the tag off.

Shrink the tag according to the instructions on the packaging. I used a Heat It Craft Tool, but you can also do it in the oven. Be careful not to burn yourself, don’t touch the hot plastic. Allow it to cool completely before touching.  I left the tag a little uneven. If you want it flat, you can flatten it with the back of a wood mounted stamp.  Here you can see how much it shrinks. I love using this technique for any stamp that is too large for my project.

Drop Alcohol Ink Sunset Orange on three Heirloom Roses.

The branches for the bird nest were punched with Sizzix Laurel Large Punch by Tim Holtz, from Correspondence patterned paper.

Dye crinkle ribbon with Spiced Marmalade and Hickory Smoke Distress Ink or Stain, mist with water, crumble up and leave to dry.

Tie the crinkle ribbon to the tag and hang the shrink plastic tag from a Loop Pin. Ink a Big Chat sticker with Black Soot and staple to the tag. Glue two punched branches to the top of the tag with Glossy Accents.

Make a nest for the bird with the die cut branches and glue the Heirloom Roses to the nest.  The Bird Crazy stamps are so much fun to watercolor with Distress Inks, I want to do one in every color.

Tie twine around the tag and stamp a sentiment at the bottom with Jet Black Ink.

I love this Micro Glaze resist background with the distressed circles and the stamped grid. As you can see, the grid is faintly visible through the blue ink, but much sharper and crisper in the areas were we applied the glaze. The texture of the watercolor paper increases the distressed and uneven resist effect.

Thank you so much for looking! I hope the tutorial inspired you to try out this fun technique using the Distress Micro Glaze together with a stencil and Distress Inks.