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I have started playing with Distress Inks and did the thing where you dab the pad onto the craft sheet and then spritz it so it beads and then drag the cardstock through it. All well and good, lots of fun patterns but then I can't get the paper to lay flat. If I use an iron, it curls. If I use a heat gun, it curls. If I let it dry on its own, it curls. Okay if you want to stamps on it and cut out the shape, but no good as a background. I notice Tim Holtz demos everything on those tag things and he gets his to lay flat. Maybe regular cardstock is too heavy. I'm using all SU cardstock. Anyone have better luck with this technique? I'm stumped and frustrated.
He mostly uses manilla tags so not sure if that makes a difference. I use primarily SU cardstock too but have not tried it with his techniques, I have only used tags. Mine usually curl a bit but I am able to flex the paper around and it pretty much goes back to normal.
I like to use watercolor paper when I am making "wet" backgrounds like that. I have used that with both the distress inks and distress stains. I have made backgrounds with regular card stock but I just don't "soak" it full of water like I do the watercolor paper. I have used glossy card stock with the stains and it gives it a marble like effect that is lovely.
I took a class with Jen Starr (a Ranger certified trainer) and we turned over our papers and spritzed with water. I think we were using watercolour papers but by wetting the other side the papers laid flat. You could try that.
I found the technique works better with thicker cardstock. However most of the times I used regular cardstock from Walmart, Joann, etc... It definitely warped more and I used the drier to dry it out. Once it bent towards the heat source, I flipped over and dried the opposite side again to flatten it out. Sometimes if it's still slightly warped, I lay it flat below a book. It will become perfectly straight a few hours later. Not sure if I explained it clear enough but I learnt from a Tim Holtz Youtube video. Check it out.
What works for me is to use the heat gun first on one side, and let it curl up -- sometimes it's really arched. Then turn it over and heat the other side and it straightens right out.
I've used the vanilla tags and watercolor paper and all kinds of cardstock.
Don't give up!! Beautiful technique - one of my faves.
I'd agree with previous posts - thinner paper curls more, heavier paper less, but I've never not had it straighten up totally after an hour under a dictionary, and that's not always necessary. Sometimes if I'm trying to stamp on it, I'll use low-tack tape to keep it flat on my stamping surface (so I can stamp accurately) before attaching it to the base. Tags curl too , as you can see in the photos in the tutorial in Resources.
For this card I had to tape the paper down to stamp on it, but it was perfectly flat when it came to adhering it to the base: MMTPT195 Doodled Tat by Cook22 at Splitcoaststampers, and it's very light card that I got by mistake.
Hard not to saturate when you are trying to get the ink over the whole piece of cardstock, how do you do it?
I fooled around and found the best result was ironing and then putting the paper under a book while it was still warm. Not completely flat, but I guess it's unreasonable to expect it to be.
I'm going to try some different papers. I've only used the SU card stock so far. I might even get some of those tags Tim Holtz uses.
The manila tags are great that he uses. They can get warped too if they are drenched. They will curl when you wet them but as you use your heat gun they will flatten..Then you can iron with a craft iron or weight down with a book. I just use my inks on my mat and lightly sritz the mat with water with a mini mister. I don't get a lot of extra water that way... I think you will find what works best for you after doing it a bit. I then take my piece and adhere it to a cardfront so it will be flat regardless. No worries.
Well, I am going to experiment some more, less water, different papers, whatever.
And I finally went and looked at your card, Sabrina, and wow, I really love it! You have really made the most of the technique. (Great stamp set, might have to go hunting it down on eBay.)
And Winnie, thank you for "no worries." I often suffer from "all worries" and I need to be reminded that this is supposed to be FUN.
I took a class with Jen Starr (a Ranger certified trainer) and we turned over our papers and spritzed with water. I think we were using watercolour papers but by wetting the other side the papers laid flat. You could try that.
This is the technique I learned and it works perfectly and is so easy !
__________________ "May your mind whirl joyful cartwheels of creativity." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie.
I'll try that next. I think right now part of my problem is I don't have good colors for this technique so no matter how flat I get it I'm not inspired. I have too many pale and muted colors. So I ordered a few more colors (well, maybe more than a few, maybe like ten), based on some of the demos on YouTube, and will try some more.
I gotta get over and look at some pics of what people are doing with this on the gallery. I'll start by checking out everyone who responded to this thread so far, since you guys are doing the technique.
You'll find some great cards in the Wrinkle Free Distress gallery. But they'll only be there if people have uploaded them to that category - it's not one that's based on keyword search, so you'll find far more if you do a search with keywords.
Wrinkle free is one of my most used techniques!! I do the "dry with heat gun, flipping it from front to back" technique the most with the ocassional "put in under a heavy book" to get out the curls. And there is something to be said for a strong adhesive, haha!!
I will offer this suggestion also...instead of "swiping" my inks across my craft sheet, I just smoosh them in a random pattern here and there. I try to do my lightest inks first, then add the darker colors, but if I want a lighter color added, I just smoosh smaller bits and pieces between the darker spots. I also like to mist with Tattered Angels Glimmer mist instead of water. Adds a subtle shimmer!! For me, this works to get a more varied look to the technique. Works for me, you might find it works for you too!!
I have been playing around in just that way, Starla! I found that I didn't want to make big "chunks" of colors, but have have tried swiping along the edges and generally breaking things up. I do like the results better. But as I said a few posts back, I think I am going to get more out of this technique now that I have the right assortment of colors. My first time around, I ordered several very pretty pale colors (thinking they would be great for aging, which they are) and then I ordered a dark red (for some reason unknown to me). So all I could get were these very washed-out background pieces or washed out pieces with slashes of bloody red. It was idiotic. I rewatched Tim's YouTube and had the brilliant eureka realization that, gee, YELLOW AND BLUE MAKE GREEN! Clearly I needed some colors that would combine better. So I ordered some (okay ten) more inks and now I think I have a good selection for aging and also wet wrinkle free. If you don't use colors that are going to do nice things when they smoosh together, it isn't gonna give you anything you'll like.
The curling thing is still hit or miss. I heat, I iron, I stick under books. The genius realization there was that the resulting paper is never going to look and feel like cardstock that has simply been stamped. The technique changes the paper's texture because it gets it all wet. It's going to feel like paper that was wet and dried out, DUH. And it isn't ever going to be dead flat like stamped cardstock. Much to be said for good adhesive!
I have been looking all over the galleries at how people are using this technique and have been very inspired. I took a look at your Raku inspired piece and read about your process on your blog. Very lovely. And thank you for being willing to talk about your mess up and your (very successful) fix. I'm only a few months into this, and it's all too easy to think that every nice card I see went together without a hitch.
I've put Glimmer Mist on my ever growing "must get" list.
Rachel, have you been getting reinkers to go with your distress inks? If so, consider getting Perfect Pearls instead of Glimmer Mist. You can make a very effective mist of your own with a few drops of reinker and a little bit of Perfect Pearl mixed up with water in a mini-mister. And you get to do other things with your Perfect Pearls too .
You can only see a little of the shimmer, but I used three colours of ink and three colour of Perfect Pearls on this card - WT371 Reinking Fun by Cook22 - Cards and Paper Crafts at Splitcoaststampers.
Recently I did side by side comparison, with a combination Distress Inks, SU! inks, manilla cardstock and Whisper White cardstock. I had the same degree of paper curl with both cardstocks. I also achieved the same look with both brands of ink for most techniques, the bigger difference for me depended on the cardstock I used. I found Whisper White to be too porous for a lot of the wetter techniques, but the coated manilla gave more pleasing results. Nearly all of my finished tags have some sort of warping to them. Anything that I use for a card front I flatten as best I can and the adhesive does the rest.
Can't remember where I read this, so I can't credit the person who came up with it, but she said she covered a thick piece of card with Aluminium foil( like for wrapping meat to roast in) and heat set anything she needed to on top of that. The foil reflects the heat back to both sides, so you get less curling. I haven't tried it yet, but she swore it worked. She often stamped and heat embossed a greeting stright onto her cards, and says it definitely works.
No reinkers yet. I guess I should, if for no other reason than I will surely have a pad run dry at the most inconvenient moment. But I had not paid much attention to what can be done with the reinkers other than refreshing the pads, and now that I see what is possible, I am more motivated.
Very lovely card, Sabrina!
I checked out the acrylic resist tutorial as well. I had already seen a YouTube of a similar technique, using clear emboss for the resist. The effect is a bit different though and I really liked the acrylic look. Can you clean that paint off your stamps with regular old ink-dye cleaner like Stampin Mist?
I'm working on a tag using the acrylic paint resist technique even as I type. I immediately wash my stamp straight away under running water and scrub with an old tooth brush. I wouldn't use my stampin scrub as it would gunk up with the paint, but a final clean with mist would be good.
Any time I use acrylic paints on my stamps I just wash them in cold water straight away and scrub gently with a soft toothbrush if needed, as per the post above. My letter and number stamps don't even need that, but the French Flair one I used for that card did.
I like embossing resist with clear embossing powder, but using the acrylic paint definitely gave a different, more arty look which I liked.
If you check out the other cards in the WT371 challenge that I made the acrylic resist card for, it's amazing what some people did with reinkers. I started out with a pathetic three so that I could play along with any challenges that needed them, but now I think I have them for all my distress ink pads, and automatically buy them both together.
I have been playing around in just that way, Starla! I found that I didn't want to make big "chunks" of colors, but have have tried swiping along the edges and generally breaking things up. I do like the results better. But as I said a few posts back, I think I am going to get more out of this technique now that I have the right assortment of colors. My first time around, I ordered several very pretty pale colors (thinking they would be great for aging, which they are) and then I ordered a dark red (for some reason unknown to me). So all I could get were these very washed-out background pieces or washed out pieces with slashes of bloody red. It was idiotic. I rewatched Tim's YouTube and had the brilliant eureka realization that, gee, YELLOW AND BLUE MAKE GREEN! Clearly I needed some colors that would combine better. So I ordered some (okay ten) more inks and now I think I have a good selection for aging and also wet wrinkle free. If you don't use colors that are going to do nice things when they smoosh together, it isn't gonna give you anything you'll like.
The curling thing is still hit or miss. I heat, I iron, I stick under books. The genius realization there was that the resulting paper is never going to look and feel like cardstock that has simply been stamped. The technique changes the paper's texture because it gets it all wet. It's going to feel like paper that was wet and dried out, DUH. And it isn't ever going to be dead flat like stamped cardstock. Much to be said for good adhesive!
I have been looking all over the galleries at how people are using this technique and have been very inspired. I took a look at your Raku inspired piece and read about your process on your blog. Very lovely. And thank you for being willing to talk about your mess up and your (very successful) fix. I'm only a few months into this, and it's all too easy to think that every nice card I see went together without a hitch.
I've put Glimmer Mist on my ever growing "must get" list.
RR
If you are just looking to get some Glimmer Mists (Perfect Pearls from Ranger are similar, btw), I recommend Pearl, Antique Brass or Old Lace for a start. They give a nice shimmer with a light color (pearl...is basically a clear shimmer) where as some of the other mists will add a darker color! I will have to say, those three are my "go to mists". I use them ALL the time!!
And as far as mess ups go---I can fill a trash can quite often!! :rolleyes: LOL!
In the light of the above post maybe I should clarify that when I suggested Perfect Pearls I was thinking of the powders, and making your own DIY spray with them (but also having the powders to use for other things). I think Star is referring to the Perfect Pearls sprays.
Distress ink & paper woes - won't flatten out!
