The Funkie Junkie Boutique Sponsor Spotlight No.1

Hi everyone!

 Laura here to bring you the first of our Sponsor Spotlights for this month....

Linda, who owns the Funkie Junkie Boutique, is our very generous sponsor this month and she will be giving a very lucky winner $25 to spend at her store! 

 I am envious of that winner already!!! ;o)

My spotlight today is to highlight a product that Linda sells and of course there is so much to choose from!...eventually I decided to make this spotlight about......

I hope today I can show you that these ink sprays don't all have to be viewed with dark glasses, and that Dylusions can be so much more than just an occasional spritzing fun or a bright colour effect!!!

Many of you will know the techniques already, but I thought a re-cap doesn't hurt and for any new crafters out there who see those ink shades and think....
"The colours are nice, but they are way too bright for me" 
....I hope that after reading this you might want to give them a go.

Yes, those intense, bright, inky Dylusions sprays formed the beginning of all these tags - all eleven of them! And I would like to share how I made them with you today.

Grab a cuppa - this is a long post! 

I had started this spotlight off thinking about doing 2 or 3 tags!!!
....but the list of techniques I wanted to mention grew and grew and grew!

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You will all know the first two techniques, 'spritz and flick' and 'wrinkle free distress', from using it with Distress inks....but do you ever use it with the Dylusions sprays?

In fact this is a very good way to use up leftover ink spray on the craft mat - so don't forget this basic technique when mopping up any excess ink!....

I used these inks....

I spritzed the ink onto the craft mat

Added a few spritzes of water

Pressed a tag into the ink and then dabbed with a tissue

Left it to dry and then did some spritz and flick with water

I then got another tag and repeatedly dabbed it into the ink

I joined these two tags together - I added some beautiful stamps, some stenciling with DI's and some stamping with archival ink and ended up with this...

Now for another - I got a tag and spritzed with these inks. 

These colours are very intense...as you can see....

I spritzed the tag with water and kept spritzing until the colours were well blended and as you can see here...running into a pool at the bottom...

I swept the pool of ink aside (I try not to waste ink - dab some card into it and save it) then I dabbed the tag with tissue. The ink, even through it had been saturated with water, still has quite a strong colouring power and using the tissue, I dabbed ink across the card adding texture....

And here is the finished tag....lightly blending some Black Soot Distress ink around the edges, adding a couple of stamps using Jet Black archival ink and some ribbon spritzed with the same Dylusions inks....

Now another technique, quite similar to the previous one - I use this technique quite a lot - mainly because I really don't want to waste ink by dabbing it with tissue....

 First spritz the tag lightly with water and spray with the Dylusions Sprays...

Place another tag on top and press down.

Yes, fingers are inky!

  Peel apart and the first tag is now less bright (though still quite vivid - the inks have a lot of strength!) and the second tag is a bit patchy...not a problem! You can blend some distress inks over it, you could always just enjoy the contrasting white patches on the card......

......or you can do as I did and spritz the 2nd tag with water. The ink will blend again (even though it has just been picked up as excess watered down ink from the first tag) and you can dab the water away. Again the ink spray is strong enough to make patterns with the ink on the crumpled tissue...great for a muted textured card to use as a base for a project.

Now you have two tags...but I chose to use one and have the other as part of the decoration...I stamped some flowers onto the bright first tag and cut them out. I then stuck them onto the second tag which has been stamped with flowers and a quote.

I am bored with this colour scheme now!!!....lets move on to something a bit brighter!!!....

POW!!! That is bright!!! 

With this tag I had a lot of fun spritzing the ink everywhere (and of course mopping up the excess with card and saving it for another time)

Dylusions sprays are great....They are easy to use, blend together really well, react with water....and that perhaps is the only 'negative' thing in my eyes. The 'react with water' is great for blending and lifting the ink - but what about when we want the ink to stay where we put it?

I dabbed Matte Multi Medium through the stencil. I didn't use it all over the tag, just dabbed around the edges. After it was dry I spritzed with water and placed another tag over the top. You can see there a lot of intense ink coming out of the tag. One excellent thing about Dylusions sprays is a little goes a LONG way....I can get three or four tags out of just mopping up ink.......

As you can see here....after the tag has been spritzed and dabbed, I spritzed with water again and you can see that ink is coming out of the tag...

 I carry on spritzing until the ink is too pale to be worth mopping up with card. I want to get all the excess ink out and leave a really stark contrast between the multi medium and the bleached ink background.

And here is the finished tag. Flowers were punched out of the 'mop up' card and filled with Copper Liquid Pearls. The 'mop up' card also made a good matching base for the quote. A flourish stamp inked with Coffee Archival ink was added and the tag was edged in Vintage Photo DI.

Stencils are great to use with Dylusions....it also works well with reversing the stencil....

Spray the ink through the stencil

Carefully lift the stencil off

Place a tag down onto the stencil

And there is the reversed stencil image

And here are the results of both tags...First I spritzed both tags with some water....

I used two stencils and some DI's and some stamping done with Archival ink.

With this tag I added some archival inked stamps and some grungy black ink dabbed around the edges

Shall we try something a bit grungy?....perhaps with a touch of Steampunk?

Grab a tag, stencil and texture paste. 

I chose a clock stencil and spread the paste all over the tag. 

Choose your inks and you need to spritz quite heavily here 

Lift off stencil carefully and the texture paste has absorbed all that ink

Don't waste that ink and paste!

The effects are well worth saving!

When the texture paste is dry, spritz the tag with water and tilt the tag encouraging the ink to blend and spread around the card...

                                                       And there is the finished tag....

I just added some torn pieces of a previously paste/inked card and some Distress inks just to add some shabbiness to the tag.  A few embellishments and some spritzing with water and we have a grungy hint of Steampunk tag....

And here is another grungy technique...

Staying well away from bright colours with this one! - here we are just using Melted Chocolate and Ground Coffee...

 First scrunch up a piece of card

Then spray with the inks - really saturate the card. 

You then need to leave the inked card until it is nearly dry. It shouldn't have any ink pools in the creases of the card.

Place the tag on top of the inked card and press down firmly - a brayer works well for this

Lift up and you have a gorgeous leather effect on the card. If you have been a bit too eager and printed the tag too soon (and have simply printed an ink splodge) then just grab another tag and press it onto the inked card - the second go should work...and don't worry the first print can be an 'additional extra'!

And here is the finished tag!

Can Dylusions get paler?...of course! How about a vintage look?

The most recent new Dylusions Sprays are a selection of vintage colours...these aren't the brights we have been used to seeing...these are dark vintage colours. They are still strong inks though, with the same immense colouring power that the 'brights' have, so to use them in a subtle way we have to be subtle....

I used Chopped Pesto and Ground Coffee and sprayed the tag from about 20" away. Any closer and you will be likely to get the 'splodge spritz' This is great if you want to cover the card with colour, but here I wanted to get only a very fine mist (don't mind the odd dot here and there as that adds some variation in the texture effect)

When dry I began to spritz the tag with water...I did one spritz and took a photo just to show you the intensity of the ink...even though the tag had a very fine spray, when activated with water the ink begins to spread quickly...

    When covered with water you can see how much ink was there, even though it was two spritzes from far away. I could cover another tag with this excess ink, but I want to get a textured effect and for that I want to dab the card with scrunched up tissue...

And this is the effect it gives....I dabbed randomly, leaving some patches of ink and dabbing more in some areas than others. Even after the watery ink has been dabbed away, the original ink spray is still there giving a lovely vintage textured effect.

And here is the finished tag....a bit of a shame really that I got totally carried away with embellishments and the tag is almost completely covered!

At least some of the Dylusions spray texture can still be seen....

 


Now for another pale tag....using Gesso as a resist...

Pomegranate seed and Dirty Martini? Pale?....

Apply Gesso to the tag

Spritz the ink onto the craft mat (a little goes a LONG way!) and add spritzes of water

Press the tag into the ink - you could leave it to dry like this, but I wanted it paler...

So I dabbed it with tissue

Then because there was ink left I began to dab the tag into the ink.

I spritzed the tag with White Linen Dylusions ink because it is opaque and I wanted a chalky splattered effect on the tag.

And here is the finished tag....

I just added some leaf stencils in layers of several shades of green Distress inks. Then I added some ivy stamps in archival ink. The quote and bird was stamped with Archival ink too and then stuck onto the tag.

Right....let's hop back to the brights for a moment...and talk about Ghosting. I am sure everyone knows this technique, but let's just see it again... (basically because I love doing it!) ;o)

For this technique I chose probably two of the most intense Dylusions sprays -

Bit too dark! No worries - when dabbed with a bit of tissue we get a much calmer colour

Apologies for using the same stencil again - but it is new and I LOVE it!!!
 

Using the ghost technique with a stencil is a perfect way to add texture to the background.  Spritz the stencil with water, and while the stencil is still in place dab with tissue.  The ink remains where the stencil was. You can see it is quite a dramatic difference... 

And looks very pretty! I wanted to further tweak the texture effect though....

If you leave the stencil effect as it is in the previous picture and allow to dry, you will get this effect

But if you dab the pattern lightly with a tissue, after leaving it for a moment or two, you will get this gorgeous 'outlined' effect. 

So with this tag I left some patches to dry naturally and in others I just lightly blotted with a tissue....

And after further embellishments with Distress ink, Distress Paints, stencils and stamps I ended up with this...

 And so we finally have come to the end of the Funkie Junkie Boutique Dylusions Spotlight!

 Thanks so much to you if you are still here! 
I hope that I have inspired some of you to reach for those Dylusions sprays.
And if you have never used them before - what are you waiting for?! - Go and grab some bargains at Linda's FJBoutique!

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There will be two more Funkie Junkie Boutique Spotlights this month. 
Both Claudia and Alison will be here to tell you about their choices for the spotlight this month - you won't want to miss those posts!

And don't forget to check out this months challenge. 

We are 'Going Rust-ic!' this month - so get out those rusty shades of ink and paint or show us your favourite 'faux rust' technique...Perhaps you might like to show us some real rust!
 However rusty you are - we would love to see your rusty creations....



Remember - you gotta be in it to win it!

Happy Crafting!

Laura x