Welcome, everyone! It’s Mindy here with you today to share a fun technique using Distress Spray Stains and Stencils. This is one of those times when you just sit down with a bunch of ink and have fun! No two cards will ever come out the same which makes it even more magical! 

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Supplies | Hero Arts: Butterfly Stained Glass stencil, Heart Tree stamp, black cardstock; Ranger Ink: Distress Spray Stains, Distress Texture Paste, Distress Watercolor Cardstock; Thermoweb: Purple Tape

I began with Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor cardstock and the Butterfly Stained Glass Stencil from Hero Arts. I chose this cardstock because it will handle all the liquid that I will be applying to it. My panel is trimmed to 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ and I taped my stencil to the cardstock from behind using Purple Tape from Thermoweb. You could spray it with Pixie Spray too. Either one of these will work, you just want to make sure your stencil is secured to the cardstock.

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Next, I use a spatula and apply Distress Texture Paste to my stencil.

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After I let my background dry, I spray it with multiple colors of Distress Spray Stain. As you are pressing the nozzle down, you want to sweep across your cardstock. This will really spread out the color and not center it like a bullseye in one spot. My first sweep was with Picked Raspberry.

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My second sweep was using Wild Honey, which mixed with the Picked Raspberry to make orange.

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My bottom color was Salty Ocean, which mixed with the Wild Honey to make a shade of green. I also spritz some of the Salty Ocean in one of the top corners to make a shade of purple. Once the first layer dries, I spritzed some more color around to get deeper hues.

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After my color was completely dry, I spritzed clean water onto my background with a mister bottle before dabbing a paper towel over it to pick up some of that color. You can see on the right I have almost an exact print of my background. You could make multiple backgrounds for cards if you picked up the ink with a thin sheet of cardstock or even typing paper! 

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I continued spritzing with clean water and dabbing up the color until I was happy with the results. To really make the colors pop, I trimmed my panel down to 3-3/4″ x 5″ and added to a white A2 sized card base. I love the thick white margin to draw attention to my colors! 

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I finished off the card by adding a sentiment that was heat embossed in white embossing powder onto black cardstock. The Heart Tree stamp set has some beautiful, encouraging messages that I think any recipient would enjoy! 

I’m definitely going to play with these Distress Spray Stains some more! I love the vibrancy of the colors and this background came together really quickly. I hope you’ll give this technique a try! 

~ Mindy

You can find more of my work on my Blog, Youtube, Instagram and Facebook.