Making a mess

I have to admit that I have a slight obsession with aged mahogany distress ink - I love this colour!!
Playing around with some messy techniques yesterday, I came up with three ATCs that use this colour in different ways.

The background of the first two is a combination of wild honey distress stain and aged mahogany and dusty concord distress inks. Butterflies and birds were stamped in black archival. Flourishes were stamped using white paint and I also smeared some more white paint on with an old credit card.

I love the way the aged mahogany blends with the dusty concord and zings against the wild honey colours in these ATCs.

The final one was simply aged mahogany and white paint. I smeared paint roughly over the ATC using a credit card and added the ink over the top, blending with a wet paintbrush. It shows up as more intense colour where there is no paint, and turns a lovely pink shade over the paint. I then stamped some Hero Arts heart stamps in the paint and ink.

I think these techniques are great for making backgrounds, but I find it so hard to cover them up with anything - I just end up loving them just as they are. Is it just me that has a love affair with backgrounds?

Sarah
xx