Welcome back to the craft room and today’s More Simple Cards with Distress Oxide Backgrounds! In today’s post, we’re diving into more simple card designs using Distress Oxide backgrounds. I’ll be working with two versatile sets of Tim Holtz Mixed Media dies and sentiment stamps to create unique, eye-catching cards. If you missed my original post on making these vibrant backgrounds, you can check it out here: First Time Using Distress Oxide Sprays. Let’s jump in—I can’t wait to show you what I created and how you can make them too!
Protecting the Backgrounds
One thing I always consider when working with Distress products is their water reactivity. The easiest way to seal these inks is with another Distress product: Distress Micro Glaze. A light layer of this glaze makes any inked project waterproof—perfect for cards that might face rain or snow in the mail. So, with that in mind, I decided to seal the four Distress Oxide Spray backgrounds I’m working with today.
I have a dedicated foam blending tool that is kept with my bottle of Micro Glaze while the foam applicator lives in the bottle. There is one advantage, or disadvantage to using Micro Glaze with the Distress Oxide products to think about before using it. This product will remove the chalky properties of the finished product. With that in mind, it will also bring out more of the background colors and water drops. Below are the before (left) and after (right) pictures with the panels I will be working with today. There is a subtle change to them that is easy to see in person but may be a little difficult to see here online.
If you look closely, you’ll notice some differences between the before and after images. I want to add a few notes about that, though. I believe the second set of images might be identical—after finishing the original project, I vaguely remember testing the Micro Glaze on one panel, which could explain why there’s no noticeable change. As for the last set of images, the difference seems more pronounced, but I think that’s mostly due to photo editing rather than the glaze itself impacting the colors so dramatically.
I also want to make note that the card fronts and card bases are Recollections white card. The fronts are 65lb while the bases are my go-to 110lb. I had a lot of fun using the Mixed Media Thinlits die sets 1 and 5 as well. I used two dies from each of the sets below.
Card #1: Happy Birthday
Let’s get into the fun part of this post, the cards, the first of which is a birthday card. I chose to use the stamp set Phrases4Stephanie by Stamps of Life. The first time I saw that giant Birthday stamp I knew it had to live in my stash forever! While researching the information for this post I found out this stamp set will be retiring soon. So, if you don’t already own it, but would like to, I suggest heading over to Stamps of Life and grabbing it before it is gone for good.
To make the card front I began with one of the Thinlits dies from set #1. The card front is cut to 4.25″ x 5.5″ so I trimmed the background down about an 1/8″ so it would not show. The sentiment is stamped with Catherine Pooler’s All That Jazz premium dye ink. To cover up an errant ink stain on the card front I added Metallic Silver Confetti Mix by Pretty Pink Posh.
Card #2: A Paper Hug
For the second card I used one of the intricate dies from the Mixed Media Set #5. The card front is trimmed down to 4″ by 5.25″ with the background cut down about an 1/8″ smaller. The sentiment, from Picket Fence Studios, I believe was a gift with purchase from scrapbook.com. Again, while researching for this post, I could not find any information about this stamp on the Picket Fence Studios website. Information or not, it is still the perfect sentiment to send to friends or loved ones. It was stamped onto the card with Violet Archival Ink from Wendy Vecchi. To fill in a little of the white space left on the card, I added some Rock Candy Confetti from Trinity Stamps. These add a little bit of shine without being in your face blingy.
Card #3: Awesome
For this card, I used my favorite sentiment from the Thankful Flowers set by Simon Says Stamp. There’s nothing more heartwarming than a bold ‘You Couldn’t be More Awesome!’ stamped with Wendy Vecchi’s Archival Ink in Forget-Me-Not. The card front is cut to 4″ x 5.25″, with the background trimmed slightly smaller. I love how the 140lb Canson Watercolor cardstock adds subtle dimension without needing foam tape. Since both the die-cut area from Mixed Media Set #1 and the sentiment are large, I chose to keep the front clean and uncluttered, letting these elements stand out.
Card #4: Like A Rose
For the final card, I returned to Set #5, pairing the rose die with a sentiment from the Altenew Classic Beauty stamp set. Initially, I planned to use a brighter ink color, but once I attached the background to the card front, it didn’t quite work. I opted instead for Watering Can Archival Ink by Wendy Vecchi, which complemented the design better. To balance the darker tones, I added a black cardstock mat, and to soften the white space, I added on some Rock Candy Confetti by Trinity Stamps.
The Finished Cards
Thank you so much for joining me for today’s More Simple Cards with Distress Oxide Backgrounds post! I’m thrilled to be using more of the backgrounds I created a few months ago—these finished cards came out beautifully! Even though the backgrounds took some time to make, these designs keep a clean and simple feel. My favorite part has to be how the sentiment ink colors complement each background so well. If you’d like to see the first two posts using these backgrounds, you can check them out here: Distress Oxide Sprays. Have a fantastic week, and I’ll see you back in the craft room soon!”
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