• Bloglovin
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

all the sparkle

jessica frost-ballas

  • home
  • about me
    • about
    • creative resume
    • disclosure
    • house tour
  • Disclosure
  • craftroom
  • video tutorials
  • patreon
  • contact

Multiple stampings with the M.I.S.T.I. and different distress ink techniques!

17 Feb

Advance warning, this post is a little photo-heavy!  After I posted this card last week, my mom requested a set of cards in a similar style; so, I decided to take the opportunity to show off my M.I.S.T.I. and also play with some different distress ink techniques!

For those who don’t know, M.I.S.T.I. stands for Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented and it truly is a must-have for paper crafters!  It was created by Iliana of My Sweet Petunia and has quickly become the most in-demand crafting product around!  I was lucky enough to hear about it on the Splitcoaststampers forum in September and purchased mine in early October.  When she was still creating each one on her own she’d hold flash sales and sell whatever she had completed.  The night I purchased mine she sold 50 in less than 8 minutes!  Recently she’s started working with a manufacturer which has upped the number going out the door daily but there’s still quite the waiting list.  You can purchase them directly from her website or through Simon Says Stamp!

The M.I.S.T.I. really helps with the accuracy of your stamping.  I love my stamp press but I have a lot of problems getting it to line up exactly if I have to restamp something.  Using the M.I.S.T.I. there’s no guesswork…every stamping is as accurate as the last and it’s AMAZING!  It also makes stamping multiple cards a breeze!  I cannot recommend it highly enough!!

Here are two of the finished cards…I’ll show off the other two later!

Distress ink stamping Hero Arts Night and Day Flowers www.allthesparkle.comI started off by trimming Tim Holtz watercolor paper down to 3 inch squares.  Then I laid a square down on the M.I.S.T.I. and moved the Hero Arts Night and Day Flowers stamp around until I had it in the position I wanted.  I closed the lid of the M.I.S.T.I. and that pressed the stamp onto the lid.  All I had to do was remember where I had placed the square of paper and I marked that on the grid paper with a pencil.  Because I wasn’t using the whole stamp I couldn’t stick my paper in the corner but I used the magnets to make sure the paper wouldn’t move around when I was stamping.

M.I.S.T.I. www.allthesparkle.com

Then it was time to ink up the stamp!  I decided it would be fun to try different ways of inking and wetting the stamp with distress markers to create a matched but not identical set of cards!

Hero Arts Night and Day Flowers M.I.S.T.I. www.allthesparkle.com

Here are the four different techniques I decided to use and the resulting image!

Hero Arts Night and Day Flowers distress ink www.allthesparkle.com

And here’s a close-up of one of the panels…

Hero Arts Night and Day Flowers distress ink www.allthesparkle.com

I experimented with the amount of water (and type) I used to activate the distress markers as well as the way I applied the various colors.  I like the softer look that the two spritzes of water give the image although applying all the colors at once did lead to a little more color bleeding than I intended.  Again, using the M.I.S.T.I. it was easy to apply one color at a time to the stamp, close the lid and stamp the image, open the lid, clean off the stamp, and apply a different color.  I didn’t have to worry about the stamp not lining up correctly or take extra time and care to ensure that it lined up.

And finally, here are the other two cards!  I stamped the sentiment from Hello Flowers with Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I framed the watercolor panels with a piece of Simon Says Stamp Cotton Candy card stock and then mounted them to a top-folding card from Neenah Desert Storm card stock.

Hero Arts Night and Day Flowers distress ink www.allthesparkle.com

I’m curious…what image do you like best?  Any reason why?  Thanks for visiting and hope you’ll leave a comment! 😉

Share This:
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email

You May Also Enjoy:

  • Hero Arts January My Monthly Hero Blog Hop
    You Are Loved by Jessica Frost-Ballas for Hero Arts My Monthly Hero January 2017
  • A Blog Named Hero: You Are Absolutely Awesome!
  • A Blog Named Hero: Merry and Bright
    A Blog Named Hero: Merry and Bright

Comments:
7 Comments
Categories:
card-making, crafting
Tags:
distress ink, hero arts, watercolors

« A shaker shaker card?!?
Runway-Inspired Challenge #78: DKNY »

Comments

  1. Vickey E. says

    February 17, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    Jess, these are both so beautiful and.I think I am just indecisive. I can’t make up my mind so I guess it’s a tie for me. Love, love, love. I might treat myself to a MISTI for my birthday in a couple of months!

    Reply
    • jessica frost-ballas says

      February 17, 2015 at 11:47 pm

      Thanks Vickey! You should definitely go for a M.I.S.T.I…it’s a life-changer!! Also, what did you end up getting at Jessica Lynn Original?! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Kara Lynne says

    February 17, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    They are all wonderful! I like seeing the variations that you get from your different techniques.

    Reply
    • jessica frost-ballas says

      February 17, 2015 at 11:53 pm

      Thanks Kara Lynne! I LOVE the versatility of distress inks!! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Vickey E. says

    February 18, 2015 at 9:53 am

    I have my wish list but there was a delay in getting the gift certificate and then a glitch when I tried to use it! Hopefully I can place by order tonight but I know I want a couple of the Brentwood owl stamps. It was definitely fun making my wish list with such cute choices!

    Reply
  4. Nanci says

    February 19, 2015 at 2:36 am

    They are all fantastic cards! Excellent post!

    Hugs from Spain,

    Nanci

    Reply
    • jessica frost-ballas says

      February 21, 2015 at 2:22 am

      Thanks Nanci! And thanks for commenting!

      Reply

Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! I read and appreciate all of your thoughts! :) Please know comments are moderated so it may take a few minutes for it to show up!Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Jessica About Me Photo
Hi, I'm Jess! Thanks for visiting my blog where I share my adventures in cardmaking and papercrafting! I hope I can inspire you to craft with a little extra sparkle!

Subscribe Via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email!

Join 3,248 other subscribers

Crafty Sales (updated regularly)

Favorite Crafty Shops

Previous Posts

Instagram

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No connected account.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to connect an account.

Disclosure

I design for several companies because I truly love their products! Anything I recommend on my blog is something that I genuinely love and regularly use. I do not get paid for product reviews and I will never recommend a product that I do not like or would not use.

I am affiliated with several of my favorite crafty companies which means I receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you!!) when you click on one of my links and make a purchase through the store.

You can find my full disclosure as well as a list of the companies I am affiliated with HERE. Thank you so much for supporting me!

Most Popular Posts

VIDEO: Distress Oxide Ink Blending Combinations and Swatch Book
VIDEO: Distress Oxide Ink Blending Combos with Kitsch Flamingo
Concord & 9th Feature Friday: Favorite Color Combos
A Blog Named Hero's 5th Anniversary Celebration Hop (+GIVEAWAYS!)
VIDEO: Sliding Switch Interactive Christmas Card - Make It Merry YouTube Hop
Concord and 9th November Release!
STAMPtember Exclusive: Heffy Doodle - Filled With Love
Reverse Die-cuts and the Hero Arts April My Monthly Hero Blog Hop (+VIDEO and GIVEAWAY!)
30 Day Coloring Challenge - Week 1
June Essentials by Ellen Release!!

Copyright

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Copyright © 2025 · Bloom theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2023 · All The Sparkle