Distress Oxide on Canvas Tutorial

Distress Oxide, what a buzz word in the crafting world these days!  Autumn here today to share an experiment with Distress Oxide ink pads on canvas.  I hope you will enjoy this fun tutorial, please pin it for future reference.

First of all, we learned from Tim Holtz that we should not touch our ink pads to other colors of Distress Oxide because the pads will "contaminate" and muddle.  I applied my pads directly to my canvas board in a grid like pattern to prevent this, hence the white space you see.  I used Peeled Paint, Faded Jeans and Vintage Photo.

Next, I spritzed the panel thoroughly and let the colors pool and blend, using my finger as needed to remove any hard lines.

I was able to move the colors along and blend with water until I heat set my panel, which surprised me!  When I had used Infusions onto a canvas panel, they remained water activated throughout, Distress Oxide (DOX henceforth) became more permanent (not completely, but more).  Water flecks did not completely remove the ink as it had with my Infusions experiments.  This made me happy!

I sponged Distress Ink (DI) onto the edges of my panel.  I wanted to add more earthy green to this very yellowy canvas (which came from the Peeled Paint), so I dipped it into some puddled Cracked Pistachio.

What a happy moment...

Now for my favorite new concept, coordinating Distress texture paste!  I have on several occasions tried to color my texture paste with regular DI, but it causes seepage and makes me sad.  Because DOX is not "wet" the same way as DI, I decided to give it a go.  It tints your texture paste ever so beautifully and does not loose vibrance as it dries.  To me, this is revolutionary!  Imagine creating perfectly coordinating texture paste for every project, in any color!  YES PLEASE!

I used Fossilized Amber to bring in some highlights.  It's funny how much it resembles the Peeled Paint in the background, but there are many color variations in DOX, which is part of the magic.

Here is my completed background.  You can see flecks of watery gesso and how that reacted to the colors and stamping in DOX, lightly spritzed to activate the oxidization.  Below is a peek of my finished canvas.  

Find all of the closeups and details on my blog today HERE.  I hope you will have a go at this process and would love to see your finished work.  Leave me a comment with a link.  <3  And remember to submit your project to our Texture, Crackle and Paint challenge before March 1.