Four Favorite ways to use Distress Crayons -Lisa

Hey everyone! Lisa popping in here for a quick post about the Tim Holtz Distress Crayons. I know there are some people who ask what can be done with them, other than copy exactly what Tim Holtz, the Distress Guy does. Besides all the ways Tim shows you on Youtube, I have three of my own favorites. (To see Ranger's videos, just put "distress crayons" in the Youtube search engine.) 

Artistcellar got the two newest color packs in, sets 6 & 7. They are all delicious colors, matching the rest of the distress stain and ink line. These are my favorite ways to use them. 

1. Backgrounds. 

Please don't judge my tag. I simply grabbed it and started experimenting with the crayons. It's not quite the artistic accomplishment you guys are used to :-D What I did was take 2-3 colors and scribble in patches on the background. Then I took a baby wipe and smeared it all around. Heavy wiping will give a lighter look, very light wiping/dabbing will keep more color. I wanted a lighter background here. You can also use a polymer medium or gel medium to smoosh it around and it won't be as water soluble anymore. 

2. Straight up. 

I love crayons. They remind me of childhood innocence. These crayons are smooth and creamy and make awesome bold rough textured lines. They feel very similar to the Crayola Slick Stix and Gelatos, but of course come in a zillion different colors. The heart is outlined, straight up, no smudging. (The "Happy Holidays" type is a stamp). Now, if you want to smooth the line out, fingers are the best tool to smudge the line. An example of that is below: 

The edges are smudged with my finger. I simply drew a line as close to the edge as I could and rubbed with my finger out about 1/4" to bring that blue line in and frame the tag. At the very end I took an Espresso color and outlined the very edge to bring an even darker line. 

3. Watercolor Effect.

The above also shows an example of using the Distress Crayons for a watercolor effect. I used Archival Ink and stamped a few stars all over the tag. I also stamped some Christmas Trees, shown below. 

I took the color I wanted, got a small paintbrush wet (a water brush would also work really well!) and lifted the color off the tip of the crayon, and painted inside the trees. I used a yellow for the stars. I do this with Neocolor II crayons, I thought, why not try the same with the Distress Crayons? It's nice and subtle and you can layer to make it darker. And if you don't like it, take a baby wipe and wipe the color away :-) 

4. Splatter. 

To make the white snow splatters on the Christmas Trees, I took the white Crayon color and "drew" on my craft sheet to lay color down. I then took the tiniest drops of water and made a white thin paste. I loaded a paintbrush, and tapped it on the crayon to create splatters on the area. The white kind of disappeared in the background area, and showed up more opaque on the green color, perfect! 

So my tag is not the beautifulest of objects, but it does show four ways you can use the Distress Crayons that you may not have thought of. And Tim Holtz can show you some more ways if you google him. 

If you are reading this on December 21, 2016, these will be on sale for 25% off in the Artistcellar shop as part of the 12 Days of Christmas Promotion! All SEVEN sets are available, just look at all those delicious colors! 

Thanks for reading, and since I stole Shelby's day, she will be up tomorrow on the blog! xo Lisa 

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