Distress Inks Technique

Hi All. I've been watching the first few videos from an 8 week course on Two Peas In A Bucket. The first few deal with various ways to work with Distress inks. Most are familiar with me, but with so many techniques around they get relegated to the back of my mind and then I forget to bring them forward BIG GRIN. So I decided to put them in my Technique Journal all in one section. So while I was playing this came to mind. I haven't seen or heard about this combination and I absolutely LOVE the results and wanted to share right away. Just a bit of background.
1) There's the tech where you sponge your background C.S. with distress inks, then drop water drops and dry.
2) There's the tech where you stamp with distress inks and then apply Perfect Pearls onto the wet ink.
OK so I said why not apply a thick layer of Distress inks all over the cardstock (sponging to get nice tones), then apply the Perfect Pearls and then drop the water droplets and dry. The results were fabulous, and then I went one step further and clear embossed the background, in this case a star. I used a Sizzix stars die and punched out of 110# CS. Colored with Shabby Shutters and edged with Broken China. Perfect Gold Perfect Pearls all over. Dropped the water and lay a piece of paper towel to absorb some moisture, then heat set. I used Perfect Medium (but any clear embossing pad will work) and clear embossing powder and heat set. Then I touched the edges again with sponge tool and Broken China.

Normally when water is applied to dye inks it moves the color to the edges creating a hard edge and a darker rim of color which I love. Doing the water drops after the Perfect Pearls were applied, moves the Perfect Pearls to the edges of the water drops as well as creating fascinating glows.

Click on image to see larger version.