Colouring With Stampin' Blends

We had a play with the Stampin' Blends at our Craft Group this week. It was a very relaxing evening.

Here are the notes that I handed out to my ladies, plus some photos of images that I coloured (some not very well).

About Stampin' Blends

• Stampin’ Blends are alcohol based markers. Always use a water-based ink, such as Memento, to stamp the image without having any bleeding.
• Stampin’ Blends come in a variety of colours, each with a dark and light marker. You can use either one to simply colour your image as you would with any other marker, but the magic happens when you use both shades and blend them together.
• There are currently 21 colours with another 6 coming in the Holiday Catalogue, plus the Ivory and Bronze for skin tones, and the Colour Lifter.
• Each marker has two ends; a fine tip end and a brush end. These can be identified by the thin or thick line at each end.
• The lids can be placed on the other end of the marker whilst you’re using it (so you don’t lose it). When you’ve finished with a Blend Marker, replace the lid straight away. Make sure the cap ‘snaps’ on so that it doesn’t dry out.
• You can use the dark colour first and then blend with the light colour, or you can do it the other way around as well. It probably depends on what image you are using and how you want it to look.
• The colours blend better when they’re wet, so do really large images in sections. You can always go over them again if they’ve dried out but you will end up with a more saturated colour.
• You can use different colours together, e.g. use an orange at the bottom and shade it up to a yellow at the top. Experiment to find the combinations that you like.
• The Stampin’ Blends Colour Lifter can be used to remove small marks when you’ve accidently gone outside of the lines, but it may leave some colour so try not to do that.
• You can use the Blends to colour embellishments so that you can get the perfect colour for your card. You can colour Rhinestones, Clear Faceted Gems, Pearls or even any white ribbon!
• You can draw on Window Sheets with Blends, or colour vellum (on the back or the front of the vellum, depending on the look that you want).
• You can use a Clear Wink of Stella Glitter Brush on top of the coloured image to give it some overall glitz or just to highlight certain areas.
• Stampin’ Blends should be stored horizontally for the best outcome. 
• There are many different methods for using the Blends. Do a YouTube search for “Stampin’ Blends” and watch some videos. Each person seems to do it differently, so just experiment and see what works for you.

Materials

• Whisper White, Shimmery White, or any light coloured cardstock - cut to size
• Grid Paper to use beneath your cardstock

Equipment

• Paper Trimmer
• Stampin’ Blends in your choice of colours
• Stampin’ Blends Colour Lifter
• Memento Ink Pad (Tuxedo Black)
• Outline stamp suitable for colouring (See suggestions at the end)

Method

• Stamp the image onto the cardstock and make sure it is completely dry before you start colouring.
• Be sure to place some Grid Paper or scrap paper under your cardstock when you are colouring. These markers can really saturate the cardstock and may bleed through.
• When using the dark colour to highlight lines on the stamped images, use the fine point end and simply draw over the lines and then use small circular motions or ‘flicking’ strokes around the inside of the outline. Don't press hard on the brush though, or you will ruin the shape.
• Use the brush end (or the fine tip end on a smaller image) of the lighter shade to fill in the centre and blend the dark into the light. Circular motions are best for this.
• As you colour you will see a streaky sort of effect, as you do with any other kind of marker. These streaks will disappear as the alcohol dries. It’s magic!
• The colours will lighten as they dry (give them a minute or two). You can then add more colour if you want.
• For even more dimension, use the Colour Lifter to create an even lighter highlight on your image.

Examples

I started simply colouring in these images from the Painted Glass Stamp Set. Don't look too closely though because I missed a lot of spots. I think I need better glasses for these, lol.

I coloured some butterfly wings  from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set. I only had half-butterflies available because the stamp was bigger than the one block that I had with me at the time.

I used the dark Pumpkin Pie on the outer edges with the lighter shading on this flower (also from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set) 

 

This was the first one I did and I obviously need more practice with the blending 

I tried the same method again later with much better results.

Definitely better at the blending on this one

I experimented by using a dark Pineapple Punch in the centre of each petal and then blending it with the light all around the rest of the petal. It looks alright.

I got adventurous and used the dark and light Pumpkin Pie AND light Daffodil Delight. I like how this turned out.

I tried the same method with Highland Heather and Light Daffodil Delight but the yellow turned the purple a maroon colour. But it doesn't look too bad, I guess, and some flashes of the purple still show through.

I finished off by just doodling on some smaller images from the In Every Season Stamp Set and trying different colours.

Thanks for reading and happy crafting!

TARDIS Card

My daughter's fiance, Aidan, turned 30 a few days ago. He's a massive Doctor Who fan, so I'd been thinking of making a TARDIS card for a couple of years but never quite got around to it. But seeing as this one was a major birthday I decided to make the effort (and I remembered early enough to work on the design).

The front of the card has a TARDIS picture printed onto white cardstock and then fussy cut.

I simply Googled "TARDIS" and chose one that suited my purpose.I had to adjust the size before printing so it would fit nicely onto a 4" x 6" card base (I used black cardstock). I used my paper trimmer to cut along the lines so that the doors would open to reveal the Doctor with a birthday message specifically for Aidan.

I wanted to incorporate Aidan's favourite Doctor, so I posted an innocent question on Facebook asking people to say who is their favourite, knowing full well that Aidan would probably respond (and he was the first to do so). His choice is Matt Smith, so I did some more Googling to find an appropriate photo of Matt Smith and the correct internal photo of the TARDIS (it changes sometimes). I settled on this one of Matt.

I then used Paint to add a text box so that it looks like the Doctor is holding the birthday banner.

I even downloaded a Doctor Who font for the writing!

This was sized to fit inside the open doors. I had a little wrinkle (literally) with it though. I glued the Doctor onto the doors before attaching the TARDIS to the card base. But the A and Y of birthday got caught under the door a bit so I used a Journaling Pen to join the A and Y to look like just an A and then add another Y at the end. If you didn't know about it, you probably wouldn't notice but, of course, I knew about it, haha.

Once I had the front put together, I worked on the inside. I decided that I wanted it to be "bigger on the inside", just like the TARDIS! So I chose a photo, made it nice and big to print out on plain copy paper.

It started out about an A4 size

Then I used the Turkish Map Fold technique to make it fit. I think the result is just perfect because when you open the card, the inside opens up to be bigger than the card!

I added a label at the bottom so I could write on the card.

The trickiest bit of making this card was using the Turkish Map Fold on a rectangular piece of paper (you usually use a 12" x 12" sheet of paper). Thankfully I found some instructions online and was able to do it without too much effort. These are the instructions I followed: "Turkish Map Fold with a Rectangular Sheet", obviously I had to orient it to suit my card that open from the bottom up.

I have made other Explosion Cards using the Turkish Map Fold, but I will probably never make another one like this and I'm so glad I did it. Aidan was very happy with it.

Until next time, happy crafting!