Stampin Blends Markers

First, I want to thank everyone that took advantage of my Birthday Special this past weekend. I’ll be getting the pearls and rhinestones out in the next week or so.

I’ve recently had a number of questions about the Stampin Blends markers that were released this past Fall. The Stampin Blends markers are an alcohol ink based marker. They are great for shading and adding depth of color to your project.

Here is one of the brand new Silver Mini Gable boxes that I have decorated with the Petal Passion pattern paper. You can’t tell by this picture, but the Petal Passion Paper is all black and white. You could leave it black and white, but I think it begs to be colored in. You could use any number of techniques to color in the patterns: watercolor pencils, watercoloring with ink pads, markers, Blends. I used my Pink Pirouette, Cherry Cobbler, and Old Olives Blends to color in the flowers and the leaves. Did you notice the Cherry Cobbler doilie? I bet you’re wondering where I got that. It is actually one of our silver metallic doilies. Our metallic doilies are plain white on the back side and I just colored the entire back side of the doilie with my Cherry Cobbler Blend marker so it would match my Petal Passion paper.

Here are a couple tips when working with these markers.

The more you practice, the more you will have success with your coloring with these markers. I recommend practicing on a separate piece of paper and not your final project.
The ink reacts differently to different types of paper. You will want to practice on the same type of card stock/paper that you will use for your final project.
These markers blend better when you saturate your image. Be sure to use a stamping mat or scratch paper under your coloring or you may inadvertently color your work surface.
The light and dark ink blends better when wet. Color small sections at a time and blend as you go. The recommended order is color with the light first, then add shading using the dark, then blend out the line between the dark and the light using the light marker.
The recommended ink pad to use is Memento. You need a dye ink to stamp with so the alcohol ink in the Blends does not reactivate the alcohol ink in the stamped image.

I’ll have more tips on the Blends as more questions come up. Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to come back Friday to see another finished Paper Pumpkin kit.

Have you heard that our March Paper Pumpkin Kit is our 5th Anniversary kit? Stampin Up is including a FREE gift in every March kit and the box has been redesigned for March only just for the Anniversary celebration. If you aren’t already a subscriber, click the link on the left to take you to my Paper Pumpkin website. You need to sign up no later than March 10th to get the March Paper Pumpkin kit. These Paper Pumpkin kits are an excellent value at $19.95/month, including shipping.