Crafts on the Run

Monday, May 18, 2020

I was watching this video by Kristina Werner and just loved the idea of metallic paints on black watercolor paper and decided to adapt that for a birthday card. I used ALTENEW METALLIC WATERCOLORS on STONEHENGE AQUA BLACK COLDPRESS paper, the ALTENEW BOLD CAPS dies for this project and the the balloon stamp from the Ink Road stamps.

I first did a wash of color onto the black watercolor paper, overlapping the colors a bit to blend. While that was drying I did a wash of light purple, using the KARIN DECO PRO METALLIC markers and put that aside to dry. I die cut the letters out of the black watercolor paper, making sure I lined up the letters so that the ombre effect would be the same on all the letters. I stamped the balloon stamp and embossed in a fine gold embossing powder and then painted it trying to mimic Kristina's use of gold and color together. When that was dry I fussy cut the image. I then die cut the light purple panel using TRINITY STAMPS SLIMLINE DIE. I adhered the balloon stamp directly to the paper and applied foam ounting tape to the letters and using a T-square, I mounted the letters onto the paper. The panel was then attached to a black card base cut (finished size is 8.5 x 4.75).

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

As much as I love using my copics and feel very comfortable with them, I am a relative newbie to colored pencils. I have had my Prismacolors for a long time but other than sharpening them I had not really done much with them. I think I was intimidated by seeing what professional artists can do with them which seems almost magical. But I have been trying. The adult coloring book craze has been a major aid in motivating me to use my pencils. Having read so many different articles on blending options I decided I needed to try them for myself. Let me say first off that I had only ever tried a blending (or burnishing) pencil and may not have been using properly but I didn't get great results. I then watched a YouTube video about using vaseline but when I tried it I found that, for me, it was hard to control and I got big clumps of vaseline on my pencil or blending stump. Gamsol I was familiar with but after spilling the container and getting the smell everywhere I decided it wasn't for me and I again, wasn't loving the results. Next up, Baby Oil. Who would have thought that this would give both lovely results in a controllable manner and NO SMELL!

I also liked that I could go over the area that I had already blended with the baby oil and add more color which I did in both the rose and the flower.