Tag Archives: Blendabilities

PPA Color Challenge PPA227

I’m just squeezing in under the wire on this challenge – it closes at 1pm today. My friend Jen calls me a rebel; I’m not so sure but here I am again refusing to go in the obvious direction! Here’s the colour palette.

http://stampinpretty.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f95df92883401b8d08e905e970c-pi

I thought about doing a fall themed card but then I remembered that I’ve just received the Stampin’ Up! Swallowtail stamp and I haven’t used it yet. I also have crushed curry embossing powder and I haven’t used that either. So the direction was set. I started by embossing the image in crushed curry on pumpkin pie card stock but it didn’t grab me so here’s where I went in the end:

swallowtail pumpkin pie old olive crushed curry

This is embossed in black on crushed curry. I then took my old olive blendabilities and used the medium one to colour the body and the wings next to the body changing to the light blendability as I got further away from the body. After that I used the dark pumpkin pie blendability to colour the edge of the wings and the medium to colour next to it. This left an uncoloured crushed curry portion in the middle of the wings.

I had angled the butterfly because I was intending on adding a sentiment but after the colouring I decided that I really liked the clear space around it. I think the butterfly needs the space to breathe.

Since I coloured with blendabilities right onto the card, the colours bled through to the other side. In order to hide that (mostly) I glued a very vanilla piece of card onto the other side with another image of the swallowtail – this time in crushed curry having stamped off once. I tried it in old olive but it seemed a bit of a shock on opening the card. I liked the old olive on very vanilla though and saved that for future use. Here’s the inside of the card now:

inside of swallowtail card

Merry White Christmas

Stampin’ Up!’s White Christmas set is definitely in the running for my favourite stamp set in the Holiday catalogue. It’s easy to produce clean and simple (and effective) cards with this set; hence I used this set at my inaugural stamping class on Friday night.

white christmas merry christmas

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ whisper white

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ cherry cobbler

Top layer: 3.75″ by 5″ whisper white

Stamp set: White Christmas

Ink: Memento black ink, soft sky, cherry cobbler blendabilities

Other: Dazzling diamonds glitter, 2 way glue pen, Trim the tree stack, sponges

I lightly sponged the soft sky ink onto the sky ensuring that the colour wasn’t uniform giving the impression of a very cloudy, chilly day. Next I stamped the main image of the trees and slope in the memento black ink before moving onto the tricky part. There is only one place (or so I believe) where the banner fits – I found it simplest to focus on the bottom string and after getting the right hand side of the Christmas banner on the branch, to wiggle the stamp until the left hand side is over the tree trunk. I’d advise practicing a few times on scrap paper before moving to the card since I found that one practice on the reverse side of the card wasn’t sufficient! Once I had it stamped, I coloured in the banner with the lightest of the cherry cobbler blendabilities. I used the 2 way glue pen to put a thin line of glue along the line of the slope and also where the branches connected to the trunks before sprinkling on the dazzling diamonds glitter.

After a simple assembly job, the card was complete and all that remained was to line the outside of the envelope with a paper from the Trim the Tree DSP stack. I like to use the tombow glue when lining the outside of the envelope; I just cut the paper more or less to size, adhere it with the tombow glue (wiggling the paper around if necessary) and trim off the excess. Once I started lining envelopes, I can no longer call a card complete until the envelope has some attention.

 

 

 

Santa and blendies

Yet another cute Christmas card! This is a good card to make when you want to relax – stamping the image and then colouring in using the blendabilities is an excellent way to chill out.

Stampin' Up! Get Your Santa On

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ cherry cobbler

2.75″ by 2.25″ basic black

2.5″ by 2″ whisper white

Stamp set: Get your santa on

Ink: Memento black ink

Other: cherry cobbler blendabilities

This is another clean and simple card that is easy to happily mass produce. Just stamp the image from the Get Your Santa On set in memento black ink onto the whisper white cardstock and colour away with the blendabilities. Remember to start with the darkest pen and work to the lightest, going over the previous colour with the lighter one to blend. The back of your card should show that the ink leaks through so don’t do this on top of your grandmother’s prize lace tablecloth (no, I didn’t). On the earlier card that I did with this set, I coloured in santa’s boots – I’ve decided that I like them better left alone. Adhering all the layers together and using the trim the tree stack to line the envelope finishes this off. You can just see the envelope lining paper if you look carefully at the photo!

Blended Santa

I went to a class at my upline’s house a few weeks ago to play with blendabilities. These alcohol based markers are a lot of fun. They are sold in a pack of three in the same colour – one in light, medium and dark – and the colours blend. Hence the name (My Fellow Americans, anyone? I love that movie – Jack Lemmon, James Garner, what more does a movie need?). But I digress.

The class was on the cherry cobbler markers and for one of the samples we were using the stamp set “Get your santa on”. I had JUST managed to resist buying this one – mainly because I was buying so much else from the holiday catalogue. But having played with it, I had to get it. It’s adorable. I’ve noticed that it takes a while to “get your eye in”. There have been sets that I’ve passed over only to find that when I’ve seen them used, they are awesome. It’s like when you’re scuba diving; to start with, you swear that there are no lobsters. After a number of dives they are everywhere and you can’t imagine how you missed them!

So my set arrived and this is what I created. A CAS (clean and simple) card as is my preference.

santa joy cherry cobbler

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ cherry cobbler

Mat: 2.75″ by 3.5″ basic black

Top layer: 2.5″ by 3.25″ whisper white

Stamp set: Get your santa on

Ink: Memento black ink

If you’re using blendabilities, you need to use the memento ink. The blendabilities are alcohol based and the memento ink is water based so there’s no running or smearing when you colour. The memento ink can also be cleaned with the normal stampin’ mist which is an advantage over the stazon black in my opinion – the memento is now my go to black ink. One less bottle to keep track of on my table! After stamping the image, I coloured it with the three cherry cobbler blendies or blendibobs as my friends in the UK have it. Easier to spell anyway. I am no artist. Really – ask Mr Dix – I used to get a decent grade for effort in Art and a C (if I was lucky) for talent. But I’m pretty pleased with the result here. Start with the darkest pen and move to the lightest, blending each colour as you go. Colouring is an incredibly relaxing way to spend an afternoon. I coloured Santa’s boots and belt with an ordinary Stampin’ Write marker in basic black and used a silver marker for his belt buckle. I think he’d make a good gift tag too.

In case my sister is reading this – Happy Anniversary! I’ll share the card later on.

 

 

Technique Tuesday – Masking and Sponging

Masking and sponging is a lot of fun – and gives me an opportunity to showcase yet another Christmas card. 🙂 My eagerly anticipated back-ordered stamp set White Christmas arrived last Thursday and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

white christmas car and tree

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5″ whisper white

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ cherry cobbler

Top Layer: 3.75″ by 5″ whisper white

Stamp set: White Christmas

Ink: Memento black ink (I really like that the usual Stampin’ Mist will clean this off stamps – and it doesn’t smudge), soft sky.

Colouring: Cherry cobbler blendabilities (medium), colour lifter and garden green stampin’ marker

I started by stamping the trees onto a piece of scrap card. This image includes the hill. I cut along the line of the hill and let it extend to the edge of the card to create the mask. Then I took my top layer piece of whisper white and put the mask in place and using a sponge, dabbed soft sky onto the upper portion of the card. I ensured that I didn’t make it a uniform colour – since the sky isn’t – and ended up with the effect of a cold cloudy day.

Next I stamped the trees and then the car on the hill and then the tree on top of the car. It was easy to get the placement because this set is a see through photopolymer set. I coloured the car with the cherry red blendability medium pen and used the colour lifter under the windows for a bit of contrast. Colouring the tree in garden green was the final step before sticking all the layers together. Of course I lined the envelope using the background DSP stack and the envelope liner framelits. I’ve been finding that it’s more efficient – and quite relaxing – to cut a 12″ by 12″ sheet from this stack into 8 pieces of 3″ by 6″ and run them all through the big shot one after another to produce 8 envelope liners. This may be because my big shot lives on the opposite side of the table from where I stamp and it saves me from getting up to cut out a single (or more) liner.