It’s All About Color

Earlier this year, Stampin’ Up! released Stampin’ Blends…alcohol based duel tip markers that are great for coloring and shading.  The duel tips include a fine tip and a brush tip and each color comes in a light and dark color version.  Coloring and layering the light and dark makes it easy for all of us non-artists to make projects that look like we’ve had years of art training.

One of the projects that I made in a class with Margaret Spencer  was using the Springtime Foils paper that was part of the Spring Sale-a-Bration.

We used Pool Party ink and sponges to lightly color the background and then used the Stampin’ Blends markers for the flowers.

Now how beautiful is that for my first ever attempt at using them??  Just check out that shading…I had no clue what I was doing when I made this card.  I’ve since had a little more practice.  The stampin blends don’t have to be on special foil paper….but the Shimmery White Cardstock will give it a little more ooomph.   The cards below were stamped on the regular Whisper White Cardstock and colored using stamp pad ink and aqua painters and colored pencils.

But I decided that I wanted to make some cards that were more mono-chromatic…and that I could put together as a set for a friend.

Here’s a close-up of one of the cards.  Can you see the shading?  Yep, I did that!  And I am NOT an artist.  With a little practice, it’s easy to use the markers to make subtle shading that gives added dimension.

The Stampin’ Blends were sooooo popular that the stock was depleted and they were on backorder for what seemed like forever!  Then finally the “old” colors were available again…here they are:

and NOW all the NEW colors that we have been anxiously awaiting are shown in the 2018-2019 annual catalog are available too!  Yeah!  They come in a dark and light version of these colors:  (I don’t have them all yet….but I’m gradually working on it!)

So if you want to pretend that you are an artist and make things that really looked like you have a hidden artistic talent that you want to amaze your friends and relatives with…then you need to try out these Stampin’ Blends.

Here’s another look at the cards.

Here are the card dimensions:

• Base Card: Whisper White Thick Cardstock – Cut 5 ½” x 8 ½” scored at 4 ¼”
• Petal Passion Designer Series Paper – Flowers – Cut 5 ½” x 1 ¾”;  Stripes – Cut 5 1/2” x 1 1/4”;  Scrap of Polka Dots

Happy Stamping!
Patricia

These are the two retired Designer Series Papers that are used in the cards above.