Back on track

Whew! What a busy couple of days. Sorry to slack off on my blog. Holidays do that to me. Everyone congregates at our house. Which means I do alot of prep work and clean up. But, I wouldn't trade having my family around for no holiday craziness. ;)

The winner for the coffee cozy (drawn by Miss Marissa) is comment #1: Michelle!! I have a few cozies for you to choose from or you can give me a request.

Today's tip is for using your SU! markers and blender pen. I love a soft, watercolored look to my stamped images. These are the supplies I used. All are from SU! unless otherwise noted. Pun Fun stamp image;Chocolate Chip Classic inkpad; Markers: Barely Banana, So Saffron, Gable Green, Green Galore, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise, Opulent Orchid and Going Gray; Whisper White cardstock; Blender Pen; and a plain piece of printer paper slipped inside a plastic sheet cover (not SU!). All stamp images are copyright SU!

Stamp your image onto Whisper White cardstock using a Classic inkpad (I used Chocolate Chip).Open the brush end of your marker (Barely Banana & So Saffron) and make a spot of color for each shade on the plastic sheet cover. TIP: Using the plastic sheet cover with white paper is an easy way to see the colors you have selected and it just wipes clean when you are done and can reuse it. Use your Blender Pen and pick up a bit of color with the tip of the pen. Start with your lightest color first. Fill in the image you are coloring with your lightest color. Remember, these are waterbased markers and blender pen, so be careful 'blending' too much. Over'blending' may cause your paper to oversaturate and begin to breakdown. You will know because your paper will start pulling up fibers and not looking smooth. You can tell I did this on this first layer. OOPS! ;)Next, use your darker shade and blend from the bottom up in a feathering stroke. When shading, try and think about how light hits an object and be consistent. A beak would cast a small shadow under it. The bottom side of a wing may be darker than the top. Play with it and have fun with different looks. There are really NO Rules! :) Also, when you first start blending where you first place your color it will be the darkest. Continue this process until your image is completely colored. I used my Going Gray marker and blender pen to add abit of shading around the entire image to make it look more dimensional.To clean your blending pen between color changes just rub it on a scrap piece of paper until no more color comes off. You can do this very gently, no need to scrub. Keeping the tip of the pen on its side will keep you from crushing the fine tip. Even thought the tip may be stained from dark colors it will not transfer that color. I used this pen and you can tell it did not transfer any dark colors even when I used the lightest yellow color. :) Very cool!I hope you enjoyed the tip today. Here are a few photos from yesterday. Our egg masterpieces, the little chef and the second round of dominoes of the day (Doug, Carol, Cody & Robert).