A very special Get Well - Because I Care

Hot on the heels of Elements of Style comes this Get Well card for a special friend and mentor.  It also uses the easy watercolouring technique of watercolor wonder crayon with blender pen.  First, about the card itself, then a bit about it's recipient...

There is a slightly amusing tale behind this card,  it's what I call a 'rescue project'  One of my lovely customers, Barbara, does beautiful watercolouring, and was busy using her new crayons with the blender pen.  Her gorgeous hydrangea blossom from the Level 1 Hostess set was beautifully coloured, trimmed into a panel for the card she was working on, then laid aside.  However, Barb was in driven production mode this Stampin' Crop day, trying to complete some projects before needing to leave earlier than usual.  A few steps later, she grabs a scrap of Very Vanilla to stamp a greeting on, and duly punches it out with the Scallop Oval.  Oops...  The punch monster had left lovely teeth marks in the coloured flower image on the other side of the 'scrap'...  Into the rubbish tub it was tossed, and Barb got on with making a replacement.  No!! you can't throw that away, I'm sure you can do something with that!!  So, it was handed over to me as a challenge of sorts.  And here is the result!  I stamped a second flower on a piece of Naturals Ivory card, and coloured with the same colours Barb used.  I trimmed around the damaged section, following the outlines of the hydrangea bracts, to create a new, slightly smaller layer to create dimension with.  The change in cardstock colour from Vanilla to Naturals Ivory adds to the shading and depth.  Bet you can't tell where the oval scallop bite is now!  I also rescued one of the leaves and overlaid it on my stamped image, and made one for the other side for balance. 

The card sat like this for a few days, with the matching greeting from the Hostess set, but then the ideal opportunity came up to complete it.  I added a Soft Suede background stamped with Wonderfully Worn background in matching ink, then layers of Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride.  Blushing Bride twill ribbon was wrapped around the base, and I had an idea to try the ribbon ruffle technique.  I wasn't sure how the diagonal weave would go, but thought it was worth a try.  Instead of creating a nice straight piece of gathered ribbon, the ribbon naturally curled and twisted, and I could quickly envision a ribbon flower.  A few stitches of thread later to secure the ends, and my twill hydrangea accent was done!  A few adhesive half back pearls from the Jewels Basic Pearl pack to the main image and the centre of the ribbon flower complete the card.

A special card, for a special person - my upline and mentor Jayne Mercer.  Jayne is currently recuperating from surgeries for gallbladder removal after a nasty attack last week.  Get well soon Jayne, now it's our turn to return some of the kindness and care you offer all your team members.  Pop on over to Jayne's blog if you'd like to leave a message for her, I'm sure it would make her day

Now, what's this - two longish posts in under a week,  how could that be?  A dose of procrastination perhaps?  Hmm, that would be true - an assignment on the Skemp theory of relational vs instrumental mathematical instruction awaits, as well as a critical analyis of some educational psychology papers.  But the ideas have been percolating while I warm up my typing fingers, and I'll finish them before I return to more pleasurable writing tasks, pinky promise!! 

Elements of Style - Get Well Soon and crayon watercoloring tips

I made this card for my mum, a keen gardener after her knee surgery late last year.  It uses the "Elements of Style" stamp set, to be found on page 99, from $39.95 (clear mount).  It is a great collection of stamps that work well either used separately, especially this floral branch, or together.  It also has a couple of great greetings, and there is the co-ordinating 'Decor' standard wheel as well.  If you have the Baroque Motifs stamp set and love it, you NEED this one in your collection too - you'll find yourself using it time and again.

In this card, the stamped layer is watercolor paper, stamped in Black Stazon.  I've used my Watercolor Wonder crayons and a blender pen to colour the image.  This is probably the easiest way to watercolour a stamped image,  but many people don't know the crayons work brilliantly with a Blender Pen.

Here are my tips for a professional-looking result:

*Stamp image on heavy weight cardstock, watercolor paper is best, followed by Confetti, using Stazon ink
*Choose your crayons, selecting light and dark shades to mix, according to the colour scheme you want
*Add short strokes of crayon direct to the stamped image, not to cover the area, just to lay some colour down.
*Using your blender pen, move the colour around to fill the section, simply stroke onto scrap paper to change colours.  You will get more intense colour from the initial pen strokes, this will shade out as the solublised colour moves out of the fibre tip onto the paper.
*For small areas and tiny colour accents, scribble a bit of crayon onto the lid of the tin - this acts like a palette.  You can then pick up a small amount of colour to dab where you want it
*You can build up colour intensity by adding more crayon onto parts of the image, to create depth and shading. The hashed or darker areas of the stamp are a good place to do this, as this is where the shadows would be on a real object.You can either leave the crayon as is, or blend it into the colours you've already laid down.
*Don't forget your neutrals to add some shading around the outsides of the stamped image, again look for where a shadow would naturally fall.  I often use Sahara Sand for this, as it is a not too brown, not too grey neutral

Back to the card for a mo, and then I'll give a quick rundown of other techniques for the crayons.

The card base is square, Very Vanilla.  Can't remember the size Karen, think it was 5" x 5" finished
Next up is a layer of Blushing Bride, our dusty pink In Color for 2011-12.  Yum!  I've stamped this with French Filligree background in matching ink and distressed the edges with the Cutter Kit
Then there is a layer of Pear Pizzazz, my favourite green of the moment, and the reason I don't miss Mellow Moss as much as I thought I would!  Also yum!
Then we have the stamped panel, also distressed, coloured as described above with various shades of pink, red, green and brown.
To finish I used the In Color twill ribbon in Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz, and stamped the greeting from "Thoughts and Prayers" in Pear Pizzazz ink.

OK - after a few months of being unavailable, the Watercolor Wonder Crayons have very quickly found their way back into my most-used colouring tools.  They are available in sets of 10 in each of the 4 Colour Collections, and also come as a fabulous New Colour Collection kit, with new tins and inserts in the pretty pale green, so you can re-organise your existing crayons into their new families and add the new colours without duplication.  You can see this kit on Page 142, it's $64.95 for 17 colours and the fresh new tins.  If you're new to crayons, this kit is an economical way to get a good selection of colours to play with. (But if you're like me you'll soon want ALL the other colours too...)

A list of the new colours that come in the New Colour Kit to refresh your memory, now they have become integrated into the old faves in your collection:

Daffodil Delight
Tangerine Tango
Melon Mambo
Rich Razzleberry
Pacific Point
Pink Pirouette
Wild Wasabi
Baja Breeze
Marina Mist
Cajun Craze
Cherry Cobbler
Riding Hood Red
Early Espresso
Crumb Cake
River Rock
Soft Suede
Basic Gray

What else can you use the crayons for??

*Direct to rubber - colour a stamp with crayon by scribbling onto the rubber surface.  Bold stamps like Inspired By Nature and Upsy Daisy are perfect choices, but any bold-ish stamp will work.  Start with the lightest colour and add accents and layers.  Mist your cardstock (heavy weight is best as above) with a fine water spray to moisten the surface.  Mist the crayon-ed stamp with the spray, holding the bottle a fair distance from the stamp.  You are aiming for a fine dampness, not pooling water. The aim is to 'melt
 the crayon, but not to have it dripping off!  It does take a little practice, but the beautiful watercolour painting like results are worth it!



*Aquapainter and Crayon - You can also use the Watercolor crayons with an Aquapainter brush, which gives a wetter effect good for larger areas and backgrounds.  The base of the crayon has a perforated wrapper, so you can remove the paper from the crayon butt.  This way, you can preserve the tip for detail work, and pick up rich colour from the base, just like using solid pan watercolour paint!

Enjoy your Sunday people, please give me a call on (02) 9484 9447 if you're keen to book a free in-home workshop during the Sale-a-bration period (ends 31st March) - you too could be making cards like these!