Getting To Know Spectrum Aqua Pens

 

Good morning, happy Monday, Kirsten here. As you know if you attended last Friday's classes, or have seen the blog posts over the weekend, we're all about Spectrum Aqua pens this month. My card today was one of my first attempts & I tried two techniques; watercolouring an image & stencilling.

 

**Please note; I will add website links to this post on Tuesday, once the stock updates have been completed.**

 

 

 

My focal image was the Stampendous Blossom Bunch stamp. I stamped it with Onyx Black Versafine ink on to the smooth side of a piece of watercolour card, applied WOW Clear Gloss embossing powder & heat set.

 

 

 

 I stamped again onto post-it notes, cut out the flowers & placed them on top of the embossed image.

 

 

 

On top of the post-its I placed the Imagination Crafts Diamonds stencil & secured it with stencil tape.

 

 

 

 

I scribbled Meadow & Wildflower pens from the Floral set of Spectrum Aquas onto my blending mat - I found that this is a much better surface for the pens than a heat resistant craft sheet. The ink stays wet for a long time  even when it does dry, it can be reactivated with a spritz of water.

 

 

 

I used a piece of Cut & Dry foam to apply the inks through the stencil, a little at a time.

 

If you apply too much ink with too much pressure, it will bleed under the stencil. I don't mind a little of that, but I didn't want a splodgy mess, so I tried to be careful.

 

 

 

Remove the stencil...........

 

 

Remove the post-its.............

 

 

 

I then began colouring the flowers with more Orchid.

 

I have to say that I am a very poor colourist & my blending leaves a lot to be desired, but the great thing about these pens - apart from the highly pigmented & gorgeous colours - is how easy they are to use. You can apply & remove colour so easily, over & over, until you're happy.

 

I used a paintbrush to apply the colour from the blending mat. For me, that was easier than applying the pen directly to the card, as I was able to build up thin layers of colour.

 

If you're a more confident colourist you could put the pen to he card & blend with a clean paintbrush & water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished the card with some doodled dots, a smidgen of Soft Purple Sparkle Medium in the centres of the flowers, Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges & a Penny Black sentiment.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting the blog today. The new blog challenge began yesterday, all the details are HERE.

 

Until next time, happy crafting.

 

Kirsten

More Class Cards with Versacolor inks......

 

Good Morning all,

 

I apologise for not being around too much lately on the Blog and Facebook, my time has been taken up with preparation for classes, Create and Craft shows and designing products for lovely Imagination Crafts.....not to mention the NEC Trade show last week which was great but exhausting!!

 

We have lots of new exciting products coming in and some great new classes planned for you which I will be announcing soon on the blog and my website as soon as I know when the stock can be delivered!!

 

Thanks to my right arm...Kirsten for her constant support and stepping in for me on the blog and keeping everything going for me...... You are a star!

 

I thought that I would show you today, three of the card samples that I made for the class last month using the CAS acrylic block and ink technique that Kirsten blogged HERE.

Once the ladies practised and mastered the technique on copy paper they then went about applying the ink on to water colour card as I have done here:

For the background I used Versacolor Canary and Orange. For the stamping I used IndigoBlu Stamps and Onyx Black Versafine to over stamp my background on the card below and I then embossed it with Wow Clear Embossing Powder. I then matted and layered the piece and decided to take it over on to my main card, so lined up the images and then stamped them on the main card below. I think it is really effective and gives a lovely CAS look with a splash of colour......

 

For the next one I used Versacolor Turquoise and Heliotrope (two of my favourites) with the lovely Penny Black Fanciful Stamp and a sentiment from IndigoBlu Live, Love, laugh stamp set......

 



 

And lastly for this one I used Versacolor Atlantic and Bamboo (again I love these colours).

I used the TWC mini chicken wire reversed stencil and some soft Black Soot Distress ink just in a few areas to add some texture to the background. The main image was Lavinia Stamps Zen Grass which will be coming in to stock again soon and the wording was using Hobby Art Alphabet Typed Stamp Set.......

 

 

Well I do hope that this has given you the urge to have a go and create a simple CAS ink background and maybe enter it in to out blog challenge HERE, there is still time to enter......

 

Until next time, have a great week.....

 

Hugs Lisa B xx

 

 

    

 

       

 

       

Penny Black Breezy Background

Good morning, Kirsten here. And here we all are, almost at the end of February & with signs of Spring all around - thank goodness. :) My card today features the gorgeous Penny Black Breezy leaf stamp, used with Versacolor inks...........

 

 

The substrate is watercolour card. First I swiped Cool Peri Adirondack ink onto my craft mat, spritzed it with water & laid the watercolour card on top. Removed it, dried it with my heat tool, then repeated with Pool Adirondack ink (40% off all Adirondack inks in the Mega Sale). I finished the background with splatters of Orange Versacolor ink mixed with water........

 

 

 

 

I applied Orange Versacolor to the Breezy stamp first, then Grape Versacolor for the main image - I tried to get random coverage & applied varying amounts of pressure when I laid it on the card. I stamped again with just Orange Versacolor.............

 

 

 

 

I added more stamping, using the Designs by Georgina Peony unmounted stamp set with Pool Adirondack ink & Black Versacolor for the sentiment. I made the black dots by dipping a small embossing stylus into the Black Versacolor & applying to the card.................

 

 

 

               

 

Thanks for looking. If you're crafting this week, keep the blog challenge in mind, it runs until midnight on March 7. And if you're new to the Lisa B Designs Inspiration blog & you're looking for a crafting bargain, or three, take a look at the MEGA SALE on the website.

 

Kirsten

Board Book and Crackle

     

Morning,

This is the last of my crackle projects and actually was my first attempt on this

Crafts Too ringed board book.

I wasn't too happy with the result so put it aside until I'd decided what to do with it.

It was a product that was new to me so I needed to practise using it. 

With this first result I didn't achieve a good crackle due to not applying the paint or

 Imagination Crafts crackle medium thickly enough.

Also I learnt not to try and recover the area I had first applied.

Anyhow I ended up with a good distressed background all be it not the crackle I was hoping for.

 

I then used a selection of stencils, mainly from The Crafters Workshop with distress inks and random stamping just using the 

Penny Black Slapstick Fanciful stamp without an acrylic block.

 

Futher interest was created by adding scrim, tiny beads, metal key, seam binding coloured with distress ink and some sparkly fibres.

 

All in all I think this turned out to be a good result and I hope you like it too.