The Crafty Thinker: Stephanie Fischer - Independent Stampin' Up Demonstrator: Blended Bloom

Showing posts with label Blended Bloom. Show all posts

Monday, 11 April 2016

Video tutorial - Blended Bloom - Monochrome Watercolour on coloured cardstock

Phew, what a marathon few days I've had! I finally got all my ducks in a row for making the much requested video tutorial for monochrome watercolouring on coloured cardstock: equipment, editing software, hours of googling and learning and a certain amount of courage to overcome my feelings of intimidation!

So, whilst I didn't achieve much in my craft room, a video was born! It's not perfect (I didn't learn about aspect ratios until too late!), I had to do some vicious cutting to squeeze it into 15 minutes and my fear and intimidation can be heard in my voice but, still, I'm quite proud of my achievement and the really steep learning curve that it involved!

I may not have a card to show you today, I'm sorry for that, but I hope this video will prove useful to you.

There are a few things that I didn't say in the video:

I like to use ink from the reinker bottle but there are alternatives:
Squeeze the stamp pad to transfer some ink into the lid and use that ink
Tap ink from the stamp pad onto a non-porous surface (like an acrylic block) and use that ink
It's important to use a Dye ink, like the Stampin' Up inks, for this technique because they are vibrant and transparent.
Choose the colour of the cardstock carefully - I find mid-tones work best for me
Use a very light touch with the brush to avoid damaging and lifting the paper fibres (or pilling as I call it)
Be as sparing as possible with the amount of water used. Unlike watercolour paper or Shimmery White cardstock, the coloured cardstock is not designed to handle water.
As necessary, I remove some pigment from my brush by wiping it on a piece of paper towel. This helps when I want to blend out colour.
This is just the way that I work - I hope my tips may have some merit and be useful but I'm not an expert watercolourist.

There will shortly be a couple of companion videos:

Watercolouring a monochrome flower on coloured cardstock using more than one ink
Watercolouring a monochrome flower on coloured cardstock using white craft ink

After that, I think I'll delve into some fun folds but if you have any particular requests, email me and I'll do my best to accommodate you.

'Til next time (with a card!)
Stephanie

Sunday, 20 March 2016

Crazy Crafters Blog Hop - March 2016 - Blended Bloom

Welcome to the Crazy Crafters Blog Hop with our Special Guest stamper, Allison Okamitsu - we are thrilled that Allison said yes to playing along with us this month!

This month we are excited to CASE (Copy And Selectively Edit) any project that has been created by Allison and we hope you find great inspiration from the projects.

Whether you are starting the blog hop here at my blog, Stephanie Fischer - The Crafty Thinker, or have come from the person before me, be sure to click on the person listed under me further down the page to continue your journey on this blog hop.

The card I cased

This is the card I eventually chose to CASE. I found so much inspiration on Allison's blog that it was difficult for me to narrow it down! I really liked the idea of using a vellum die cut sunburst to add an additional subtle layer of interest to a card. In the case of my card, it also served to tone down the pattern on the DSP I used for my background.

SU, Blended Bloom, Sunburst thinlits die, vellum, handcrafted card, watercolouring

I love the vellum sunburst

Click on the image of Allison's card to link to her blog.

I used the same concept with the vellum and similar layout to highlight a Blended Bloom that I had been watercolouring.

I stamped the banner from the Bloomin' Love set in Basic Black and added a Teeny Tiny Sentiment in Rose Red.

I trimmed the vellum sunburst to the same size as the DSP layer and adhered that to a Basic Black layer before adding it to the front of the Rose Red card.

I stamped the Blended Bloom onto Shimmery White cardstock with Rose Red ink. My first step was to colour in the stamens with a Basic Black Stampin' Write marker, so that I didn't "lose" them!

The first layer of petals is complete

Working one petal at a time (making sure any adjacent petals were dry), I watercoloured the flower with Rose Red and Elegant Eggplant inks. I used the purple to add the deep shadows. For the highlights, I left the white of the cardstock showing.

I like to use ink from the refill bottles (I just squeeze a few drops into the lid of the relevant stamp pad) so that I can more easily control my ink/water mix - which affects the depth of colour I add.

I painted the centre of the flower with Gold Wink of Stella and added a few dabs to the stamens for highlights.

I hope you've enjoyed this card and I welcome your comments.

Thanks for taking part in our blog hop. Remember that currently you are at my blog - Stephanie Fischer - so click on the next name in the list to ensure that you don't miss out of seeing any of the blogs and the amazing inspiration they contain.

'Til next time.
Stephanie

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Friday, 11 March 2016

Blended Bloom Thank You Card

This is a thank you card for a special lady. My beautiful, gentle and charming friend, Norma, has accumulated 92 years of wisdom but has not been feeling very well recently and that is making her a bit sad. I'm hoping this card will help to lift her spirits a little.

SU, Blended Bloom, Watercolouring, monochromatic watercolour, monochrome

I think I should also dedicate this card to the wonderful Stampin' Up! artist who created this beautiful stamp!

Norma and I met several years ago in hospital - we shared a room - and I am so very grateful that we did!

As the pain killers started to wear off and I was waiting for the next dose to work, Norma would tell me a story. They were always interesting, inpsirational and involved personal or family experiences. And they always lasted just long enough to distract me until the pain relief took hold.

It took me a while to realise what she had been doing for me despite her own challenges. That's an example of the wonderful person she is and why I am so grateful to call her my friend.

I'm including this card in the Crazy Crafters Team Highlight this week - which is a bit of a special one! We are being joined by AMAZING card-makers from around the globe - so do click on this link to go and have a look at all the wonderful projects with a theme of "Thank You".

You can also vote for your favourite projects ... including mine, if you like it!

There is a little touch of Gold Wink of Stella in the centre of this little flower from Everything Eleanor

'Til next time
Stephanie

I have now made some video tutorials:

This is a fairly detailed tutorial for monochrome watercolouring

This is a short companion video covering the use of two ink colours

Some extra details:

I stamped in Rose Red onto Rose Red card. Then I added some white onto the stamens so that I'd be able to find them later!

To each petal, I applied a wash of Rose Red ink and then dropped in some Blackberry Bliss to start getting some dark tones. In places I also blended in a little extra Rose Red.

I was careful to ensure that the ink was dry before working on adjacent areas.

I just kept building up the tones in the flower in this way.

At the very end, I added a little more dark in places with the fine end of a Blackberry Bliss Stampin' Write Marker. I also added a tiny touch more white to the stamens.

The very last step was to add the shadow under the flower (so that it wasn't floating in mid air!) and stamp the greeting.

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