From StampinUpCards

Although I haven’t had time to make many cards over the past six months, I’ve been reading a lot of craft blogs and learning some new techniques. One of these techniques is using a blender pen to color images with ink from the Stampin’ Up! ink pads. One great advantage to this method over third-party watercolor pencils is that the colors are a perfect match to the cardstock and other stamped images. I’ve watched Angie use this technique in several of her videos on her Chic’ n Scratch blog, and it really is as easy as she makes it look. The blender pen cleans itself quickly when you rub it across a clean sheet of paper several times before you change colors.

This little stamp is actually a sneak peak of a project that I’m working on for this coming week’s Pals Paper Arts Challenge. I will be posting the finished card on Thursday. I haven’t participated in many online challenges, but the ones I’ve completed have been  fun motivation to create something new that stretches me beyond my normal comfort zone. I plan to participate in at least one challenge per week as a way to get myself into my craft room and actually finish a project. (I was looking for quotes about quilting this morning, and one of them seems very appropriate here: “To quilt is human, to finish is divine.”) Posting the projects will also keep me blogging on a regular basis. (wink!)  The irony is that I spent over 20 years in the classroom encouraging my students to write and be fearless about sharing their ideas, while I’m pretty shy about actually publishing my own writing online.  Anyway, if you haven’t tried “watercoloring” with a blender pen and the ink from your ink pads, I encourage you to give it a try, and let me know how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by!