Hello stampers! Deep down we all need and love to create, but sometimes we are afraid. The reason I fell in love with stamping is the beautiful images. All I had to do was put the stamp on an ink pad and then on paper and I was already off to a beautiful start! Now there is Brusho. Wow! This post is just about the most simple way of using this amazing product. What is it?
Brusho is watercolour ink crystals in very brilliant and intense colours. It is made in England and Stampin’Up! now sells this in an assorted pack of five colours for $40.00. It will be available on January 3. The colours include Brilliant Red, Gamboge (orange) Moss Green, Prussian Blue and Yellow. You pierce a hole in the lid with a push pin (a thumbtack with a head on it that you can use as a handle as well) Then use the push pin to seal the hole when you are done. Just shake a little powder over a piece of watercolour paper that you have already spritzed with some water. Spritz a little more water on afterwards and watch the magic happen. You can re-apply again after it is dry if you want to change it. This is the most simple way of using this product, but that is just the beginning. You can also use our aquapainters to paint with it for a more controlled look. Here are some very simple cards that I made using a brand new sale-a-bration stamp set called Epic Celebrations.
We are actually making these fun cards at my Bingo Party tonight. Every quarter I have a Bingo party as a fun way of introducing new products to my customers. Everyone goes home with a prize from the new catalog and the four projects we make all use brand new product too. That way you can make informed choices when ordering from the new catalog. Epic Celebrations in a sale-a-bration set that you can get for free when you make a $60 purchase in Canada. The words for the cards come from a new set called Let the Good Times Roll. Yes, it is roller coasters and comes with framelits!!
This is definitely my favourite card. I have found my inner artist!! All you do is stamp the shoes in versamark and then emboss with clear embossing powder on watercolour paper. This one is 3″ square so it fits in our mini pizza boxes. How much fun is that? After you have embossed the shoes, spritz the paper with water, sprinkle on the Brusho and dry it with the heat gun. This also moves the colour around. The words are stamped in archival black.
With this red card I chose to emboss the headphones in white to make it pop even more. You could use this simple card for any occasion or no occasion at all, just a note of encouragement to put in a lunch or backpack.
I love this one too. Can you believe (if I remember correctly) that it only uses the Mossy Green Brusho? I find that it has an impressionistic look. This card makes me feel very artistic and that is the last word I would use to describe myself. I never took art in high school in fact I was terrified of taking an art class. From about grade 2 I knew that I had no artistic talent. Now, as an adult, I know that is not true. But it is sad that I felt that way for so many years. My greatest joy is showing others that they are artistic and that they can create beautiful things.
I haven’t had time to make a video for this yet, but I promise I will. In the meantime, if you have some time, Patty Bennett made a great video with super tips and explanations why this product is better than watercolouring with ink refills. Check it out. I would love to hear what you think. Have a super day.
Hello stampers. I fell in love with Stampin’Up! because it gave me the tools I needed to become an artist. Now that is a very big deal because I never felt artistic. In fact, I avoided art in school. Fast forward to Beautiful You. Now that is the perfect set to help you discover your inner artist. There are TONS of great cards out there using this set and so many different techniques to try. One of my favourites is the reflection technique, and it is much easier than you might think. The card below was totally cased from Sandi MacIver.
The reflection technique also works very well with the stamp set High Tide. Check out this card I made. The other benefit is that it is a surprisingly quick and easy card to make. Five minutes is all it takes.
I used night of navy for the birds, crumb cake for the sand, garden green for the grass and marina mist for the water. The sun is so saffron. The patterned paper on the left is from Serene Scenery (#141642) and on the right the coral strips are from By The Shore (#141640) The white strips measure 2 1/2″ by 5 1/2″.
Here is a close-up of the birds. If you wanted to go the extra step, you could use a blender pen to make a smoother transition between the water and the shore. I didn’t do that with this card. It is literally a five minute card.
I just realized that I have totally failed to tell you how this technique is accomplished. Simple. You use the imaging sheet that comes with our Stamp-a-ma-jig. Yes, that is actually what it is called. It is used to accurately position your words, but this is a side benefit! You stamp your image on the smooth side of the imaging sheet. Then flip it over and place it under your stamped image and rub it onto the cardstock. Clear as mud? No worries. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video even more so. Here is a video showing you exactly how to do it.
Thats all for today. If you enjoyed this please leave me a comment, it is so rewarding knowing that someone has seen your post!
Perfect Mix is the perfect stamp set for me because it is all about baking! The Pampered Stamper is called just that because I like to pamper people in my classes with homemade baked treats. I also love words, the words in this stamp set really tickle my fancy.
I chose to keep my cards clean and simple by using square mats on the whisper white notecards. The black mat is 3″ square and the white one is 2 7/8″ square. You could definitely step them up a bit by adding a little Wink of Stella to add some sparkle.
Here is a closer look at the cards. I got the idea of using this set at the first ever Canadian Business Conference for Stampin’Up! demonstrators who are at the Silver Elite level and up. It was introduced as a “speed class” and for good reason. You can make all six of these cards in one hour with ease and even time for a coffee and a piece of cake.
Come for a fun class, Perfect Mix, on Wednesday February 22 at either 1pm or 7pm. If you have any requests for treats, post a comment here and you might get lucky. It really is all about the treats!! There is lots more that you can do with this set. You could make fancier cards, cute tags for when you give someone a lovely loaf or a dozen muffins, or even some free-range eggs.
Here is a cute tag that you could add to a simple gift to really impress someone with how thoughtful you are! It really is the Perfect Mix!
Well, I hope that I have inspired you today and that you will consider coming to this Perfect Mix class. Even if you have never stamped before, I promise you that you will go home with some beautiful cards and a new hobby to love. Bring a friend and I will have a small surprise for both of you.
Happy winter afternoon stampers. With the weather we are having today it is hard to know what season it is. Only in Canada!! Started in the middle of the night with blowing snow, then a bit of freezing rain around lunch time and now it is just raining with big fat drops trailing down my stamp room window. If you just listened and didn’t look you would think it was spring. A perfect day for stamping and for using the new watercolour pencils.
Today I am going to show you how to use watercolour pencils. To really let them shine you have to leave room for blending. Do not give in to the temptation to colour in your entire image. Instead, just highlight a few areas and then use a blender pen to blend the colour and make it look like you painted it. It really is amazing the way these seemingly dry boring pencils come to life with the touch of a blender pen. Our whisper white card stock is perfect for colouring on. Be sure to use archival black ink to stamp your images as it will not cause the ink to bleed. For my card I used only rich razzleberry and old olive to do my colouring. The collage stamping was done in rich razzleberry, old olive and crumb cake. The set I used is Touches of Texture (141934, wood, $59.00 or 143251, clear mount, $44.00) This would be a great set to get as one of your bonus free sets in the starter kit!! If you would like to join my team just click here.Here is a closer up picture of the card front with the set I used for the words. I added some wink of stella to the centre of the flowers and to the dragonfly.Here is a better view of the wink of stella, not the same as in real life, but you get an idea. I love this product!!I also used Beautiful You to demonstrate how to best use watercolour pencils. Do NOT colour in the entire image. If you do that you may as well use regular pencil crayons. The idea is to just add a few bold strokes and then use the blender pen to spread the colour around. The finished result is fabulous and it is such a satisfying technique. Discover your inner artist!Rather than stamp the puddle image, I used the basic gray watercolour pencil to add some colour. If you look closely you can see a touch of razzleberry. I forgot to clean my blender pen from the Touches of Texture collage card!I am having a class on Wednesday January 25 at 10am and 7pm where you can make 20 cards. The cost of the class is $95 and includes the stamp set Beautiful You, watercolour pencils, a blender pen, an archival black ink pad, soft sky ink pad and Inside the Lines designer series paper. Here are some of the cards:Seeing is believing, so be sure to watch this video that shows you how to best use your watercolour pencils. I would love to hear how you make out, and if you do not have a demonstrator in Canada, I would love to be yours. You can order from me, or even better, join my team and get your very own discount!
Well, I hope you enjoyed this post on watercolouring. After you get a chance to play with this technique, pop me a line and let me know what your favourite stamp set is to use for this technique.
