Tuesday Tips - Softening the Color of Stampin' Write Markers

The Tuesday Tip this week is for using Stampin' Write markers.  If you have ever colored an image with markers, yet you wished the colors were toned down a bit, this tip is for you.  Let's take a look at two cards I made today.  Both cards are decorated with a cute spaceship stamp from the Pun Fun stamp set in the 2010/2011 Idea Book & Catalog.  I am so happy this stamp set has not retired yet.....each stamp is so cute & makes me chuckle. 

The card that has the little white brad is colored with Stampin' Write markers.  I just colored in the spaceship as I would color with crayons.  Actually, I color in circular strokes.  I stamped the spaceship image with Black Stazon ink onto watercolor paper.   I like using watercolor paper and Stazon ink when I am going to be watercoloring because I know the colors will not smear or run.  The Stazon/watercolor paper combo is a great duo for blender pens as well.

Now, notice the difference between the first spaceship image and the one with the ribbon and clippie.....no, this is not one of those games where you find the differences between the two pictures.  (hee hee)  Just notice the coloring of the spaceship.  The reason the coloring looks different is because the second card is colored with blender pens that are inked from a color palette created with Stampin' Write markers, instead of coloring directly onto the paper with the Stampin' Write markers.

It's easy.........

Color a few strokes of your Stampin' Write marker onto either the plastic cover of an inkpad, a clear-mount acrylic block (you'll need to make sure you damp-wipe it when you're done), the lid of a Stampin' Up plastic stamp set case, or even a plastic plate.  Here's a picture of my color palette for this card, which I scribbled with Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake, and Tempting Turquoise Stampin' Write markers onto a stamp set case.

Now, load the blender pen with your color of choice......scribble a few strokes with the blender pen directly into the puddle of color on your color palette to pick up or "load" the color.

Now, rather than coloring with the Stampin' Write marker, color with the blender pen, onto your stamped image.  The color will be soft and pale, unlike the vibrant color when using a Stampin' Write marker directly onto cs.

You will find that the color will disappear from the blender pen tip very rapidly, so you will need to reload the blender pen quite often.

One more tip - make sure you scribble the blender pen tip onto scrap paper until it draws clear, uncolored lines, every time you change colors, in order to get  true Stampin' Up color.

Have a great day!

Linda