Man Card!!

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Jaime

I love how Jean Okimoto, from ColorBox, refers to this as her “man card”. I know, it’s tough to make something “manly”. No arguments there. Jean used our mini (6×6) Chevron stencil – TCW227.

Here’s what she writes:

“Hi – Jean Okimoto here – with a guy’s card featuring our newest ColorBox Limited Edition Chalk Inkpads. ColorBox Chalk Inkpads provide great coverage for stenciling, layer beautifully and dry quickly.

With all of the bling and prettiness of recent Valentine and soon-to-be-Spring cards, it’s easy to forget about cards for the guys – here’s one I hope you’ll like. Hope he likes it too!

Click here to see directions and products used!!

Anita Stokes

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Jaime

Another great find on Julie’s Pinterest board – Anita from Australia writes on her blog:

I made a gorgeous background by using a mix of Heidi Swapp (Primrose), Shimmerz (Cotton Candy), Glimmermist (Cadillac Pink) & Mr Hueys (White) sprays. I first ‘pooled’ all the colours in the middle and let run so it watermarked into my background then I masked with my fave mask at the mo – the chevron one by The Crafters Workshop – Balzer Designs. Once the mists were dry I used my finger to wipe gesso over the top of some sections then outlined with lead pencil followed by a black pen.

The ultra glossy dots of colour are the Shimmerz pots in Jilted Jade. This colour is just stunning. I have also swiped the masking tape with it and put a lil bit on the resins.

Beautiful! Thanks Anita!!

Spray Paints á là Pam Garrison

Posted on September 4, 2012 by admin

Pam Garrison is one of those artists/designers/instructors with whom I’ve kept in touch, because her work is so inspiring. Every once in awhile I get an email with pretty things attached to it. This was one of those days.

Just so inspiring. right? Pull out all of your goodies, lay down some craft paper (brown paper bags?!?), open up that cardboard box in your recycling bin and let loose! And be sure to post what you come up with on our Facebook page.

April Derrick’s Staining Gesso

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Jaime

Do you see those wonderful Chevrons on the left side in blue? Well the very talented April Derrick created those using our TCW227 Chevron template:

Here’s what April writes on her blog:

* Two months ago I was playing around with my stencils and I ended up creating a stack of textured watercolor canvases. I applied gesso with and without stencils to several sheets of watercolor paper and then just set them aside to dry. I knew I would use them later and since I had everything out and the table covered why not go ahead and just make a bunch at one time right? Well a couple of weeks later I was showing one of my friends how to use distress stains and I brought out one of my gessoed watercolor sheets to demonstrate on. Let me just tell you – the minute I put the first streak of stain on my page my eyes lit up and I knew exactly what I was going to do with each and every single one of those textured watercolor canvases that were just sitting in a stack waiting for me to play with them! The distress stains from Ranger look quite frankly “Outstanding” on top of the gesso and when you mix the colors and rub them with a towel to blend them the results get even better. The piece above is one of the first ones I constructed using my freshly stained papers and I am quite happy with it because it ended up being another one of those projects that just flowed. I didn’t have to struggle with anything while I was creating, or worry about where to put what…it all just came together and since it doesn’t always happen like that I cherish the times it does!! I look forward to sharing more “Stained Gesso” projects and if you have any questions about the process please feel free to ask!

* Sorry the picture is a tad blurry – but to achieve the amazing chevron texture, I laid a chevron template from The Crafters Workshop on top of a sheet of watercolor paper and then used an old i tunes card to swipe gesso over the top of it. I lifted the template off of the paper and then let it dry. When I applied the distress stain later, I made sure to wipe over the tops of the chevrons with a paper towel so it took a little bit of the color back off and helped the chevrons really stand out! I got a lot of use out of that one sheet of chevron paper as I cut it up and have it used parts of it on several different projects since!

To read more, click on April’s blog.