Sunday School - Colored Pencils + Minerals Spirits = Easy Blending!

Good morning CraftyStealers!

The longer I work here at CraftySteals.com, the more interested I have become in stamping. I don't know whether it has more to do with all of the fun stamps that Stephanie finds, or the fact that so many of you share your incredible stamping talents and make me want to expand my crafty horizons.  In any case, I'm now adding stamps and ink to my list of craft supplies to hoard (along with thickers, patterned paper and punches).  I am also constantly searching out new (or new to me!) techniques to use with stamps.

This morning, I'm sharing a new technique that I've been playing with to color in stamped images.  It uses colored pencils, odorless mineral spirits and a blending tool. Some of you may have heard of this mentioned with Gamsol (which is a brand of odorless mineral spirits).  You can use this technique to blend colors together and make the colors looks smooth without visible pencil lines.  It's a very cool technique with what I think is a fairly small learning curve, and looks great for not a lot of work!

Here's all you need:

Colored Pencils
A note: You'll need to use a better quality pencil than the Crayola.  Many people love to use Prismacolor pencils, I actually used Staedtler pencils because I've had a set for twenty years and figured I would use them up before investing the cash in more pencils.

Odorless Mineral Spirits
As I mentioned, Gamsol is probably the most mentioned brand - it can be found in art supply stores. I don't have one in close proximity, so I picked up the Masterpiece brand at a craft store.  I've also heard Mona Lisa makes a brand sold in craft stores, and even Wal-Mart carries a cheap version. 

Blending tools 

I picked up some blending stumps at the same craft store where I got the odorless mineral spirits.  They are basically tightly rolled paper pencils.  I've also seen q-tips used as well as other blending tools.  You can experiment with what you like the best!

Now that you've got the tools, here's how to use them (well, how *I* use them, at least!).

Stamp your image onto a piece of cardstock (I'm using the very adorable princess stamp from a past steal, Imaginisce's Enchanted).

Color in your image with the colored pencils.  On the skirt, I used a darker pink to outline, and a lighter shade on the center.  Also, I didn't have to be too careful with the pencil marks, as I knew they would be softened later.

Next up, the blending! Dip your blending stump into the odorless mineral spirits, getting it wet, but not dripping wet.  Now you can carefully blend the colors together - moving the tip gently over the colors (on the skirt I went from dark to light). 

To clean off the stump, you can just rub it onto a piece of scrap paper.  It can also be sharpened like a pencil.

When you have blended to your satisfaction, you're done!

I cut out this sweet little princess as an embellshment for a birthday card. I finished off the card with some punched out circles and scallop-edged circles, adhesive border strips and ribbon - all from the Imaginisce line.

What do you think? I personally love that there is more control than using a watercolor pencil (at least in my experience), and it's a relatively inexpensive method of coloring (I have yet to dive into the world of Copics or similar markers).  I hope you'll like it too (if you haven't already tried it).  Don't forget to check out today's steal for some new supplies to get you started! 

Have a fabulous day, and Happy Crafting!

By the way, I *hope* the comments are working again for the blog.  Let us know if you have any issues!

Sunday School: Custom Stamp and Small Sticker Storage

Good morning CraftyStealers! 

It's back to organizing this week! Since the beginning of my craftroom "Mission: Organization", I have been working my way through my supplies.  First it was scrap storage, then punch storage, and now I am moving on to clear stamp storage. 

I have not been much of a stamper in the past, but am loving all of the stamping creations that I have seen lately here and all over company design team blogs.  So of course, I have started "collecting" clear acrylic stamps (I can't with any sincerity say I am using them much yet).  My collection is small, but even my little collection is outgrowing the box I was storing them in. Plus, I can't see what I have easily.  Needless to say, it was NOT going to do the trick. 

I have seen special notebooks at various craft stores specifically made for stamp storage, but I thought that the idea was simple enough to try to recreate at home for a fraction of the cost.  It turned out to be even easier than I had orginally thought (and cheaper, since I had everything except the thread at my house already).

Here's what you'll need:

• Old or inexpensive album (I used an old 8 X 8 postbound album)
• Cheap page protectors
• Polyester (clear) thread
• Ruler
• Dry erase marker
• Cutter or Craft knife/self-healing mat
• Sewing machine 

Take the stamps/embellishments (these adorable stamps below are from the American Crafts Junior Collection kit - there are a few left on the Past Steals page) and lay them down how you would like them to fit on the page.  With the dry erase marker, draw hash marks to form squares or rectangles around your stamps/embellishments, making sure to leave ample room around the edges (this will make it easier to take things in and out).

With the ruler, connect the hash marks (these will be your "sew" lines).  You will also need to draw "cut" lines.  In this example, the top is open already, but I would like the bottom "pocket" to open from the right side. So draw a line on the right (make sure to make it a little longer than the exact length of whatever is going into the pocket for easy in and out).

Now, with the cutter (or craft knife), cut along the cut line (there is only one on this example).  You want to cut all the way through both layers of plastic. 

Now you are ready to sew!  If you'd like to have a background (sometimes it will help you see your stamps better - and can also be used as a divider to put stamps on the backside), you can put a piece of paper into the page protector at this point.  The paper will serve as a divider.  In this particular pocket, I left it out.  Using your clear thread, sew straight lines along the divider lines you drew.  Wipe off the dry erase marker with a paper towel.

Voila! Custom storage.

Here is another example of a different set of stamps.  I left the paper in when I made these pockets, as there were quite a few stamps in the collection and I wanted to store the others on the back pockets.

This kind of storage makes it SO easy to store collections together by manufacturer and/or by theme! You can move aroud pages and add more in as needed. It is easy to flip through and see all of your fabulous choices too.

As an added bonus, you can also use this same method for making custom coupon organizers! I'm no "Extreme Couponer", but it would be nice to have an easy small notebook to keep in the car for restaurants and various store store coupons that are too big for the usual coupon organizers.  (By the way, has anyone caught the new Extreme Couponing show on TLC yet?  Those savings are insane - but what do you really do with 60 bottles of Maalox? Check it out if you haven't yet!)

Have fun organizing your stamps, stickers (and maybe even some coupons)!