In my recent Halloween Handiwork class we created a set of six sweet treat bags, embellishing the bag topper with stamps from the “Batty for You” set and trying lots of great colouring techniques. The results were fantastic, and I thought I should share some tips & tricks with those of you who were unable to attend the class.
Make-a-Marker: When planning this class I knew I wanted to use more than one ink colour for many of the stamps in “Batty for You”, and using Stampin’ Write markers is the easiest way to accomplish this technique. Unfortunately one of the colours I had my heart set on using (the recently added “in colour” Kiwi Kiss) doesn’t come in a marker. What to do? After putting just a drop of the Kiwi Kiss re-inker on a sheet of plastic, we dipped the end of a Blender Pen into the ink and allowed it to soak into the end of the pen – viola, instant marker in just the colour I wanted! After the class I cleaned the Blender Pen by wiping it back and forth on a scratch pad until the ink ran clear, and I’m ready to use the pen again for either another creative re-inking or in a more traditional blending fashion. Big thanks to Lisa B. for introducing me to this great technique - I can't imagine Frankenstein would be nearly as spooky in any other shade!
What's Down is Up: What’s the best way to be sure your image is centred nicely when using a small piece of paper shaped by a punch? Be sure to stamp your image on the paper before punching, then use the punch in its upside down position so you can centre the image in the hole before actually punching the paper. I’ve gotten so used to using this technique that I tend to use my punches upside down even when I’m not punching out an image at all!
Unwanted Ink: No, I'm not talking about tattoo removal... just the neat trick of removing ink from part of an already inked stamp using a blender pen. In the pictures shown below I’ve fully inked our little Dracula in Basic Black, and am then removing the black ink from the edge of the cape and Dracula’s eyes. Filling in the newly cleaned areas of the stamp with a Real Red Stampin’ Write marker gives us this charming two-tone image... What a treat!
Happy (and crafty) Halloween everyone!
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