Taylored Expressions Blender Brushes - Day 2

So much fun to be a part of the launch of the new Blender Brushes from Taylored Expressions - and apparently the excitement is contagious, because these brushes are already sold out! Taylor's doing her best to get them restocked quickly and you can head to the product page to sign up to be notified as soon as they are restocked. If you missed out yesterday, I hope you'll do that!

Today you'll be seeing projects pairing up the new brushes with TE's line of embossing folders - instead of actually embossing with my folder I decided to use it to create a monoprint! I love this Walking on Sunshine folder - instead of using it for sun rays, I wanted the rays to bring focus to my smaller image. Using the brushes, I applied Distress Oxide inks directly to the folder, blending out from light to dark (dye inks will work too, but my browns kept turning pink!).

I misted the folder with water, and then laid it onto a piece of watercolor paper. (If you do this, you may need to press the folder down flat or squish the water around to cover all the raised areas evenly.) That's it! 

I had enough ink on the folder to mist and take a second print, and that is the one I used on my card - I did the second print on Neenah cardstock and I liked the more distressed look I achieved. I brushed a little more ink into the corner so the cup would stand out more.

I colored my little coffee cup with Zig markers - the stamps I used are from the Joe To Go set, and there's an adorable matching to-go cup set that can be used with or without the stamps. So cute!

I hope you'll check out the brushes, and be sure to visit the Taylored Expressions blog for more info, videos, and other links - and remember to check the product page for the option to be contacted when they are restocked!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Pocket Portfolio

I have a new tutorial up over at Splitcoast - today I'm sharing how I make Pocket Portfolios! The ones I make usually get tucked in with my portrait orders, but they can be made for any occasion, and they're useful for quite a lot!

These are the ones I have been making, sealed with a logo label, but I think I may start using a belly band for the closure instead - I like how my other card came out, and I can do a simple medallion with my logo, or add some die cuts for pet portraits. Hmm!

I had fun putting this card together, and I don't normally mix brands but I did today! The curvy border is from Whimsy Stamps, the circles are a sneak peek of some new sets coming from Impression Obsession (shh!), the coffee pot is one of my die designs from Impression Obsession, and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches!  

Inside I was able to fit a packet of hot cocoa and a gift card - so many possibilities for this design. Hope you're having a great week! I'm having a busy one!!

Taylored Expressions - new blender brushes!

Today's an exciting day for Taylored Expressions - they are launching their new Blender Brushes! These have been designed and customized with the paper crafter in mind - look how cute they are!

My favorite feature of these brushes are the colored handles - I have multiple brushes, all with black handles, and I've labeled them with a small color swatch on the back of the head, but since they're all facing different directions in the holder, it takes me a while every time to find the right brush for the color I need. These colored handles are so pretty, and make it easy to grab the right brush quickly! 

The white bristles are soft and dense, and of course once they're used for blending, they match the handles! 

Another fun product in the launch is this spinning caddy - it's got a space for each brush, and strong grips on the bottom of the base to help it stay put when you spin it. This is a great display unit, though I prefer to have the brushes allllll over my desk when I'm working rather than moving them in and out!

I've got a couple of card samples, and I'll have more to share over the next couple of days! A few weeks ago I shared a Pastel Stencil Press tutorial on Splitcoaststampers, and that's the technique I've used on these 2 cards. I inked up the stencil with Versamark ink, embossed it in my die cutting machine, and then used the brushes to apply PanPastels to the whole surface. 

The Versamark ink helps the PanPastel medium stick to the card - these soft brushes are perfect for this highly-pigmented dry medium - they picked up plenty of product, just with a light tap! Love that deeper color on the stencil lines.

The first card background is made with the inked stencil; the second card background is made from the inked cardstock beneath it. I used different PanPastel colors just for variety, but kept all the other card elements the same. 

For the butterflies, I brushed dye ink onto Canva-Paper - this is a heavy linen textured paper that has a bit of a coated surface - it will take watercolor, alcohol ink, and a variety of other coloring media, and it's my favorite for printing digital stamps as well.

I blended dye ink on the surface, and because it doesn't absorb, the colors blended together beautifully as a base for my butterflies. This is a layering stamp set, so I took one of the layers and misted it with water...

...then pressed it into the inked area to lift some of the ink away (blot the wet area with a paper towel for best results!).

I used the matching dies to cut out the inked butterflies, and added them to my cards on a bit of foam tape! Blending the butterfly 'base' is a great way to add a little more dimension to these layered images. I used the brushes again to add just a little Stazon Pigment ink to the edges.

I hope you'll check out the brushes, and be sure to visit the Taylored Expressions blog for more info, videos, and other links! 

If you're interested in ordering, here are a couple good things to know:

• Customers will receive a free silicone cleaning tool with the purchase of the blender brushes and storage caddy. It will automatically add to qualifying orders and will not be available for purchase separately until a later date.
• Through the end of June, shipping is free on orders over $50. The free shipping threshold will go back to the usual $75 starting July 1st.

With these two promotions combined, you will get the best deal by grabbing the brushes and caddy before July 1st. Brush orders will begin shipping July 1st. 

Thank you for checking in with me today!

Impression Obsession - Old is New

With such a huge collection of wonderful stamps from so many artists, sometimes the older stamps in the Impression Obsession catalog find their way out of the spotlight. We don't want them to be forgotten, so from now on you'll be seeing our team feature them regularly. We hope you're inspired!

This passion flower stamp has been in my pile to share for a while - when we lived overseas a friend gave me a passion flower seedling for Christmas, and a few months later we had to leave for the States - when we returned to pack up our house less than a year later, that vine covered the entire front porch! The blooms are so interesting, too. I've always wanted to draw this one...

I used watercolors to color in my flowers, and did a little stamping in the background using a script stamp and some activated watercolor paint in the lid of my palette... that script stamp is one that I never put away - it lives permanently on my desk!

The background panel on my card is a gel print from my downstairs stash - when I make my thank you tags, I keep a few sheets of cardstock and matboard close by for extra paint. Those sometimes turn into my favorite backgrounds!

Stamps I used:

H12007 Passion Flower

C13203 Live Dare

L9724 French Word Background

Be sure to check out the other designers' blogs for inspiration - see the I.O. blog for all the details!

Spellbinders new Glimmer release!

Finally got to sit down and play with this gorgeous new floral foiling plate from Spellbinders - the plate is a full A2 frame, and has so many possibilities! 

I grabbed a couple of pads of my favorite black cardstock on clearance a couple of weeks ago - the Fabriano Black Black paper is a 300gsm super black card, and it's great stuff! It was a perfect base for the floral plate - I foiled it using matte silver foil and then used Prismacolor pencils to color in the frame. The sentiment is one of mine from an older floral release - love these fonts together.

I ran a line of double tape across the card and foiled it with the same foil, just for an eyeline and to break up the pattern. This foil takes to adhesive so easily!

Since the plate is large, I had a full negative image on the foil to play with - I covered another piece of black cardstock with double sided adhesive, and laid the remaining foil piece over it. Where the adhesive was exposed, I took a blending brush and brushed black PanPastel. I embossed the panel to add to the vintage look, and then layered it with pink accents .

This sentiment is another one of mine - it's here. 

Here's a look at the full plate - it's just gorgeous. Imagine it foiled, debossed, inked and colored in or watercolored... so many ways to use this one! 

Have a wonderful week!

Jewelry Kit winners!!

The winners of the prize packages from Maker's Movement are:

Gail Park: "I would so love to try these with my Gel prints!"

and

Robin: "I've never tried my hand at jewelry-making, but after seeing your work, I've decided I might try something like this. Your earrings are beautiful! You are very talented!"

Ladies, please send me your mailing addresses and I'll get these items out to you so you can start creating! 

If you didn't win but you'd like to try out the new jewelry making supplies, click HERE for a 10% discount code from me!

Have a great day!