Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Stampin' Up! Indescribable Gift Easter

Hi Stamping Friends!!!

I ordered the Indescribable Gift stamp set from the Occasions Catalog because I was hoping to hone my coloring skills with the new Blendabilities alcohol markers. But with the whole "blendies debacle" (the manufacturer could not meet SU!'s high level quality control so they are no longer available for purchase), I decided to return my marker set since I had never used them.  I also contemplated returning the Indescribable Gift stamp set. But I'm so glad I decided to keep it!!


Stamps: Indescribable Gift (Occasions Catalog)
Paper: Blushing Bride, Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold, Best Year Ever DSP (butterflies)
Accessories: Spring Flower EF, Label Framelits, Label Piercing Template, Gold Satin Ribbon, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Pearl Jewels, Baked Brown Sugar marker, Old Olive marker, Always Artichoke marker, Blender Pen, Bleach

I was inspired by a card I saw by Melissa Davies at RubberFUNatics. She used the bleach technique with this stamp set and it was so pretty I thought I would try it too.

I stamped my flower image (is it a cherry blossom or a dogwood?) using Early Espresso ink. then I cut it out with the Label Framelit. Next, using a small amount of regular bleach and a Blender pen, I "colored" my flowers.


It's a fairly simple technique. Just dip your pen in the bleach, and color, being careful not to touch your stamped outlines (which I didn't do and thus "erased" some lines and had to redraw them in using the fine side of the Early Espresso marker).

I love the look of the "bleach technique". I hadn't used it quite awhile. A few other simple tools and techniques I dusted off and used were:

My paper piercing template:


And my Embosslit:


I used to use the Beautiful Wings Embosslit All. The. Time. I love how it cuts out and embosses all at the same time! But when we got our new butterfly punches, my Embosslit got lost in the shuffle. It was fun to take him out again!!

Because I was not careful during my bleach coloring, I erased some of my lines. I thought I would replace the "inside" of my flowers by stamping them with a small image from the Sheltering Tree set using gold ink. It didn't turn out as I had planned. I wanted some soft, golden dots. Instead I got big splotches. So I tried covering them up with pearls. I still don't love it, but I wasn't about to start all over, so I did the best I could to "fix" it.


It's a big ol' hot mess in the center of my flowers. Oh well!! A tip to share though is: When Applying pearl or rhinestone jewels, use your paper piercing tool for perfect placement. It's especially helpful with those teeny tiny ones. You can use your piercing tool to lift them right off the sheet and place them anywhere you want them. So much easier than getting them stuck all over your fingers.

SInce I wanted to color my leaves green, I went to my marker set and realized that I had never converted my markers since the last color change!! Oh my! So before I could continue stamping, I first needed to organize my markers to the current colors.


I keep all of my old markers, so looking through them is like walking down a Stampin' Up! color memory lane. Who remembers Summer Sun? Handsome Hunter? Lavender Lace? Mellow Moss? Barely Banana?

Today is the LAST DAY to earn FREE Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration products!!! Don't miss out!!!


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INSTAGRAM: krystals_cards


I hope this inspires you to use some of your neglected tools and techniques. 
Thanks for stopping by!
STAMP SOMETHING!!
Krystal






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