New Blendabilities

Oh.  My. Goodness!  The new Blendabilities markers that Stampin' Up! is introducing in the new catalog are absolutely fabulous!  I can't wait until they are available in August so I can get my hands on some more colors.  I was able to preorder a few colors - just enough to get me hooked!  Now I really need some more!!  My fabulously talented downline Jan Tink had several of us over for a learning session on how to use these markers.  It was definitely helpful!  I'll share the card we all made together.  Then give you few pointers that I picked up from her and also from just playing around on my own.

Stamps:  Blended Bloom, and Blooming with Kindness
Ink:  Memento Black and Cherry Cobbler  pads, Basic Black marker, and Pumpkin Pie and Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities marker sets
Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, and Pumpkin Pie
Accessories:  Basic Black 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Rhinestone Basic Jewels, Sponge, Paper Snips, and Dimensionals

 Boy, no matter how many pictures I tried, none of them did credit to the card, not even close!  The colors of the flower are so beautiful and almost seem to glow!  And happily, once you got the idea of how to use the new marker sets, it was surprisingly easy to do.  That's something I really appreciate.  I mean, if something looks lovely, but takes hours to get it made, I'm not sure if I have the time or the inclination to do it more than once.  But I've already done 2 more cards using these markers and been quite happy with the results.

Tip #1:  Instead of starting with the darkest color and adding lighter over it, Jan suggested laying down a layer of light, adding the medium shading tone, then adding the darkest color tone.  Finally, going over it all one more time with the lightest color to blend.  This seems to give a better blended look when I used them in this way.

Tip #2:  When you're cutting out a project like this one, go over the cut edges with a black marker when finished cutting.  As you can see, this is something I didn't realize until I started taking pics of the card.  There a lots of little white edges that show up terribly in the pics.  Bummer!  Now I'll be prying this card apart and doing little edge touch ups when I'm done here.  But this certainly gives you an idea how wonderful these Blendabilities marker sets are!  Can't wait til August when I can get some more colors to play with!   Yahoo!   Happy stamping - Sharon