I’ve been talking Christmas and holiday projects – and this is no exception! Here I’ve got a journal cover that takes two products and as many minutes. seriously – so easy but SO much fun!
Category: color mediums
Clean Color markers
I’ve got a quick video post to share with you today – all about Clean Color markers. I’ve got some affiliate links below to them if you are needing some. I’ve got to tell you I am saving up to purchase some more. I’ve liked them since Amazon first said “oh hey you might want…” and the price was right. A while later they became all the rage! While the hype seems to have died down I’ve got to tell you I still love mine.
They’re EASY. I can throw color down, play, blend, keep on going. No cup of water or any kind of mess needed.
They’re LASTING. I’ve yet to have one run dry and I use some of these colors a TON.
They’re wildly BRIGHT and fun. I love some bright bold color – these deliver.
You saw them earlier this week in two different posts – for one big reason I’ve yet to mention:
They TRAVEL so well. Right now I’m working in a very limited space and having the little box with them all right there easy to go and a wealth of color possibility has been a life saver. I don’t have to drag out boxes or bins of color – just a pen and usually I hold the ones I’m using in one hand while coloring with the other.
Here’s a little video specifically about Clean Color pens.
Looking for some of your own? Ellen Hutson carries them (link) as sets OR individually. You can also find sets on Amazon. As a reminder these are the “real brush” watercolor pens – my favorite pens for quite some time now. What pens are your favorites?
Craft to School: Let’s practice!
Here in my neck of the woods this is our final week of summer break. What? How? It’s true! So this week here on my blog I am going to be sharing some crafty ideas inspired by school. Today I begin inspired by learning to write…
When we learn to write we are given worksheets and made to practice over and over. Yet one of the things I see so often in crafting is people expecting to simply get a skill right away – myself included.
I challenged myself to first use a number of color mediums on a new (affiliate link used) Pink Ink Pumpkin stamp. I tried everything from clean color pens to watercolor pencils to distress ink as watercolor and my KOI watercolor set too. I played with minimal colors and blending styles water vs no water and so on.
I didn’t learn anything new exactly – but I did get a lot of good practice in and reminded myself of some details such as I really like clean color pens “color blended” and with little to no water. Or that my KOI watercolors are a bit opaque. With some practice down I stamped a bit in my current art journal and made a few notes.
I believe an art journal should be a place to be 100% free to write. doodle. test. play. There should be ZERO expectation of a “good” page or what it might look like.
My challenge to you today is to practice a technique or idea for at least 10 minutes. NO expectations – just “homework worksheet” practice!
Galaxy technique (stamped) bookmark
I’m really digging the “galaxy” colors since anything that works with purple is a win in my book. While it’s one of my favorite colors it does tend to be harder to work in! So today I decided to pull out some stamps, watercolor paper, and make myself a new bookmark.
Bookmark with Pink Ink Stamps
I was trying to think of something fun to gift the girls to start summer, and I got to looking at this book owl Pink Ink stamp that they sent me a few weeks back. What to do with it? Bookmark!
note that affiliate links are used in this post – thank you in advance for your support!
I began by using some clean color markers to make the books into a rainbow, and add a bit of color to the owl as well. Note that I didn’t color every single detail – just some fun color + water with a water brush. Just add a bit of color with the marker, then add a bit of water and blend. Repeat as needed it’s that simple to create simple coloring!
Then I took some nuvo clear drops to add dimension to his glasses, the book titles, and anywhere else I felt like it would add a little something. The supplies I used on this project include (links to Ellen Hutson.com):
Pink Ink Book Owl Stamp
Heidi Swapp gold mist
Clean Color Markers
Nuvo crystal glaze
Lawn Fawn (rainbow) patterned paper
double sided tape
black micron 05 pen
My white paper is 1 3/4″ wide, I mounted it on 2″ wide patterned paper after stamping (and coloring in same way). I also added some flecks of gold, and a bit of pen work in form of an outline and the year.
This bookmark wasn’t quite complete, so I punched a hole and added some trim.
Here is the finished result – along with some Nancy Drew summer reading for the girls!
The rainbow stack of books is my favorite thing I’ve colored in quite a while – and I had a lot of fun making something totally flat (for a change!) with this project. I hope you’ve enjoyed this project – it sure was fun to make and a reminder that I can have hand crafted detail – even when I read!