Making Watercolor Paints with Color Lab Powders

Hello Friends!

Keri here and today I am super excited to show you another amazing way you can use Marion's new Color Lab system...make your own watercolors!!

The super saturated pigment powder, mixed with a little water, makes for rich colors and a more opaque finish than normal watercolors.

Here's what I did:

I started by sketching a butterfly on watercolor paper. (If drawing isn't your thing, you can easily print  your chosen image from your computer....just choose one with a good outline.)

I then outlined it with a black sharpie.

I tested my Color Lab to see whether I needed to add clear gesso over my drawing.

Here is my test...as you can see, my sharpie stayed true with and without gesso and my Color Lab is smoother when used over gesso. It also dries faster. :)

So I decided I wanted to gesso my butterfly. 

Next, I prepped my paint.

I added a very small amount of powder into wells of a paint pallet. Using the little scoop that comes with it, I used 1/2 a scoop if I was using a single color and just a dash if I was mixing colors.

This is a perfect time to play with new recipe ideas!!

Add 1-2 tablespoons of water, depending on the saturation you want from your colors. 

Now...let's paint!!

Here's a little tip to blend two colors:

Apply 2 colors on opposite side of the section you are painting. Using one light/one dark makes the best dimension. 

Now in between the two colors, add a little bit of water and allow the colors to naturally wick and blend. 

Continue the process all over your image, working on one section at a time and mixing up using 1 or 2 colors.

Another tip? Allow one section to dry before using your watercolors on the neighboring section. If they get too wet, they will be drawn in to the neighboring section. You can see this just a bit on the border between this green and red section.  I think it looks cool, but just be cautious if you would like a cleaner look.

Once I was done, I hit my project with my heat gun to speed up the drying process.

Lastly, I sealed my butterfly with a mixed of clear gesso, mixed with a bit of Color Lab gold powder. 

For this process, you want to dab with a large brush instead of swiping and every few dabs clean wipe you brush off a bit because the brush might pick up a little of your colors. This happened to me and I liked the "molten" look it gave my butterfly!

Here's a close up...check out that sparkle!!

I hope you enjoyed my project today and are inspired to think of new and exciting way to use YOUR Color Lab!!

XOXO,

KERI

Stamping gold with the Curious Stamps set.

Good Morning Lovelies! 

Keri Sallee here and I am so excited to share my project with you today.

I LOVE any project that incorporates vintage music, so I wanted to bring together Marion's Fabulous Stamps with some vintage sheet music I found at a local thrift store (for a quarter!) 

The process is SUPER simple, but the effect is magical.

Here's what you need:

Marion Smith Designs "Curious" Stamps

White Gesso

Embossing Ink 

Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel

Water Colors

Vintage Sheet music

Heat Gun

STEP 1:

Paint your desired area of your vintage sheet music with gesso. Allow to dry completely before continuing. (A heat gun can speed this up.) 

STEP 2:

Grab your embossing ink, embossing powder and the large flower from Marion's "Curious" stamp set. 

STEP 3:

Ink you stamp and then stamp onto your dried gesso. Make sure to give even pressure so you get a good image. Just a little warning: embossing ink is a little slicker than regular ink, so just be careful. 

STEP 4:

While the ink is still wet, sprinkle with your embossing enamel, coating well. Lightly pat it down and then shake the excess back into your container. Use your heat gun to melt you embossing enamel. Watch how close you get your gun to your project...too close and it will blow away your powder and distort your image...too far and the enamel powder will not melt. 

STEP 5:

Next: add COLOR! I chose water colors, but you could fill in your image with acrylic, inks or even color pencils. What's great is that the UTEE acts as a barrier, so there is almost no way to mess up! (BONUS!!)

STEP 6:

Lastly, add your your title. I used the word stamp from the "Curious" stamp set. I felt like the black ink would get a little lost in the blue background, so I added a small swipe of white gesso the size of my title, allowed it to dry and then stamped my title. 

I hope you enjoyed my project today and I can't wait to see what it inspires you to create!

Have a blessed day and remember...make your art intentional in your life...not an after thought.

XOXO,

Keri 

Nirvana Mini Album by Tonya Gibbs

 

 

WOW this mini is jammed tight with lots of Marion Smith Design Products, and tons of techniques.  Yep - I'm still on a gold kick and wait until you see how these gold accents really bring this album to life.  I used the Nirvana Collection, scraps from several digital kits, Junque & Gems, all of  Marion's stamps, Marion's Dies, Bloom Impression Tool and some of the resin pieces on this mini.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Over the last few months, I've shared several tutorials that have led to the making of this mini.

Last week  I shared a tutorial on creating flowers with Marion's new Bloom Impression Tool.  This flower uses the Bloom Tool & Marion's Large Rose Petal Die, and Leaves & Stamens Die.  

 

 

A few weeks ago,  I shared how I made a Garden Mother's Day card, and used that same technique to create the section hinges.  and the pockets on the inside cover.

Here are a few of my favorite spreads

 

 

 

In January I shared with you  Wooden Ticket tutorial. I think these little tickets look awesome with your embellishment clusters.

Here is a complete walk through video of this little mini so you can see each page!

If you missed those other posts, I hope you  get to take a peek soon.

Thanks for stopping in today
Tonya Gibbs
http://www.psychomoms.com

Boy Birthday Card by Tonya Gibbs

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a great week.  My favorite part of Marion's designs are all the little tiny elements that you can fussy cut and cluster together.  Today's project was inspired by the layout I made for yesterday's post.  

 

I used a  few of the same techniques, but this time, I took elements from Marion's Nirvana collection, and the Texture stamps from Marion's latest release to create the mixed media background boy card. 

 

 

 

Here is how I did the background for this card. 

I started with a piece of cardstock, and spread modeling paste or gesso using your favorite stencil. Allow it to dry completely.

 

Using a Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Pitt Artist Pen - carefully rub some of the ink onto the stenciled area. Try to avoid direct contact with the cardstock.  Do a small section then go to next step.

 

 

Using your finger rub the Pitt Pen Ink to blend, allow some of the ink to spill over the cardstock.

 

 

 

Archival ink was used around the edges to further distress the background.

 

I used a green Pitt Artist Pen directly on my stamps then stamped it onto my background paper.   These pens are temporary blendable ink on a prepped surface as seen on the hexagons.  However, when used on a non-prepped surface they offer a permanent ink solution. 

 

 

Pick a brown watercolor shimmer mist (I used Gossamer Gold by Lindy's Stamp Gang), and spray onto a non-porous surface. I used recycled packaging for my pallet.

 

 

 Use a circular item and stamp the bottom into the ink, then apply it to your project. 

 

 

 

 

The grungy effects give this background and instant masculine feel.   All I have to do now is build out my layers.  In addition to Marion's ephemera, I've also included a chipboard #2, sentiment, twine, and puzzle pieces.

 

 

Thanks for stopping in today,

 

Tonya Gibbs

http://www.psychomomscrapbooks.blogspot.com