Stampin' Up!'s Blendabilities Videos and Tutorial

Hey Everyone,

I actually made these videos a few months ago, but I didn't like how far away the coloring was from the video, and the first image I colored in looked pretty rough!!  But, I decided to share them anyway.  The first video is tips/tricks/facts about Blendabilities.  The second one is where I show three different techniques for coloring with Blendabilities.

I hope these are helpful to you!!

Below the videos is the tutorial/notes from my Blendabilities Class.

Have  a great day!
Jennifer
jennifer@jennifercotton.com
Order Online Anytime!

Here are my notes:

Blendabilities 101:

Blendabilities Facts:

1.       Page 212.

2.       Blendabilities take practice – the more you learn and do, the better you get!

3.       They are alcohol based markers – great for blending!  They give a flat/streak free coloring. 

4.       The barrel is square, so it won’t roll off your table.

5.       Store them flat to keep ink evenly distributed.  (They fit nicely into our Wood-Mount Cases, p.235.)

6.       Each has two tips made from nylon which is a more durable material.  The tips will fray if they are made from something else (like polyester).  Use the different size tips depending on the size of the image.

7.       Caps are very tight on purpose (store air tight) – the alcohol will quickly evaporate, so make sure you keep the caps on when not using them (and in-between on projects)!  When the markers dry out, they are not re-fillable, so you will have to purchase more markers.  This is part of how we keep our marker costs so low (compared to $6 and up for other single markers). When possible, try to use all three shades together so that they will “wear” evenly and you won’t have one or two markers that work and one or two that don’t from the same collection.

8.       The ink from the markers can splatter, so be careful when removing cap and placing it back on.

9.       To put the cap back on, lay the marker flat on the table  to fit it into the barrel – you don’t want to damage tip by just placing it on there and missing the circular barrel inside.

10.   Our Blendabilities coordinate with SU! colors – each set comes with 3 colors – so coordination is done for you – unlike other brands sold as singles!

11.   Color Lifter: doesn’t take off color, it just helps move color or lighten it.

12.   Ink pad: must be water based so it won’t run – Memento Black (and it does not stain your stamps!).  Memento Black is a great black ink, too, for regular stamping as long as you are not adding water based markers/watercolor on top of it.  (Staz On is alcohol based, so it will blend with the blendabilities – AKA RUN!)  You can also use blendabilities when you heat emboss the image.  OUR CLASSIC INK PADS are waterbased!  I have tested Early Espresso and it worked!  **Our classic pads are not as waterproof, so the ink can run if your card gets wet (which will ruin it either way!).

13.   Blendabilities work best on whisper white and very vanilla cardstock (although you can use them on colored cs too).

14.   The white and vanilla cardstock does not pill up/break down no matter how much you color!

15.   The ink will bleed through, so two things: use clean scratch paper underneath, and you will need to attach your colored image to the project so the back doesn’t show through.

16.   You can mix colors from different sets (not just mix/blend with the 3 that come together).  Colors will NOT bleed onto each other!  So, you can put yellow over red, etc.

17.   You can mix two or more colors to make a new color – just test on scratch paper.

18.   You can color on non-porous surfaces – like rhinestones, photos, buttons, pearls, window sheets, ribbon, fabric, and more!

Blendabilities Tips/Techniques:

Where to shade: imagine a light shining on your project.  Which side is it coming from?  Now imagine how the light would affect the object.  Where would it be lightest?  Where would the shadows fall?  Still not sure?  Get a flower, ball, or other object out and shine a light on it from different directions and study it.

When you are coloring with any of the techniques, you normally want to work with wet ink.  So, normally you try to work quickly from one marker to the next until you are done.  For this reason, sometimes you will color one section of an image (example: one petal) at a time.  When you let the ink dry (even the same marker) and apply ink on top of it, it won’t blend as well, and you may see a defining line between the two, and the colors get darker and darker when you let it dry in-between.  Also, when coloring with any of the techniques, you can leave white space intentionally at first to add highlights. And/or, you can use the lifter to lighten a spot you got too dark.

**You can go DARK TO LIGHT or LIGHT TO DARK – IT IS UP TO YOU.  Play with it.  You may prefer one way over the other all the time, OR you may change between these depending on the project.  

Three ways of coloring:

*I use the brush tip for all unless the space is very small.

1. Circles:  “Circles” will give you the best blending effect (no lines from one shade to the next).  How to: Start quickly in circular motions. 

Light to dark: Color in entire image with lightest color (remember you can leave white space, though).  Go over entire image with lightest color until there are no more lines.  Then color with little circles medium color a little less than ½ (OR wherever you want shading).  Then repeat with darkest color at edge of medium color only.  Now go over ALL (light, med, and dark) with the lightest color to blend.  You can keep going over it until it’s all blended – there is no limit to how long you can do this.  When the ink dries and you add color, you are adding another layer that will make it darker.  So, working quickly (keeping it wet the entire time) can help avoid this IF you do not want that effect.  For this reason, doing small sections at a time is recommended (example: one petal at a time).   When coloring skin, the circles technique is recommended.   Try light to dark now on the the vases and/or lanterns.  Tip: try making a circle on the lantern with the lightest marker where you want the white space, then continue and do light to dark.  This helps you remember to leave the white space.

Dark to light: color on the section you want the dark shadow first with the darkest color – just a very small amount on the edge.  Then color with little circles medium color a little less than ½ (OR wherever you want shading) going over the dark, too.  Last fill in everywhere with the lightest marker (remember to leave white space if you want).  Go over with light until all is blended.  When you do dark to light, the entire image can be lighter because you are only doing the “light” step once instead of twice like in light to dark.  Try dark to light on the vases and/or lanterns.

When to do light to dark vs. dark to light?  Whenever you want!  You may prefer one over the other, or it may depend on the image.  Test it out first to see what works best on your project.

Color Lifter: it “moves” the color (it does not erase it).  So, you can use it to add highlights after coloring – or just to lighten up an area you got too dark.  But, be careful not to move too much at one time (when lightening).  Remove a little and see how it dries before you move more.  When you leave white space, you can use the color lifter to soften that area by lightly going over the white area with the color lifter.  And, when you go outside of the lines, you can use the color lifter to move some of the color back inside.  Start outside of the image and “push” the mess up back into the image.  Try either dark to light or light to dark and use the color lifter on the vases.  Go outside of the lines a tiny bit on purpose and “push” the color back inside the lines.

2. Strokes: You can just paint/color like you would with a normal marker and achieve blending, too.  You would still go light to dark or dark to light, etc, like with “circles”.  Now try light to dark and dark to light with strokes on the vases and/or lanterns.  Use the color lifter if you want.
3. Flicking: Literally “flick” the marker from the bottom up.  The bottom will be thicker and darker, the top will be thinner and lighter.  Start in the area of the image you want to be darkest (example: the bottom edge of a petal), but start with your lightest marker.  Flick with the lightest color.  Repeat flicking technique with medium color going a little less than ½ way up.  Then repeat technique with the darkest color at the edge only.  Now go over all with flicking technique with lightest color.  REPEAT ALL from opposite side of image (meeting in the middle – so, for example – the other side of the petal).  When the ink dries and you add color, you are adding another layer that will make it darker.  So, working quickly (keeping it wet the entire time) can help avoid this IF you do not want that effect.  For this reason, doing small sections at a time is recommended (example: one petal at a time).   Now try light to dark and dark to light with flicking on the leaves.  This technique is a great way to make grass, too.  You can try that on a blank spot of your white cs.

Other tecnhiques:

Feathering: You can also “flick” one color on one end of an image (example a bird/butterfly) and flick another color (even from a different set of markers like green and blue) from the other end where they will meet and overlap in the middle.  Try this on a butterfly.

Overlapping different colors: You can use different colors on one image (example: butterfly).  Start with the darkest (example green), then when you add the next lighter color (example yellow) overlap the darker color some.  Keep overlapping the previous color as you go (circles, not flicking).   Try this on a butterfly.

Very small images (example: small leaves): you can use only 2 colors from the same family (example medium and light), do the flicking technique from the “shaded” side; then “flick” the color lifter from the other side towards the color you added to make it blend more naturally.  It will look like you highlighted the top.

Texture: You can use the Color Lifter to add texture – so after an image is colored in, you can add things like scales (dinosaur) or bricks (house), etc by removing color with the lifter.