New Products for Coloring!

I don't know about you....but I love to color.  I color with my grandson frequently!  Being only 19 months old he doesn't quite get the whole coloring thing...his favorite part, I think, is  just taking away the crayon I'm holding and turning the page in the coloring book!  But we still have fun and color often.

I was at Archiver's the other day and they had a little packet of stuff that looked like this:

I looked at it but then decided to pass it by...but a few days later I was back there again and decided to use my 30% off coupon to buy it.  What is it you ask?  Well, it's a method for blending colored pencils and this set is offered by Inkyantics.  It gives a similar look to watercolors without the tendency for your paper to warp.

What comes in the little bag?

You get an instruction sheet (most valuable!), a bottle of Gamsol which is odorless mineral spirts, 2 blending stubs, and some sandpaper on a stick. 

So....how does this work?

First of all you stamp your image with any dye based fast drying ink.  You can use waterproof ink but it isn't necessary.  I think that is great right there.  If you use watercolors you need to use waterproof inks or else your image will bleed all over the place and the last thing we want is a bleeding image!  Anyway, stamp your image and let it dry a few seconds and now you are ready for the fun to begin!

You can use any colored pencils...just don't use watercolor pencils. Take the color you want to use and outline your shape (on the inside of your stamped image lines...does that make sense?...I hope so!). 

Then you take your  blending stuf and touch it to the Gamsol...you'll see your stub absorb some of the mineral spirts.  Next you take the stub and lightly go over the penciled lines to sort of break down the wax in the penciled mark.  You will start moving your stub in a circular motion and it will pull color towards the middle.   

Whoopsie...that photo is a little blurry but hopefully you get the idea.  Complete this process until your image is the way you want it.

Another not so great photo but maybe you can get an idea of the blending.

I then cut it out and did another identical image and then glued the centers to each other and mounted them on  some black cardstock cut into a 3x3 card. 

I curled up the petals of the flower to give it a little more dimension.  I finished this little gift enclosure card by tying some floss through a button and using a couple of Glue Dots to adhere it to the flower.  And that was it!

Archiver's also had some nice pencils for purchase but they were rather pricey so I waited and bought a set at Micheal's with a 50% off coupon.

OH...and what is the sanding block for?  Well, when you are using the blending stub it tends to pick up the color you are blending so you use the sander to sand off the inked end and keep your stub nice and sharp!  Easy Peasy!