How to add colour to Awesome Otters using Watercolour Pencils, Blender Pens and Blending Brushes

Stampin’ Up!® is really good at creating cute stamp sets that everyone wants to own – and Awesome Otters, the new Sale-a-Bration stamp set, is a prime example. It’s been really popular with my customers here in the UK, as many of them love wildlife as much as I do. We do have otters here in Derbyshire but they are very elusive – maybe 2022 will be the year that I see one?

 

This stamp set, which is free with a £45 order, is perfect for new crafters or those who are new to Stampin’ Up!® and want to start building up their collection as it features both greetings and images; three fun otters which can be used separately or together.

 

 

I’ve made a card with each of the otter images to add to my very depleted birthday card stash. I think these cards could be sent to anyone – men, women and children – and I would be more than happy to receive an otter birthday card myself. 

 

These cards show you how to add colour to your images using watercolour pencils with blender pens, and also how to add depth using Blending Brushes. 

All the images on my cards are stamped in Stazon and coloured with watercolour pencils and Stampin’ Up!® Blender Pens. When I say Blender Pens I mean the clear markers that you use with ink or pencils and not Stampin’ Blends, which are coloured alcohol markers. I know there is often some confusion because of the very similar product names.

When using Blender Pens (the clear ones), ideally use a permanent ink such as Stazon, although you can get away with a water-based ink such as Memento Tuxedo Black if you allow it to dry fully and work sparingly. 

 

Colour with your pencils, concentrating on the areas where you want darker colour to appear. Make sure you have enough colour on before you start blending as it’s difficult to add extra colour with the pencils once you have used the Blender Pens. When you are happy with the level of colour, gently blend it with your Blender Pens, working towards the uncoloured areas to create a soft graduated look.

For my first card, I have created a background panel using patterned paper from the Pattern Party Designer Series Paper Pack, which is one of the host products in the Stampin’ Rewards section of the Stampin’ Up!® catalogue. This means you cannot buy it, but you can earn it free when you host a party with a workshop total of £150 or more or place your own order to this amount. The paper has bright colours one one side and black and white designs on the reverse; I’ve used one of these to create a blue spotty panel, adding the colour using my Pacific Point ink pad and a Blender Pen.

For my main element, I stamped the partially submerged otter onto a label die-cut using Seasonal Labels Dies. These dies were in the July-December Mini Catalogue but have carried over into the first part of 2022. I coloured the image using an Early Espresso watercolour pencil, then added extra colour using Stampin’ Up!® Blending Brushes; a hint of Pool Party at the top and some Pacific Point at the bottom. Blending brushes are an excellent way to add colour and depth to an element. 

 

 

I’ve used a Blending Brush on this second card, too, to add a little depth to the Pool Party circle. The Pool Party theme is continued on the background, where I’ve stamped all the different otters at random, as close together as possible. This is a quick and easy way to make your own patterned paper to match your project perfectly.

 

The main otter image is stamped and cut out freehand, with a little party hat cut out and added on top. I’ve popped him up onto the Pool Party circle using Stampin’ Dimensionals, just resting his little foot and tail to overlap onto the greeting banner.

 

 

By positioning the stamped panel and the Bermuda Bay panel behind it at jaunty angles, this emphasises the fun feel of the card. It’s not necessarily something I would do for a more serious occasion, such as a sympathy card. 

 

My third card really makes use of the Blending Brush by creating a dark pool of blue water in the centre of the card with the bright otter standing out from the background. I did this by stamping the otter onto a separate piece of Basic White cardstock and cutting it out closely. 

 

For the background, I applied Pacific Point ink with a Blending Brush in a circular motion, which creates much darker colour in the centre, graduating out to paler blue towards the edge of the cardstock layer. I stamped the otter directly on top of this blue ink, which meant I retained the finer details such as the movement lines. 

 

After I did this, I flicked some clear tap water onto the blue ink and allowed it to dry. This soaks up some of the ink to create pale splashes and is one of my very favourite techniques. Next I stuck the cut-out otter on top of the stamped blue layer, matching up the images perfectly. This is a great tip if you have fine details, such as whiskers or hair, that you really can’t fussy cut successfully.

The banner on this card, too, is cut out with Seasonal Labels Dies, and fits the “It’s birthday time!” greeting perfectly. It’s finished off with some Elegant Trim from the Stampin’ Up!® Annual Catalogue, for quite a clean and simple card. 

 

 

What I love about these projects is that they are largely created with white cardstock, which means you can adapt them to suit the ink pads you have. Any blue will do for this final card, although I love the richness and depth of Pacific Point. 

 

 

The fun birthday card could use any colours which can be picked up in the party hat and the background layer could be swapped to match.

 

And the Pattern Party Designer Series Paper, with its black and white designs, can be coloured in any colour – or none! – depending on what supplies you already own. These designs would also work with other animal images. 

 

It just shows you don’t have to own everything to make great projects; you can often work with what you have.

 

I hope you enjoyed my Awesome Otter projects and will consider adding this fabulous stamp set to your order next time. If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code RNU3JCR9, I’ll send you a thank you gift next month month. 

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website 

 

Sale-a-Bration Week: Happy Birthday to You

My customers are nothing if not honest – and excellent at bursting your pride. A few weeks ago I showed this to a flower-loving customer, fully expecting her to love it. She quickly cast it aside and said “it’s a bit old ladyish”.

Well call me an old lady but I quite like it – and so did several of the guests at my Stampy Buffet on Saturday! It just shows how everyone has different tastes and how you just can’t predict what people will like.

It uses the Happy Birthday to You Sale-a-Bration stamp set, which is simply coloured with Watercolour Pencils and – less simply – fussy cut with scissors. Wait until 3rd Feb and you will be able to order dies which will do all the hard work for you!

Stamp your greeting before running the white layer through the Subtle Embossing Folder. I always think this gives your cards a really professional edge. Bonus tip: the border is simply a  line doodled with a marker. Don’t worry about accuracy – the wobblier the better!

Fox in a box... and on a box

It was my friend Donna who accidentally gave me the idea to put a shaker dome inside a pizza box lid, so it seemed only fitting that I should use this same idea to package her birthday gift. And, as her gift was a fox brooch (she loves foxes), this image from Nature’s Beauty was ideal. It’s coloured with Watercolour Pencils (Assortment 2) and blender pens.

The ribbon is actually four pieces, all held together with Glue Dots. Why make life difficult for yourself? I started with a loop, joined at the back. A second loop goes around the centre, again joined at the back. Then I cut two more pieces to poke out from beneath.

Simple Stamping with Nature’s Beauty

Simple stamping is perfect for new crafters and those in a hurry. I only have a one-hour session for my Cuppa & Cards and never know how many will turn up, so I keep the projects really simple with minimal preparation.

That doesn't mean the projects are dull; far from it. I love the look of these cute note cards using Nature’s Beauty.

Simply stamping the animal on a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock and popping it up on Dimensionals gives these projects a lift in more ways than one. It also saves you having to create a mask.

Nature's Beauty deer in the silver birches

Third Monday of the month is Make-It Monday with the local WI ladies. They have very particular requirements and are not afraid to tell me about them! I know they enjoy masculine cards so this is one of today's projects. I hope they like it!

For this sample, I stamped the deer onto Crumb Cake cardstock before colouring with watercolour pencils and Blender Pens. It gives the image much more depth and allows it to stand out from the background.

Free as a Bird stamp set and a watercolour pencil tip

The last of the three designs made at last week’s Bird Ballad Night, this time using Pool Party cardstock as the base, with Coastal Cabana ink sponged on top.

As colour families go, you have several generations of the same shade here; young Pool Party, with Coastal Cabana as the parent, Bermuda Bay as the grandparent (not used) and now we have the great-grandparent in Pretty Peacock, which makes its entrance in the lovely ribbon. I hope you know what I mean and don’t think I’ve completely lost the plot!

Colouring with watercolour pencils requires a light touch, and some of my ladies tend to go a bit overboard, so I made this colouring guide for last Friday’s class. 

I used just a hint of colour around the edges with the watercolour pencils, then blended them to get the results you see in the main image above, and the previous two projects. 

Free as a Bird become blue tits

The beauty of the Free As a Bird stamp set is that you can turn those little birdies into any type of bird you like. Well, within reason, I suppose; I don't think chicken, puffin or emu would work too brilliantly, for example.

However, I soon had to accept my colouring capabilities. I've just about managed a set of blue tits here but my chaffinches turned out not to be fit for public consumption so my plans for a row of long-tailed tits – which do actually huddle together like this – have been shelved for now. 

I should mention that I CASEd this project from the talented Brian King.

Stamping onto watercolour paper makes colouring a dream, whether you use blender pens, Aquapainter or paintbrush, as you won’t get the pilling that can happen when the surface of normal cardstock lifts. Here I’ve used Watercolour Pencils and blender pens. 

Bird Ballad Suite catalogue CASE

Long-timers will remember that the Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue used to be called the “Idea Book & Catalogue” and, despite the name change, it remains a valuable source of ideas.

If I'm stuck, I often turn to the catalogue for inspiration; most of the time my project turns out completely different, I just need something to start me off.

This time, however, I deliberately set out to CASE the catalogue. CASE means “Copy And Share Everything” and I fancied having a go at the card showcased on page 90. I think my card is a different size - and I know I used a different bird, cut out from the Bird Ballad DSP. Why did I use a different bird? For those who know me, that will be obvious; the one used in the catalogue is from right in the middle of the sheet! There was no way I was cutting right into the middle of a sheet of brand new DSP. Would you?

If you don't have exactly the same products as used in a catalogue project, simply adapt to your own supplies. I didn't have the All Wired Up background stamp used on the catalogue card, so embossed my cardstock using the Subtle 3D embossing folder instead. 

By the Bay Sale-a-Bration stamp set

This was my joint first choice out of the Sale-a-Bration brochure... luckily my order meant I could earn more than one freebie.

Every £45 you spend during SAB (Jan-Mar) earns you a freebie from the brochure. I highly recommend By the Way, used here on a product-heavy card which we made at Crafty Friday.

Look out for two carryover items; the Sprig Punch and Braided Trim, both still available from the Autumn/Winter catalogue.

Keeping it simple with Accented Blooms

There’s a theme to this week’s blog posts, which wouldn’t necessarily be obvious at first glance.  I’m using three different stamp sets, three different colours schemes and the cards are for three different occasions. So what’s the theme?

The theme is ... #simplestamping.

We demonstrators have realised that we get so into our craft that we sometimes neglect the new stamper. We are so keen to throw everything at our projects – purely because we can – that we forget that some people are starting out with limited supplies.

This project, then, takes things back to basics. One ink pad, one stamp set, one colour cardstock, one punch and one pack of embellishments. Perfect for the new stamper... or the experienced stamper in a hurry.

In The Meadow and Mixed Drinks: just what the doctor ordered!

Last Friday I held my first Stamp Doctor night, where guests were invited to bring along their ‘stamping maladies’ (products they’d purchased but struggled to use).  As this was my first time holding the clinic, I’d asked for advance warning of the stamp sets they were planning to bring. 

Only two people wanted to bring sets, and their problems turn out to be In The Meadow (one of my favourites!) and Mixed Drinks (which, fortunately, Kelly has). Between us we created the following projects for the ladies to make on the night. 

My projects incorporated watercolouring, as it’s one of my favourite techniques; also it’s very soothing, and therefore must be good for the health! 

The first project (above) I CASEd from Jennifer Frost; I love the way the mountains provide the perfect backdrop to the deer. 

The second was inspired by Connie Babbert. The masking really makes this card, in my opinion. But I also thought that some people love watercolouring as much as I do, so may prefer to spend more time on this technique. For those ladies, I created this project, CASEd from Michelle Zindorf, and which can be created from the same kit as the card above. 

Meanwhile, over at the Mixed Drinks table, Kelly had used clean and simple repeat stamping to make these fab samples. 

The kits were provided in bags with these fun labels, which I created in Canva and, even if nobody else appreciated the joke, they cracked me up so it was worth it. And no, I didn’t wear a lab coat… although I now have one on order for the next clinic! 

After a few hours of stamping and laughing, everyone went away happy, which just proves that crafting is the best medicine!

SaveSaveSaveSave

And the most popular Sale-a-Bration product is...

Bit of a daft question as the answer is staring you in the face but do you know what the most popular Sale-a-Bration product is BY FAR? Yup, it’s Hey, Chick, which comes as no surprise to me as I was so excited when I first clapped eyes on it way back in November.

It’s such a fun stamp set and was inspired by the artist’s experiences on a friend’s farm. The illustrator, Loris Sume, said:

"When I was a child growing up in Canada, I remember some family friends who had little chickens that I thought were so cute. A couple of summers ago here in Utah, I stopped at a friend’s ranch and saw all their cute animals including their chickens. They had typical chickens but also another kind called Polish Frizzle Bantam White Chickens. I think they are so funny with all those feathers flopping around on the top of their heads and how they like to stare straight at you and cock their heads.

"So when I was assigned to create the Hey, Chick Stamp Set, I was so excited. I wanted to exaggerate the rounder chickens and really make them round, and I also really wanted to draw one of those funny chickens I saw at my friend’s ranch. It was a really fun set to create."

Time is running out to earn this stamp set, if you haven’t already done so. There are just THREE WEEKS of Sale-a-Bration left, so don’t delay if you must have chickens in your life!