Hi Stampers. It’s been a busy week around here. My husband has had the last few weeks off as he waits for his new job to start. He will soon have a two hour commute – but an AWESOME job. So, it will be worth it! The long range plan is that we move to where the new job is. But, that may take a while. We spent this week going through my craft room and thinning out. I listed a whole bunch of stuff on eBay! Funny how an upcoming move makes you look around and ask yourself, “is this worth packing?”. LOL

Today’s post is in response to a request about information related to our markers. Someone asked me the different between the Stampin’ Blendabilities, the Stampin’ Write Markers and the Aqua painter. So, here we go…

I used the same Stampin’ Up! stamp (Vivid Vases) and colors on each example. I love that Stampin’ Up! products color co-ordinate. The Blendabilities, Stampin’ Write Marker and Stampin’ Ink pads of each color all match in color. This co-ordination extends out to the card stock, ribbons, buttons, accessories, etc.

This first example is colored with the Stampin’ Write Markers. Stampin’ Up! makes a ‘blender pen’ that helps get rid of the ‘lines’ in the coloring. Mine was a little dry, so it didn’t work the best. I only did it on the first two vases on the left.

This example was done with the Aqua Painter. I first pressed down on the lid of my Stampin’ pad when it was closed. This transferred some in to the lid, that I then picked up with the Aqua Painter (which has water in the tube / handle) and painted onto Whisper White card stock. You can also use the ink refills or the marker (by just scribbling on a piece of plastic or acetate). You need to be careful not to add too much water or the Whisper White card stock will start to ‘pill’ as it comes apart.

In this example, I colored with the Aqua Painter – the same way as above – onto water color paper. The water color paper allows the colors to blend a little better and the paper doesn’t pill / come apart due to the water.

My final example is colored with the Stampin’ Up! Blendabilities. My Crumb Cake (color) markers are brand new. This is the first time I’ve used them, so they came out pretty dark. For each color, there is a light / medium / dark. You need to work quickly and color small areas at a time as the markers blend best when the ink is still pretty wet. You don’t want it to dry in between markers, and they dry quickly due to being alcohol based.

Stampin’ Tip: When coloring with the dye based inks – the Aqua Painter / ink pads and Stampin’ Write Markers, I used the Jet Black Staz On ink. When coloring with the Blendabilities, I used the Tuxedo Black Momento ink pad. Using the proper ink pad for the stamped image with the type of ink you color with, allows for the sharpest stamped image as possible.

I hope you find this post informative and it inspires you to purchase some coloring supplies from my online store to use in your own creations.

Or, maybe you’ve just decided you want it all at a discount. I’d love to have you join my team. Either as a business demo (I can help you make money doing what you love – STAMPING!) or as a “hobby demo” where you just purchase for yourself at a 20% (or more) discount. Either way you get $125 worth of product for just $99 – with free shipping. You then get the discount for 3 full months. As a bonus, your first order over $150 in your first 45 days as a demo earns you 30% off. After that, if you maintain $300 a quarter in sales, you re-up and enjoy the discount for 3 more months. There is never a penalty for dropping.

Don’t forget that as a demo, you get to know about all the upcoming new product and have the ability to purchase it before any customers! January means Sale-A-Bration (our biggest sales of the year) and a new Ocassions catalog. Pre-orders for this will happen during the first 3 months of a new demo who signs up now. All these are just the “tip of the iceburg” when it comes to fantastic things that my team AND Stampin’ Up! can offer you. Come one – you know you wanna join now!