Playing with Pencils

This is a first for my blog life: a post that is not about entering a challenge. No friends, this post is just because I've been having some fun experimenting. The long summer school holidays give me lots of time in my craft room and in my latest box of Stampin' Up goodies were the new watercolour pencils and some blender pens.

I'd long overlooked blender pens in the catalogue. I didn't really understand what they did. When I wanted to colour, I used ink and water. My days experimenting have given me a new tool in the toolbox. Blender pens are the business when it comes to making watercolour pencils sing! Yep, complete and utter convert.

Blender pens smooth out the pencil lines and make the pencil act like paint but the colour is more intense than with water. I like that you can use the blender pen, like water, to pull colour into an area to easily give variation in colour. I also like that you can pick up colour with the blender pen directly from the pencil lead if you want a strong burst of colour. You can see all this in these pictures.

I like that there seems to be a bigger degree of control with the blender pen and it's generally kinder to the paper. With watercolour paper, or even shimmery cardstock, that's not an issue but it is with the Inside the Lines DSP, available as a Sale-a-bration item.

I'd never really understood the attraction of adult colouring in, although as a stamper I probably should have. But this paper ticks that box. I have just had so much FUN colouring it and then using it to make cards. I've still got a lot of exploring to do.

Today, I'm sharing a couple of my experiments. There's nothing too original about them. Pinterest is full of similar types of things but everyone has their own little spin on them. Here's mine.

If you live in New Zealand and are interested in these pencils ($33.50 for 12) or blender pens (3 for $20) or any other Stampin' Up product, message me or click on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar.