artist in residence

Imagine That: Who Can Resist VersaFine Clair? Delicata Can!

In The Studio

When I was first playing with the new VersaFine Clair inks I made the accidental discovery that they interacted with Delicata inks in a very interesting way!

When the Delicata is stamped first and the VersaFine Clair is stamped on top, the Delicata acts as a natural resist! Yes, I’m using exclamation points because this was really cool to see happen and it was something I had a blast showing off at Creativation last month!

What can you do with this technique? I think it’s a great way to add an all-over pattern to your project without having to resort to complex stamping. When you use a faint shade of Delicata (Champagne is my favorite) the patterns showing through the overlaid image are little surprises which I think are really cool.

You can see exactly how this works over on the Imagine Blog!

Imagine That: More Than Meets the Eye

In The Studio

One of the many things I love about the new VersaFine Clair is how resilient the color is. I can get multiple impressions from a single inking–with a variety of color of course.

I took full advantage of the great second and third generation stamping abilities to make today’s simple and sweet card.

The great thing about multiple-generation stamping is how it extends your range of stamp pads. With judicious use, you can expand your color palette even if you only have a few stamp pads to work with to start (trust me when I say you’re going to want to get all the colors after you’ve tried a few!).

You can see exactly how this card came together over on the Imagine Blog!

Imagine That: Matching Notebook Cover and End Papers

In The Studio

Y’all know how much I love to make and/or decorate notebooks, right? In this project I got to do both as I made the notebook from scratch (because why not) then decorated the cover and made matching end papers for the inside front and back covers.

End papers can really add a nice finishing touch to a hand bound book, elevating it from craft to art. I admit, I don’t always go to the trouble but I always feel better about my project when I do!

I’m also really jazzed about the string closure I devised for this little pocket notebook. It was super simple and I’m very likely to use this on more projects as I maybe finally get around to making some journals for sale. We shall see.

At any rate, you can see how this came together over on the Imagine blog, complete with video! Go check it out!

Imagine That: Because the Night

In The Studio

Have you heard about the new product from Tsukineko?! The new ink on the block is VersaFine Clair and it is absolutely amazing–I’m totally in love with it.

Of course I’ve had a chance to play with it–both at home and this past weekend at Creativation–and Nocturne is the perfect rich black for this month’s color challenge.

A few facts about VersaFine Clair:

  • It’s a pigment ink so it’s embossable–better yet, it stays embossable for a few minutes, so you don’t have to hurry.
  • It’s super-pigmented and gives amazing coverage on solid stamps (like my hand-carved little black dress stamp) but it also just as amazing (as the name implies) on fine-line stamps
  • It’s quick-drying–I touched my solid image right after stamping and none came off on my hand and there was no smudging, either!

It’s all kinds of amazing, is what it is. I’m absolutely in love with it and you’ll be seeing it quite a lot in upcoming projects.

Of course, you can check out how it looks in action by heading over to the Imagine Blog and watching my video of how my Girls’ Night Out card came together.

Imagine That: Thanks for Two Fabulous Years

In The Studio

This month wraps up my second year as an Artist in Residence for Imagine and I can’t say how grateful I am for the opportunity to continue on in 2018 for year three!

This month we were challenged to create something with the theme of Winter Window, so I created a shadow box effect inside of a painted and image-transfered glass block. Now, at other times of the year you might have to settle for the actual glass block tiles from the hardware store, but at Christmas they have them pre-drilled for easy insertion of lights or other decorative elements. I bought two just in case, but I haven’t decided what I’m going to use the second one on just yet.

Another prompt this month was evergreen. While there were 1,001 ideas I could have gone with, I’d had the idea to make a bowl out of paper clay for a while and this seemed to be the perfect opportunity to try it out. Despite being a messy project, I loved how this one turned out. The metallic gold Creative Medium was such a fantastic way to blend the different greens together while adding a subtle sheen to the rest of the bowl that it’s become one of my all-time favorite projects.

Finally, I close out this year with a quick set of thank you cards–a great project for after the holidays, not just for use this month but to prepare for the coming year, as well. In the video I created for this project I also included three tips for writing heartfelt thank-yous, just in case you need a refresher.

I’m so looking forward to all the cool stuff that’s coming up in 2018! First up is a trip to Phoenix, AZ, in January for Creativation–an event I’ve wanted to attend for ages (way back when it was just called the CHA summer and winter shows) and I get to hang out and help out at the Imagine booth while I’m there. I’ll be sure to post about that here and on my social media channels when there’s more to tell!

Hope your 2017 was a good one and that 2018 is even better!