Technique of the Week: Shine, Shine, Shine

This week’s technique features Wink of Stella brush pens on vellum paper.  You will be amazed at the shine you get when you use these pens on vellum.  I saw this technique on Jennifer McGuire’s blog and I couldn’t wait to try it.

To get started I cut a piece of 36# vellum to 4.25” x 5.5”. Because I planned to emboss my stamped image I used a powder tool over the surface of the paper. I put the paper in my MISTI and positioned the Magenta Azalea stamp (14.651.Q) from their Spring/Summer collection on my vellum paper. I picked it up with the cover of the MISTI and then inked it with Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment Ink. Next I applied Judikin’s White Opaque Embossing powder over the stamped image.

When heating the embossing powder on vellum paper you need to be careful so that you don’t warp or melt your paper (speaking from experience unfortunately!) Before you direct your heat gun to your paper, let it run for about 30 seconds or so to be sure it is up to temperature. Keep the heat gun moving over the surface of your vellum. You can also heat it from the back of the paper, just be sure to keep the heat gun moving. It takes a bit longer to emboss on vellum but for your patience you’ll be rewarded with a beautifully embossed image. The embossing powder will act as a ridge to help remain within lines when you are painting.

I put the image on my craft sheet and collected my Wink of Stella pens. The Wink of Stella brush pens come in 15 colors, plus clear. I only have four pens – clear, dark pink, green and yellow, but after doing this technique I certainly plan to buy more!

Before I started I used a scrap piece of vellum to try some blending. I originally planned to blend some of the yellow with the green to create a yellow-green color for the leaves and blend some of the yellow with the dark pink to create a shade of orange for the center of the flowers. I ultimately decided to keep it simple and just use green, dark pink and clear for this image. 

I started with the leaves on the azalea image using my green pen. I started at the base and painted about half way down the leaf. Then I used my clear pen to blend the color to the tip of the leaf. I continued with all of the leaves in this manner. The Wink of Stella stays wet for a bit longer on vellum than it does on regular paper so you can blot up excess color with a paper towel, add more color or do more blending.

  

Once I finished the leaves, I started on the flower. I followed the same technique as with the leaves. I applied dark pink to the center and then used clear to blend the color out to the tips of each petal.  

To finish the card I adhered a piece of So Silk Beauty Pink (cut to 4.25” x 5.5”) to the front of an A2 card. Since I planned to add the frame you see in the photo. I applied 1/8” Scor Tape to the back of the vellum and then attached it to the front of the card. (As you can see from the photo, regular adhesive shows through vellum so if I hadn’t planned to add the frame I would have used Vellum adhesive to attach the image to the card.)

I cut a piece of textured white cardstock to 4.25” x 5.5” and then used Spellbinders A2 Matting Basics B (the 3 3/8” x 4 5/8” die) to cut a frame. To give the frame some dimension, I adhered foam tape to the back of the frame. I just cut the foam strips in half lengthwise as shown, removed the backing paper and adhered to the frame to the front of the card. I added a few iridescent sequins using Ranger Matte adhesive. I also like to use the Pico Shimmer embellisher to add an additional drop of shine on my sequins. I set the card aside to let it the sequins and Pico dry overnight.

Once I decided on the colors I was going to use for the image, this card came together very quickly so I hope you will give it a try. I encourage you to try blending the colors you have because these pens blend beautifully. This is another good technique where you can stamp several images at one time to have them available when you have a few minutes to paint. The photos don't fully capture the shimmer so please stop by Art 'n Soul to see this card in person.