And Now, for Something Completely Different!!!

Well, first of all, I think you all know that when a person's day includes buying CRAYONS at lunch, that it's gonna be a good day!! CRAYONS!! I was giggling and snorting at Hobby Lobby! As I was just a moment ago when I snapped this picture of the box of my 64 Crayons WITH A SHARPENER!! Yeah, baby!!! Did you know that this year is the 50th anniversary of the big box of 64? It's TRUE!! The box told me that itself!! Now, I have to balance that with some bad news. There's some fly by night company making something that they have the NERVE to call Crayons, in a VERY similar box. Are you KIDDING me?? That's like someone making an American Flag with OFF WHITE STARS AND STRIPES! I almost got sucked in too, which made me verrrryyyyyyyyy verrrryyyy angry and stopped the snorting for like a whole minute. Not cool.

As a Coloring-American I am completely offended and disgusted. Where is the outrage anymore?

Where was I? Oh YEAH - Crayons. So I came home and I did something I haven't done since college. I made a crayon rubbing!! To me it looks like that super old fashioned carbon paper - that stuff was such a beautiful blue!! Speaking of beautiful blue, the ink in question here is my beloved Pacific Point Blue. Aah... I could look at it all day.

Here's what I did. Take a piece of very smooth computer paper. I used Epson Presentation Paper - matte. The paper has to be thin, or the rubbing doesn't work. Place the paper on, in this case, your brand new sassi-fied grass stamp from Inspired by Nature. Me likey. Peel the paper off a white crayon and use the whole length of the side of the crayon to gently rub the grass design into the paper. Now it's hard to see because the paper is white, but you'll get the hang of it I promise. Also, try a little yoga breathing if the paper slips and you're not sure you have it back in the right place. It actually looks super spiffy a little blurry and not too crisp.

Big stamps like that are great for this technique. The smaller bird stamp from Carte Postale was much harder, but I did an okay, not great, job of getting him on there.

Then I brayered the whole thing in Pacific Point Blue, mounted it on white, and mounted it at an angle on some more Pacific Point Blue.

It actually looked really cool with a Tangerine Tango mat instead of white, but I was afraid I'd shock your delicate little eyeballs. I like a lot of color and contrast, and sometimes I have to channel Kristina Werner and Beate and tone myself down.

Tutorial on Pencil Shading to follow. I just couldn't even wait to say hello and inject a little color into your Monday.