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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

A New World (Ink) Order

I have had zero "free" crafting time this month, sadly. I have traveled every week in April - my next trip is in a few days. I've been hopping with the MISTI team all month and been in a few other blog hops, so I've done lots of projects for those, but not any real unstructured play time. Until yesterday. I finished the samples that I needed to get done for The Collins Show on Sunday, and declared Monday a play day after work.

I have my pre-order from the catalog, and the stamp set to play with was a no-brainer. It's the Crafting Forever set, and it rocks. One of the sentiments says "Crafting forever - housework never."

And the people said -"Amen."

I wanted to try out the new masking fluid I got - it's from Schmincke, it's ammonia-free, and works beautifully. I had tried the Molotow masking pen with no real success - I found it got gummy during application, and doesn't work equally well on different papers. But regular frisket/masking fluid smells like the devil and I hate using it. So this - which is in a container with a very fine tip - made me feel like Goldilocks in the perfect bed. Easy to apply - even to those tiny paintbrushes - doesn't gum up and doesn't stink. I'm super happy with it. It comes in blue tint as well as colorless - I like the blue, because my vision isn't good enough for the colorless one.

So I masked off the little pot and paintbrushes, and then built the background around them. I just finished it with a sentiment from the set. This is going to be a much loved set, I can tell. The other images are adorable too. It was very fun to watercolor.
No line watercolor by Understandblue



I did a video - and I'll be honest - I love doing videos for lots of reasons. I love teaching, so that's my favorite part. But right up there is the forced peace that takes place when I'm filming. I film with my phone, and so to start a video, I have to put it on do not disturb, and manually turn off all notifications so they don't interrupt my app. It's like that first time it snowed every year when I lived in New York - everything gets really, really quiet.

Sometimes, of course, I forget to turn it all back on, and then people think I'm dead. But it's really, really nice when it lasts. When social media is a big part of your job, like it is in my job - all the messages, and emails, and notifications can get crazily overwhelming, so taking a break from it is awesome. And as you know, the actual phone part of the phone I'd be happy to live without forever.

So yes, I highly recommend doing something creative every day. With your phone turned off. :)



In related news - on my Show Me Sunday team Facebook live a few days ago - I was stamping out the new In Colors I got to preorder, to show the team where they fit in the lineup of our existing colors.

When I was doing it, I stamped them with the balloon image from Super Duper in little groupings with like colors. But what we found surprised us! The new Fresh Fig, which I expected to group with our purples, made a lot more sense in the burgundy range, as it is very warm. Pool Party was much more green than blue, and I had previously had it in the blues. So after the call, I became obsessed with grouping all my inks properly, so I stamped out ALL the colors that will be current in the new catalog and grouped them this way: Reds, pinks, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples and neutrals. Here's how it turned out - so if you have a compulsion to ROYGBIV all the things - this is the order that makes the most sense to me.

It was easiest for me to stamp and punch them out and move them around to where they made sense. I wrote the color name on the back, and then once it was the way I liked it, I glued it onto a piece of Whisper White.

Now I just need to put the actual ink pads in the right order in my storage and my mind will be at rest. :)


2017-2018 Stampin' Up! Ink Chart by UnderstandBlue

Hope you find that helpful.

A few final notes!


Loveyameanitbye.

23 comments:

  1. Love the techniques in this video, you make it look so easy. I wanted that set but won the flamingo 😬

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  2. there is a new DS color called pains blue grey- you might want to give that a try. I love pains grey and this tube has become one of my faves.

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  3. Such an awesome post! Watching you color is becoming my mini meditative therapy.

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  4. Wow! I can't believe the timing on your post. I was researching masking fluid yesterday. This one never came up in my search, so thank you! I will be giving it a try. Can it also be used over the main focus of the card? Or should I always do the background first? I made some beautiful butterflies yesterday and only used masks over them and then used Brushos it pretty much ruined the butterflies so I thought masking them with masking fluid might work. Have you tried both ways? Thanks!

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    1. Hi Linda! Masking fluid is the best. Next best is Frog Tape - but the only true "seal" is masking fluid - if I've worked on something a lot and I want perfect masking, I always do fluid. Here's a link to my post about frog tape. There's a video in there too: http://understandblue.blogspot.com/2016/01/counterwalkwise.html

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    2. Thanks Lydia! Those leaves are gorgeous! So I ordered the masking fluid and am excited to try it. I will mask the butterflies and do the background and then use the MISTI for my watercolor smooshing on the butterflies. I also like your grid paper. Great idea with different colored lines.

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  5. Awesome video! Thank you for taking the time to film these. So instructional! And would you believe Schminke was my daughter's nickname?

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  6. I love your watercoloring so much and I absolutely love when you do videos! Thank you so much!

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  7. Beautiful! I've bought masking fluid but haven't jumped in and tried it yet. I need to remedy that soon.

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  8. Just awesome!!! The colors are beautiful...

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  9. That was so cool. I want to try it.

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  10. Totally in love with your video and new masking fluid. Never tried one and I sure should. Thanks for great post!

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  11. Relaxing and very informative. You made that look so easy. I've played with watercolor, but I just don't get that look. I'll keep playing though. Thanks for the tutorial <3

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  12. What a beautiful card! I need to try that masking fluid!

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  13. Love this technique with the masquing fluid. You project is gorgeous!

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  14. Wow, gorgeous card! Hopped over here from Stamp Junkies! Hi!

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  15. Beautiful! This card has such vibrant and fun watercolors! I have not tried masking fluid but will definitely need to give it a try. This stamp set is great!

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  16. Beautiful! I have tried masking fluid long time ago and know it is dried up. I am going to get the masking fluid and try again. Thanks for the video.

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  17. The next item on my list to buy was masking fluid, so this was excellent! Thank you!

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  18. Beautiful card :) Love all the colours :)

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