Tuesday Tool Tip (while it’s still – barely – Tuesday LOL). What’s the Difference between Stampin’ Blends and Stampin’ Write Markers?
Colouring is still such a popular past time and stress reliever! Stampin’ Up! products are great for colouring – you can stamp images of your choice and then colour them in – for bonus points you can even use them on a project instead of hoarding them….but one question that has popped up in my classes lately – what’s the difference between Stampin’ Blends and Stampin’ Write Markers?Here’s a quick rundown:
Stampin’ Blends
What’s the Difference: Stampin’ Blends Markers
Rectangular shape marker
Double ended – bullet tip and brush tip
Alcohol Based Colouring Tool – best used with images stamped in Memento Ink
Ivory, Bronze single shades and Colour Lifter available
Purchase Individually or in Coordinating Shade Duos
Stampin’ Blends tend not to show “streaks” or colouring lines – as with most alcohol based markers, they blend well to give a more “solid” colour image. The coordinating light and dark shades make it easy to blend and create shadows and highlights for more professional looking results. You can layer the colour to increase the intensity and add more shadows as well. There may be a bit of “bleed” or spreading of colour with these tools, so best to leave a tiny margin by the image line until you know how much your colour will spread. The intense colour will also tend to bleed through the cardstock. The Colour Lifter tends to “push” the colour out of the way, so may help create highlight areas or disguise small areas of spread. These colouring tools are great for colouring, but not suitable for use directly on rubber stamp or photopolymer stamp surfaces. Alcohol based markers are often used by manga / comic book type illustrators.
Stampin’ Write Markers
What’s the Difference: Stampin’ Write Markers
Traditional round barrel shaped marker
Double ended – brush tip and fibre tip fine point (great for writing)
Dye Based Colouring Tool – best results with images stamped in StazOn, but can be used with dye based inks as well
Available in all 50 Stampin’ Up! shades (all 4 Colour families and all current In Colours), plus Basic Black
Stampin’ Write Markers are a great way to get your hands on all the base Stampin’ Up colours for your crafting needs. They are dye based inks, so can be used to colour images on cardstock, or you can use them to apply colour directly to the surface of your stamps before stamping. Great for quick colouring, or colouring in traditional colouring books – there may be bleed if a lot of colour is laid down, but not to the extent of the Stampin’ Blends. I also love using the brush end of these markers for brush lettering. Don’t overwork the surface when you’re using these to colour as you may end up with the paper “pilling”.
Both types of these colouring tools can have a place in your crafting room! There are advantages to each of them. If you’re just dabbling in adding colour to your stamped images, you may want to start with the Stampin’ Blends, since you can start with just one or two colours and shades – for example, if you like floral images, pick a green and a red or pink to start. If you want to get your hands on many coordinating colours quickly, perhaps start with the Stampin’ Write markers since you can get a colour family (or even better – the new colours assortment) to build your collection quickly. Once you’ve been able to “play” with the tools, you’ll know how they fit into your crafting style and won’t be wondering “What’s the Difference?” any longer!
Hopefully this has helped a bit – but if you have any lingering questions, feel free to contact me! You can also check out the recording of the Facebook Live I did a little while ago on the YamStamps Page, showing how Memento and Staz On inks react with both of these types of markers as well as an Aquapainter. If you “like” the YamStamps Page, you’ll get notifications of whenever I go live with a video in future! See you in cyberspace…
Happy Valentine’s Day! I get to spend the day doing things I love to do! We are having a make-up date today for the February Card Class that was supposed to happen last Wednesday, but was weather delayed. I thought I’d share this video from last year when I was on Halton Insider, showing some quick and easy Valentine’s Day decorations. If you want to see more videos, please be sure to subscribe to the YamStamps YouTube channel. I do still post videos….in fact, I should be due to upload something in the near future. (that’s not really a teaser, that’s more of a “make sure this is on my to do list” thing LOL).
A quick video on setting up the Love Today Planner Kit (with an actual appearance from me….at a funny angle….because I couldn’t be bothered to change the location of my tripod so I just kind of turned the camera and leaned into the frame…and because it’s a holiday Monday and that’s about the most effort I could make today….hahaha!)
The video shows you the completed set up for a month – I suggest you 1) Unpackage your pages 2) Sort like with like pages: Labeled Month pages, blank Month pages, Weekly Sheets, Weekly Sheets with Lined Backing 3) Assemble like in the video!
EDITED TO ADD – sorry, I know when I said quick, I didn’t mention that I was speaking quickly as well!! If you like, you can visit the video on the YamStamps YouTube Channel and turn on the captions….
Hope that helps, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!
Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope that you are able to spend time with those you love, and/or spend time doing something you love! My gift to you is a video of Valentine’s Day crafts! I thought I’d share one of the videos from my appearance on Halton Insider last week. I was fortunate to be invited to TV Cogeco to film some segments to air! I managed to load a few of the appearances on the YamStamps YouTube channel, so you can catch them there, but I thought I’d share one here on the YamStamps blog as well. (If you can’t see the video below, click on the link to go to YouTube to see them).
In this segment, I show a couple of really quick and easy paper crafting decorations you can make – fun for adults or children! You don’t need fancy equipment to make these decorations (though it does make it more fun…haha). You could whip up a few of these right now and still have lots of time to enjoy them!
So you’ll need something to cut the paper with, something to attach the paper with (tape, stapler) and something to hang the decoration – ribbon, string, twine….. You could make them fancier by using different papers, by decorating the papers – stamp on them, colour them, draw on them, emboss them…. I love that you can totally customise these Valentine’s Day crafts to your taste!
(Warning, shameless plug coming up) The same concept goes for the projects in the Clever Cards Online Class! You will learn the concepts of how to make some tricky looking cards (which actually aren’t all that tricky to make once you know how!) and then you can decorate them to your personal taste (or the taste of the recipient) once you have the basics. You may be able to pick up that I tend to go for the more clean and simple look, but you can definitely make more complex and complicated looks if that’s what you’re going for!
Thanks again for reading the YamStamps blog. I feel quite lucky that I am able to spend time doing something I love, and being able to share it with others! Happy Valentine’s Day! Now go make some “love”ly cards and decorations!
I’m getting set to attend the Canadian Business Conference for Stampin’ Up! Canadian Demonstrators over the next few days – I’m really excited to see friends and get inspired – both business-wise and creatively. I’ll share my swap cards over the next few posts – I’m participating in an organized swap – so there’s a set number of cards with guidelines and we each create one design – then we share them and end up with a whole bunch of different ideas with the same stamp set!
Over the past few weeks, we’ve had a number of new demonstrators join Stampin’ Up! (because it’s such a great deal during Sale-a-Bration!) and in our “Eh” Team (my group of demonstrators) one of the questions that went through our group meeting at one point was about card cutting and matting. I thought I’d share this video from a number of years ago (hard to believe) that is still relevant today – because it might have been “buried” on the YamStamps YouTube channel or here on the blog. It’s a video covering the basics of the “typical” A4 sized card, from an 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of cardstock. Perfect to share on a Throwback Thursday?!
If you can’t see the video embedded in the post, here’s a direct link to it on the YamStamps YouTube channel. I’m still working on the Clever Cards Online Class, which will be “not your basic” cards – so stay tuned for the launch!
