Friday 18 February 2011

What else can I do with Promarkers??

You all know by now that I love stamping, particularly using stamps from a wee Scottish company called Sugar Nellie, and of course I like to colour them with my promarkers and this is what I teach and demonstrate.
But there is so much more that you can do with your promarkers, they are not just for colouring stamps on cardstock - because I'm well aware that not everyone wants to do that.
Most of you will already be able to do the basics, like colouring ribbons, bling and pearls to match your project - if you haven't tried it already then give it a go - just use the broad nib of the promarkers to colour them and the best advice I can give you is to experiment. I've tried all kinds of organza, grosgrain, twill, ricrac, satin, lace - even patterned ribbons can look quite funky with a bit of promarker colouring. Clear bling and pale pearls can also be coloured with your promarkers - for deeper darker colours leave each coat of colour to dry in between. Why not try other embellishments like brads, fabric and paper flowers, buttons etc. So you will always have embellishments to match your project.


So here are a couple of fun things you can also use your promarkers for...
at one of my classes last Saturday I was asked how well promarkers work on fabric, well I've tried out a couple of things here. Firstly I stamped directly onto Claudine Hellmuth's sticky backed canvas and coloured in the image - now you can't be heavy handed with this and the best technique seems to be to lightly touch the nib to the fabric and remove the nib pretty quickly, the longer the nib is in contact with the fabric, the more it will bleed. Also, you can forget the blending methods that I usually use, so it's a good idea to give some thought to where you want your darker and lighter areas and just how dark or light you want those areas to be.

 Image: Number 1 Fan from Sugar Nellie, I've stamped him with Memento ink onto Claudine Hellmuth's sticky backed canvas then coloured him with the following promarkers...
skin: Sunkissed Pink, Blush and Ivory. top and eyes: Bluebell and Prussian. trousers: Mandarin, Pumpkin and Gold, Hair: Cocoa, Cinnamon and Tan. Ground: WG1 and 3


Next up is another fabric idea, this time I airbrushed the sticky backed canvas with the Letrajet system and Purple, Mulberry and Orchid promarkers, then sprinkled a little blending solution over it. 
I then stamped Hero Arts - Stencil Flower CG194 twice with Memento ink onto the now coloured canvas. I used the Purple promarker to accent the edges of the petals and the centre of the flower - remember you need to have a very light touch or the colour bleeds like nobody's business. Then I cut out one of the flowers, and just the middle petals of the second flower.


And the last one I'm going to show you today features a bit of recycling. I know a lot of you are fans of Tim Holts and you may recognise this technique from one of his 12 Tags of Xmas last year. I bought a new embossing folder on Saturday and kept the plastic front of the packaging.
I cut part of the packaging away so I was left with just the recessed area and the short walls (this saves any excess blending solution from running off and messing anything up that you have lying around.)
I then took Aubergine, Purple, Mulberry and Orchid promarkers and randomly scribbled all over the inside of the plastic packaging, once I'd done that I sprinkled some blending solution over it. This is another technique where there is no right and wrong way of doing it, you can use just a wee amount of solution or if you do use a little more you can always tip the plastic tray around for another fun effect.
Leave this to dry. Trim off the walls of your tray so that you are left with a flat piece of plastic. So that you don't mark the inside of your embossing folders I've found it's best to cut a sheet of paper or very thin card to the same size as your plastic and place it between the inked side of the plastic and the inside of the embossing folder.
Run the embossing folder with plastic and paper through your die-cutting machine and voila.....


Now I'm going to try and show you over the next few days what I'm going to do with these projects hopefully, so remember to check back.
In the meantime, remember to enter the Letraset Blending Pairs competition, and Enfys is also running a wee competition in conjunction with Letraset for the blending sets too.

18 comments:

Kath Stewart said...

wooohooo now I know why you are the Queen of Promarkers and Letraset's UK Product Coach....fabulous new ideas..thanks for sharing...hugs kath xxx

Suze Bain said...

Wow Debbie, these are fab. I can see I'm going to have to add a few things to my shopping list ... canvas, hero arts stamps ....

LorraineM said...

You have been busy :) Love the boy on the sticky back canvas but I won't be trying that for a while as I am still trying to get to grips with paper colouring! Struggling with tight curly hair at the moment. x

Paula (PEP) said...

Those flowers on the canvas are delightful with those colours - brilliant. Am itching to experiment after your post & thanks for info re Enfys.
Hope your desk has a few fewer orojects on the go this morning. Take care.
Paula (PEP)

thread-bare said...

Some really fab ideas hun xx

Clare x

Vintage Milly said...

wow, these are wonderful, thanks so much for sharing, I often forget how versitile these pens are, I love them for colouring, but they can do so much more,
take care,
Em.x

Shazza said...

great ideas, I have only ever coloured with mine lol! Must give these a go
x

Linda said...

WoW!! Debbie such a lot of wonderful ideas. Now where to find enough hours in the day to try all these wonderful ideas!!

Macpurp said...

I really really love the coloured canvas. so pretty !

I realy want to try this!!!
love teen xx

Jacki Daniels said...

Wow some great tips there Debbi sorry haven't been over in a while had a few hassles but all sorted now any way 1 question for you regarding PM's what colours wouls you recommend I use for colouring afro carabiean coloured skin with please help as I have this cute image to colour but can't get the colour right
Jacki xx

Unknown said...

you have amazing projects here!...you're such a talented lady!...I love the purple and pinks you've shown-- and the fabric is colored perfectly, which is pretty amazing since the markers will bleed more...

Great ideas!...Wish I could sit in on a class of yours;)!

Have a nice weekend:)
xo, Krista

xxxtglxxx said...

Great ideas Debbi. I always use my promarkers for tweaking stuff, from colouring brads and odds and ends, they are brilliant. I have never seen a stamped image coloured on fabric before though - that looks amazing.

I almost ran out of black card-stock yesterday and coops recommended I colour some with promarkers - brilliant! :)

have a great weekend

hugs

xxalisonxx

Elizabeth said...

Hi Debbi, great ideas to try. I can see I will have to get some of that blending solution to try out the technique with plastic - I have a few of these embossing folder covers which I couldn't bear to throw out as I thought there must be something I can do with them - and here it is or as you say, voila! Thanks, Elizabeth x

Luv 2 Create said...

Debbi,
Love all these creative ideas. I have been wanting to give the promarkers a whirl, but I started with copics and not sure I should change mid streem. I know these are less expensive and can do everything that the copic markers can, can they be intermixed? Kath says your the queen of these markers so I figured you are the person to ask. Thanks

Marcie
marciesmith64 (at) gmail (dot) com

Debbi said...

Great ideas, Debbi. I love the recycled plastic card. TFS!
*smiles*
debbi too

Mona`s Bittelille Scrappekrok said...

Fab ideas!!! Looove the flowers especially. I am looing to buy the airbrush thingy so i will definately try that out when i do. I looove flowers and are allways looking to try out new techniques to make them. Thanks for sharing!

Hugs...Mona

nnalorac said...

Hi Debbi, thanks for the tips and ideas, still haven't got going with them but hey, bought a few more shades the other day so look out for the kids colouring page!! Carolxx

Sol said...

The Flower is Beautiful!!! And Colouring on Fabric!!! Loooks Fab.... Love your projects with plastic!... Looks Great!!! What a Fab Idea to reuse!!! :o)

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