Inspire Me Monday Rewind!

SPECIAL NOTE: Every now and then, look for the Power Poppy blog to rewind back to a fabulous tutorial that just needed an "extra play!" This one, created by Christine Okken back in September of 2014, was so ingenius we thought we'd schedule it for a re-run. And, we are excited to share that this stamp set, Sassy Succulents, is also back in stock! 

Hello Power Poppy Friends!  It’s Christine here with another Inspire me Monday!  

I’m always trying to think of new ways to look at what I have, new ways to creatively use my supplies and colouring mediums to create a different effect.  It makes me feel like I’m getting more “bang for my buck” from my supplies, which is always great.  Today I thought I’d show you something else you can do with your Copic Re-inkers, besides just refill your markers.

Copics and their re-inkers are alcohol based so you can achieve a gorgeous polished marble effect on vellum.  

I began with these supplies:  Power Poppy’s beautiful set Sassy Succulents,  cardstock vellum, VersaMark ink, an embossing buddy, gold embossing powder, Copic Blending Solution, Copic Re-inkers (here I have BG11, YG03, YG61),  some scrap paper and a clean sponge.  

The first step is to wipe the embossing buddy all over the vellum cardstock.  This is a really important step because without it, vellum will be really staticky and your embossing powder will stick everywhere you don’t want it to!  Next,  I stamped the hen and chicks image from the stamp set with VersaMark ink and embossed it all in gold.  Gold is still very trendy and I thought would work wonderfully with this technique.  

Next, make sure your vellum piece is on some scrap paper, with the embossing face down toward the scrap paper.  Then, onto your clean sponge add a couple of drops of re-inker, here I’ve used YG03.  

Now you can dab the colour from the sponge onto the vellum where you’d like it.  I wanted it to give some green to the succulents so that’s where I dabbed it.  If your sponge dries out too much, add a drop or so of Copic Blending solution and sponge away again, or add another drop of re-inker.  

Next, take your darker colour of re-inker and do the same, sponging on colour.  Because the surface of your paper is damp, the vellum will resist the colour a little and it will pool and move nicely.  What I did next was take the re-inker and add a drop here and there directly on the vellum where I wanted more concentrated colour.  Vellum very much mutes the effect of the colour so you definitely want to use stronger colours so they’ll show up.  

Then finally I added in some “background” BG11 soft bluey-green, straight  from the re-inker onto the empty areas allowing it to move and pool because the paper was damp.  This all goes quite fast.  

Once that step is done, you’ll need to let the page sit for a bit to dry.   I think I let mine dry for about 15 minutes.  It will remain slightly tacky on the colourful side, but because it is alcohol ink it shouldn’t spread or stain.  

Here’s what the finished card looks like.  You can see that I carefully added some pointillism dots on the embossed side of the vellum to tie it all together, being sure not to touch my Copic marker to the gold embossed areas so I wouldn’t damage my marker nib.  Can you see the lovely “seams” between the colours?  It has a very soft impressionistic effect.  

Something important about vellum is that because it is relatively transparent it will show any adhesive you’ve added to the finished design, so on the upper edge of the card, I’ve sewn the layers together;  then I’ve strategically placed a sentiment and accents on the card where I add adhesive underneath and the embellishments hide it.  When your vellum layer lays tightly onto a white background layer it really shows off the colouring more effectively.  

A very quick and lovely technique making a great use of your Copic Re-inkers.  Give it a try!  

Thanks for joining me today!