A quick, easy card using the Hero Hues paper, Hero Arts stamp, and Prismacolor pencils. Both decorated papers are at the store, and they're wonderful to work with.

by Debbie Gaetz

Hero Arts:  Delicate Blossoms

Prismacolor Pencils
Poppies:  Spanish Orange; Poppy Red; Crimson Red; Tuscan Red
Stems & Leaves:  Celadon Green; Spring Green

And this is from Friday's play day working with the Elizabeth Craft Shimmer Sheetz and glittering dot peel-offs . . . I had a couple of crooked 'lines' that Sam helped me straighten out. Thanks, Sam!

by Debbie Gaetz

Shimmer Sheetz on chipboard
StazOn by Tsukineko applied with daubers

As I said yesterday, Tsukineko USA is coming out with new ink pad colors. We used them in John Petersen's class yesterday . . . here's the swatch from each one as prepared by Deb at the store.

On Wednesday of this week, we're going to have a demo/play session (from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.) at the store with the new Memento ink pad colors and marker pens. Mark your calendar and please join us!

So now for the pics of yesterday's class. Combine John Petersen with Tsukineko products and a room full of eager students . . . and you get FUN! FUN! FUN!

By the way, I have to show you this vintage cosmetic case 'art's' up by one of the students; she uses it for her tool kit. I loved it!

To begin, before the class started we all looked around to try and figure out what John had up his sleeve for the class project. We had seen the little booklet sample, but we knew that couldn't be it for a 3-hour class. So . . .

prototypes of the new Memento ink pad colors

walnut spray inks (in varying colors)

We learned we were going to use various techniques in making decorative paper for our booklet cover. In other words, John was going to lead us through a basic primer on background papers. There were 5 techniques, plus a bonus card tag.


Away we went . . .

the white 'circles' in the lower right are
the tops of the Fireworks bottles.

If you followed the 'recipe' on the upper right of each
of the preceding display boards, you would end up
with a variation of these card samples. The ink pads are
applied to the stamp image in the recipe order
(light to dark), followed by spritzes of Fireworks!
Stamp onto white card stock, and voila!
You then took another stamp image, applied
versamark ink and stamped over the the background image.

John has applied his recipe of inks to the stamp (above),
and now he's spraying the stamp with
Fireworks (below), 

Here was a 'bonus' technique . . . using an Elizabeth Craft Designs' peel-off that was applied to a white card stock tag, John colored the egg with Memento markers. Once he was finished with the coloring, he poured a small amount of Goosebumps on the egg and spread the Goosebumps all over
using a sponge dauber.

For this paper background, Brilliance Dew Drops are inked onto a plexi-glass palette (you can also use your craft sheet but John recommends the plastic palette). After you have the colors you want to use . . .

you take your Fantastix applicator and drop
some; All Purpose Ink on your palette;
in this case, John used the Vega Gold.

When your palette is ready, spray with
Tsukineko's Ink Potion No. 9 so thecolors begin to run. 

You then smoosh the colors around on your palette so they cover the entire surface of the palette. Then drop and smoosh your white card stock onto the palette . . . and voila!

So I don't overwhelm you with photos and I don't do a face-plant onto my keyboard because my eyelids have become very heavy all of a sudden, be sure to catch the next posting that will include more of what we learned from John on Saturday.


Remember . . . Wednesday afternoon, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Art 'n Soul, we'll have the new Memento colors in the prototype ink pads and marker pens for you to see and play with. And I'll show you a couple of examples of the new m'Bossing folders from Spellbinders that I brought back from CHA.


John is returning to Art 'n Soul on Saturday, April 14, for another creatively fun class that starts at 12:00 noon. Students from Saturday's class signed up for his next class before they left the store . . . and before we had a date, time and cost confirmed! If you want in on the fun, you need to call the store at 360.357.6820 or come into the store to sign up asap.


And we send our wishes for safe travels home to Marj; she returns from visiting her dad in Illinois tomorrow on an unnamed airline flight. She's anxious to see everyone and catch up!


A final note . . . I really want to thank those of you who take the time to let us know you are reading the blog and enjoy some of the information that's posted. Any and all feedback is certainly welcome and appreciated! Thanks!