Guest Tutorial: Creating Patterns with Colorless Blender by Kristy Dalman January 17, 2012

Kristy Dalman is the talented owner/artist/designer of Some Odd Girl digital stamps. She has teamed up with Melissa Andrew (Melissa Made) to start Created from Color, where they will teach online Copic classes. Registration for their first class is now open, check it out!

Read on to learn Kristy’s technique for creating patterns on digital stamps with Copic Various Ink Colorless Blender:

One thing I really love about copics, besides the gorgeous vibrant color, is the versatility of the product. Something that seems under utilized but really fun to experiment with part is the Colorless Blender. So today I have a quick tutorial on how to add pattern to your stamped images using the Colorless Blender and stamps.

To complete this project you will need the following:

- Colorless Blender Various Ink Refill
- Stamps (1 image and 1 pattern or shape)
- Small Sponge
- Copic Markers
- Xpress It Paper
- Memento Black inkpad

First thing to do is to stamp out your image and color JUST the area that you want to use this technique on. This is because if you accidentally get the Colorless Blender into areas you don’t want it, well you don’t want to ruin your hard work.

So I have colored just her dress as that’s what I’ll be focusing on using BG11, BG13 and BG49. For this technique you’ll want the base to be a color that 1) will easily move when used with the colorless blender and 2) will clearly show the area you’ve stamped. So a rich color, maybe not red though as that could be tough, is what you’ll want to use.

Let the image dry completely.

Next take your Colorless blender and pour a small amount on to your sponge.

We’re using a sponge to give the stamp you’ll be using an even coating of Colorless Blender without it being too wet and drippy. Take your shape stamp, in this case a heart, and use the sponge like an ink pad and pounce. NOTE: Make sure the stamp you’ll be using for this is completely free of ink from previous uses. It will ruin your work if its dirty. I’m using a clear stamp to be able to tell but you can pounce and try a scrap paper before going to your image just to make sure.

Now just use your stamp inked with Colorless Blender like a regular stamp. I used a heart and followed the line of her skirt across, starting slightly off the edge to make it look like the pattern goes all the way around. Now let it dry. You’ll see that the Colorless blender has pushed the color out from the area that you’ve stamped!

If you need to you can go back in with your Colorless Blender Marker and, letting it dry between, push more color out to clean it up until your happy. After its dry all that’s left is to fill your pattern back in with color. I’m using R24.

Now her dress has a super cute pattern and the colors are all nice and bright! Take your time and experiment with different pattern and color combinations and see what you can come up with. There’s a lot of fun to be had with florals, dots, flourishes and more.

All that’s left is to finish coloring your image and a fun card to go along with it.

Thanks so much and I hope you have lots of fun with this technique!

Materials used:
Colorless Blender Various Ink
Copic Sketch Markers – BG11, BG13, BG49, R24 (for the tutorial)
E00, E01, E11, E13, R00, R01, R02, E50, E51, E53, E55, V93, V95 (for the rest of the image)
Stamps – Sweet Thinkin Mae from Some Odd Girl, Lovey Tobie set (heart) from Some Odd Girl
Pattern Papers – October Afternoon, Crate Paper
The Twinery Caribbean Blue twine
Crate Paper Stickers
misc buttons.

Find Kristy on the web:
Copic Color: http://www.copiccolor.com/SomeOddGirl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeOddGirls
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeOddGirls
Blog: http://www.theoddgirl.com/
Some Odd Girl Shop: http://www.someoddgirl.com/

Kristy’s Copic classes:
Created from Color: http://www.createdfromcolor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Created-From-Color/195232667230217