Echo Park Paper & Lawn Fawn Stamped Journal by Guest Designer Lizzie Oakley

                                                                       Hello there fellow crafters, I'm Lizzie!  I am so excited to be a guest designer for Craft Warehouse!  This is such an honor and wow, I was completely gushing with joy when I was chosen! I have a super fun project for you using some Echo Park Paper, Lawn Fawn Stamps, and the totally amazing Chormatix Markers from American Crafts! 

 

We are going to be making a fun journal using the items above plus our sewing machine.  If you don't have a sewing machine, that's fine!  You can use a needle and thread!  I promise you, it's not as scary as it sounds.

We need 7 sheets of white card stock (or any color card stock that you want to use)
Cut all of the card stock down to 10 x 7 inches.  Our journal is going to be 5x7 inches.

Take one sheet of the cut card stock and score (on the 10 inch side) at 5 inches and then again at 5 1/4.  

I don't have a fancy smancy scoring board.  Instead I use my trimmer and a pair of scissors.  I lightly press along the guide so I'm careful not to cut the paper, but it will still leave a nice line that is easy to fold.

Take your card stock and fold along the scored line.  You should end up with something like I have in the above the photo.  This is going to be the cover to your journal.  Start to plan out and decorate your cover. 

Do not worry about scoring the other sheets.

Now it's STAMPING TIME!  I know that the Chromatix markers are alcohol based, but I wasn't too sure on what ink would work the best.  I do love my StazOn as it just produces such a nice dark solid image.  But my Versafine makes clear stamps so crisp!  I was torn to say the least.  So off I went to stamp with both inks!

You might be able to see that with the StazOn the colors seemed to bleed a little bit when using the markers.  I had an idea that this would happen, but wanted to make sure.  The Versafine worked great!

Another tip when using the Chormatix, the blender is more of an eraser.  It does blend, but I found if using a color lighter then one I'm working with, the blending effects pop out a bit more.

With the flat elements to my cover added, I began the sewing of the binding.  There are many binding tutorials you can find all around the interwebz.  I like to sew the binding.  It's easy and I don't have to wait hours for glue to dry.  I'm an instant gratification kind of a girl, what can I say?
Take all 7 sheets of your paper, with your cover on the outside and sew down the center of your scored lines.

Once sewn together, fold the journal in half.

What's that?  You see a few uneven pages?  This happens here and there.  Take your trimmer or handy dandy scissors and just trim away the naughty edges.
Finish decorating your cover and VIOLA!

A very lovely, one of a kind journal!

By using the card stock, this journal is nice and sturdy and can withstand tons of doodles and coloring!  Even if you just need a fun play to practice your coloring techniques!  You could substitute the inner pages with regular weight paper and have a fun writing journal.  It's up to you! 

Distress Markers Tutorial

I am thrilled to be doing a Designer Spotlight for Craft Warehouse!!! When Craft Warehouse approached me, they knew that my passion begins and ends with coloring so it was only natural for me to try out the all new Tim Holtz Distress Markers! 

As soon as I got them, I couldn't wait to start playing around and trying out different techniques. I ended up using two over and over that I wanted to share with you today. The first one is stamping with black ink on watercolor paper and using the markers to color in the black and white image. 

This really takes no time at all and I love the free flowing effect from watercoloring. You don't have to worry about getting outside the lines because that just adds character to your finished project.

The 2nd technique is one that I haven't tried before but really ended up loving. In this technique, you actually color the stamp BEFORE you stamp it! This is really cool for flowers, etc. because you can paint the petals one color and the stem/leaves another then stamp it on your paper for a really unique look. You can keep it as is, or take it a step further and draw out the color from the line art that you stamped to create a beautifully hand painted look just by using your markers and stamps! 

I also created a video tutorial for  you so you can see how easy and fast both these techniques are to do yourself! I hope you will enjoy:

Thank you SO much Craft Warehouse for giving me this AMAZING opportunity to do this designer spotlight for you. It was a pleasure and now I have a new medium to create stunning effects with color! 

-Carisa Zglobicki

Guest Designer Carisa Zglobicki

We are excited to launch a new blog series called, Designer Spotlight. This will be our opportunity to generously display the talent of one particular artist at a time! This week we will be featuring color artist, Carisa Zglobicki. Carissa is the owner of the new online (and soon in print) magazine, Designed to Color which is devoted to inspiring readers with techniques using different coloring mediums for stamping. Carissa also designs for Unity as a Unity TV Design Team Member, Helmar, Saturated Canary Digital Stamps, and Freckles and Pigtails. We are excited to share with you what she has created using Craft Warehouse products tomorrow, but first, asked her to share with us a little about herself.

How long have you been crafting?

3 years but I've always loved coloring. I remember filling up coloring book after coloring book as a kid and always asking for a new box of sharpened crayons. I just loved seeing all those beautiful colors & the names were awesome like atomic tangerine and blizzard blue!

What Craft Warehouse products do you love to use (and why)?

I think CW carries a lot of my favorite coloring mediums. I am also in love with Smashing recently. You can use anything to decorate a smash page, my favorite lines right now are Amy Tangerine and Studio Calico.

People email me or tell me that I color so beautifully and that they wish they could do the same. I always respond letting them know, they can!!! Just start with whatever coloring medium they like or prefer. And color something every day or at least 2 -3 times a week (I know as a mother of 3 time is precious) you'll see that as you do something you love more and more often, you'll grow by leaps and bounds in your style and ability.

Stay tuned in tomorrow, as we share Carisa's coloring tutorial!