Tips and Techniques – Blender Pens

If you enjoy colouring your stamped images, Stampin’ Blends quality alcohol markers are perfect for you.

These amazingly smooth and easy blending markers come in 40 different colours or 20 sets. Each set of 2 is just $12.00 which makes it easy to start or add to your collection. To see all these amazing colours, please visit my online store by clicking here and search for alcohol markers.

All of these colours will make you feel like an artist.   There is even a colour lifter available which helps repair mistakes because let’s face it, that happens on occasion to everyone.

Below are a few features to be aware of;

• Blender Pens come as a set with both a light and a dark version.
• The lids are tight for a reason, they keep the pens from drying out.
• Each marker includes 2 tips, a brush at one end and a fine tip at the other.
• Sets can be ordered in the Stampin’ Up! Colours
• They coordinate beautifully with the card stock, ink pads, ribbons and embellishments of the same colour.

TO USE – Stamp your image with the Memento Ink Pad which ensures your image will not smear when you start to colour.  You can also use your ink pads to stamp your image if you prefer.  I have done both, depending on the image.  Before colouring, make sure you are working on a covered surface as the colour can bleed through your card stock and you don’t want to damage your work surface.

TIP: When using the blender pen brush tip, DO NOT push down directly as you might do with a pen or pencil.  Doing so, will eventually flatten or “smoosh”  the tip making it really hard to colour with. Instead, gently colour at an angle so the tip is preserved.  There is no need to apply any pressure.  

When colouring images, I like to start with the darker pen and highlight the natural contour lines or shadows of an image, then go over it again with the lighter pen to blend the two shades together.  This is just a preference.  I know some people prefer to start with the light colour, highlight with the darker colour then blend it all afterwards, with the light colour.  I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to colour.  This also applies to the two different tips.  Whether you use the fine tip which offers better control or the larger brush tip for larger areas is purely optional.  I tend to use the fine tip for smaller images and the brush tip for larger images but again, it’s your preference.

To give an image dimension, I like to add a thin line around some images, with a very light blue or gray.  I just think it makes an image pop out a little bit more and you don’t really notice it on your finished project. If you have die cut an image (in a light colour) and plan to place it on darker cardstock, take a minute to colour the little bit of paper surrounding your image. it will hide or minimize how it looks on the darker card stock.

Darker blender pen

added the lighter blender pen

Added a little blue around the image

TIP:  You can use your Stampin Blends to colour ribbon & embellishments so if you don’t have the exact colour you can make your own.

TIP:  Did you make a boo boo and go outside the line?  There is a fix for that. The colour lifter pen is an alcohol blender pen which can help you to correct an error.   Despite the name, it does not really lift the ink as the name implies.  What it does, is push the ink away and through the card stock to hide it.  Use the colour lifter pen to go over your error then let it dry a minute and take another look.  It might take 2-3 tries to remove the error but it does work.  You can also use the colour lifter to lighten up a spot that may be coloured too dark

Were you planning to emboss your image? You can do that by embossing the outline first and then colour your image afterwards. First stamp your image with Versamark ink. Emboss with the colour of choice (i.e. gold) and set it with your heat tool. You can now proceed to colour and the embossed outline will shine through.

FYI, I created these templates to keep track of what I have have. Each template has the product numbers for each Stampin’ Up! colour for easy reference. The picture on the right shows colours I have (top) a colour that doesn’t have coordinating Blender pens (bottom left) and a template showing that I don’t have the blender pens for a certain colour (bottom right). I also created blanks to add new colours going forward If you would like a copy of this template, contact me with your email address and I will send you a copy.

TIP:  To store the blender pens, always make sure they are stored horizontally so the ink is evenly spread between the two tips.  Stampin’ Up! has some wonderful storage units for this purpose.   You can purchase these trays for just $19.00 and that includes 5 trays which you can stack to save space.   Each Stampin’ Blends Storage Tray is 5″ x 5″ x 7/8″ in size and will hold 6 Stampin’ Blends markers for a total of 30 pens or 15 sets with one purchase and they are all contained in one place. To see it online, click here.

FYI, Stampin’ Up! also have similar storage trays to store your Stampin’ Up! classic ink pads which also includes a spot to store you corresponding write markers beside the ink pad. Click here to find out more. Below is a picture which shows you how you can easily store all your Stampin’ Up! products

CAUTION;  Always make sure the lids are “clicked shut” before you put them away.  This ensures that they don’t dry out.  Alcohol markers will dry out fast if the lids are not tight and you will be disappointed if this happens to you.  Ask me how I know that?  Lesson learned…

I hope you have found these tips useful. Please like and follow my blog so you won’t miss out on future tips. I post Helpful Tips every Tuesday and every Friday I like to post a fun fold card or 3D project. I may post more often but those two posts are my commitment to sharing.

As always, I welcome your feedback so please leave me a comment or a suggestion for future posts.

Have a wonderful day

Sue