Up for a Challenge? Color a Card in a Different Medium Than You're Use to

Challenging Rummaging

Power Poppy specializes in stamps that evoke the whimsical side of nature. This month's challenge asks us to rummage through our neglected art supplies, trying a different medium than the usual go-to. Whether digital stamps or clear, Marcella Hawley's images are delightful to color. To do so, I usually grab my Copic Alcohol Ink markers, because I'm trying to grow as a person. (An inside joke here; sorry. The markers are very, unh, challenging.) This time, to meet the challenge, I rummaged through my supplies and found a forlorn tin of Derwent Inktense pencils.

Relative rightousness for a brand-new medium, Inktense Aquarellable Pencils.

Originally I bought the Inktense pencils to color fabric into my art quilts. (Sorry, I still don't know of a better term for quilts that are neither bed quilts nor conventional. Are these former not art, too? Especially the quilts done in the mid-nineteenth century, many of mind-blowing design, done by [mostly] women un-schooled [mostly] formally in art? Do we say, "art paintings"? "Art sculptures"? The debate continues.)

Renowned for their vivid hues, Inktense pigments become watercolors with a wet brush. Have you ever closed your watercolor palette after a painting session, dripping Thalo Green onto everything? For convenience alone, Inktense pencils are a win/win. Initially, I bought the modest 24-pack, and then heard one of my workshop teachers say that, upon my recommendation, she'd worked them into fabric, then rinsed it in water -- and the colors ran. For some reason, that turned me off to the pencils, but I wasn't thinking. Who would wash a quilt that's meant to hang on a wall? Still, I never really warmed up to this medium. However, after seeing my results, I agree with Andy that they're worthy of further experimentation ... which, I guess, is the point of this month's Power Poppy challenge.

Normally, Andy's Monday ukulele group meets at Ed's, but Ed's down with pnumonia and away indefinitely. To cheer him up, Andy suggested I make a card, and he'd go around and get the other members to sign it. Frankly, I'm not so sure if this medium is as successful as the tried and true, but I'm tossing aside the perfectionism and just going with it. Hey, it came out okay.
  
Card Recipe: On my favorite card base, 110# Xerox white cardstock, I cut a 5x7"base and adhered  a panel of 92# Curious Metallics Ice Gold. You can't tell from the picture, but it shimmers and morphs into a richer gold when tilted around. Using the Elliana Background die (Memory Box), I cut it in 92# Curious Metallics Gold Leaf. (Yes, I had fun at Paper-Papers back in December. If you're looking for a creativity boost, treat yourself to a Metallics Sampler Pack. Your world will be forever altered.) After coloring, fussy-cutting, and glueing down Power Poppy's Daffodils clear stamp set, using Strathmore 140# Mixed Media paper (it's super reasonable, and holds its own against water media), I added a sentiment from Power Poppy's Olive and Oak Expanded clear stamp set. An ancient Sizzix Framelets die (#658362) encloses the sentiment and echoes the swirls nicely, I think.

Inside, see below; two nesting dies from Spellbinders Opulent Ovals done in the Ice Gold paper surround a sentiment from PP's Daffodil's clear stamp set. The outer layer is coated with Ranger's Perfect Medium, then dabbed with Pearl Ex powder in Brilliant Gold. I finally figured out how to use my Pearl Ex powders!!!
(Does anyone else ever use their weekly coupon to buy an unknown, untried art supply?)

Ed's friends have signed around the sentiment.

I'm entering Ed's card into this challenge:
Power Poppy's Switch up Your Shades