Hi, everyone, and Happy Hump Day!  It's Kristine with you on the blog today, to talk about my newest love - Brusho watercolor powders!  Have you seen these powders in action?  If you have no idea what they are, do yourself a favor and run over to YouTube and check them out.  Go ahead, I'll wait here patiently until you're back.


<singing a song>


<checking email>


<scrolling through IG>


Oh, there you are!  Did you see them? Did you watch a video or two? Aren't watercolor powders, like, the MOST AMAZING thing you have ever seen? I watched one video on them and knew I had to have them.  I bought a set of 12 on Amazon for about $32, I think.  (They also come in sets of 24 and 8 - I got the 12 because I didn't know how much I would love them.  I wish I had gotten the 24!) You need only a miniscule amount each time you use them, so they will last FOREVER.  A great crafty investment!

So once I got my powders, I knew I wanted to swatch them.  Because many of the colors are actually made up of different color powders, I wanted to be able to see the swatches any time so I'd know if the color I was reaching for would give me the effect I wanted.  Here's what my final swatches ended up looking like:

I mean, seriously, how gorgeous are those?  Let me walk you through the steps of making the swatches, and you can see them in action.

First off, here's what the containers of powder look like:

Now, they have a pull tab on the side that you can use to separate the top from the container, BUT YOU DO NOT WANT TO OPEN IT!!!  I know, it seems weird to not open the container - how do you get the powder out otherwise?  Well, I saw on a video by Sandy Allnock (are you following her?  You need to - she's amazing!) how she stuck a push pin through the top of the container to make a teeny hole for shaking the powder out, using the pin itself to keep the container sealed when not in use, and I gotta say, it's brilliant.  BRILLIANT.  I've seen photos on IG of people who have taken the tops off to use their powder - and let's just say that every time they use it, they and everything else within a 5-foot radius is COVERED in watercolor powder.  Kids, that is NOT a good crafty investment!  Really, all you need is this bitty hole and you are good to go.

So to make my swatches, I first cut 12 pieces of watercolor paper into 3-inch squares and taped them down on my large cutting mat with washi tape.  This was to keep the color from running all over the place and also to keep the paper from buckling too much once the water hit it.

Next, I sprinkled a wee bit of powder onto each square, using a different color for each.  And when I say a wee bit, I mean a wee bit!

Once the papers were all sprinkled, I used an old travel-sized Chloraseptic mister bottle to spritz water onto each square.  (You can buy mister bottles and mini-mister bottles, but why do that when the Chloraseptic bottle worked so well?  I will say this, if you choose to use a bottle you already have lying around the house - pick one that sprays in a fairly fine mist.  Large droplets and streams will just create puddles and rivulets of water that run off the page.) As soon as the water hits the powder, the magic happens!

This is the leaf green sample.  See how there are yellow, green, and even a few blue and orange looking bits in there?  That's how the powder is comprised.  Now, I could mix the powder and some water together in a bowl and get a solid light green, and use it with a brush like regular watercolors.  But for me, the magic in this stuff is how some of the colors stay separated in their component colors when lightly misted.  So I wanted my swatches to reflect that.

Here's the whole mat with all 12 swatches misted:

Once misted, I gave the swatches a couple of minutes to partially dry - just enough so that any puddles got pretty well soaked into the paper.  Then, because I am impatient, I got out my heat gun and helped them along.

Once all the swatches were dry to the touch, I took the washi tape off, covered the whole thing with a piece of white paper, and laid a few heavy books on top for an hour or so, just to make sure they were dry and to help them flatten out a bit.

Using Sweet Stamp Shop's Mixed Alpha set, I stamped the name of each color at the top of each swatch.

And then I laid them all out and admired them!

And then I punched holes in the corners and put them all on a ring and admired them again!

And finally, I hung them from the craft carousel that lives in the middle of my craft table, so they're in easy reach whenever I want to use the powders and need to see the colors. (I admire them there, too.)

Other than the swatches, I've used these powders to make an amazing card that I unfortunately can't show you right now - cryptic, right?! - but will be featured in an upcoming post.  So stay tuned!  And meanwhile, have fun playing!!

Kristine  :-)

Good morning from Kristine, all! (And for those who celebrate it, Happy Easter!) I've got another PWM video for you today, for the the week of March 28 through April 3.  (YOU GUYS - where the heck did the first three months of the year go?????)

All sources are posted at the end of the video.  Please let us know if you have any questions or comments - we LOVE getting your feedback!

Hope you all have a great week!  Mwah!

Crafting Supply Inventory

Hi everyone! It's Jes again! Have you see the new Art Collection stamp set from Sweet Stamp Shop? It is the perfect little stamp set for creating an inventory of my crafting supplies. I picked it up a few weeks ago, and haven't really had a chance to work with it. This week, I've been working on reorganizing my craft room.  Now that everything has it's on place, I needed a simple way to keep track of what I already had.  To track my stamps, I have a digital album that I can reference when I am shopping.  I needed something for my inks, markers, colored pencils, and pens that I could take along with me when I was out trying to spend all my money at craft stores. ;) I decided to make a simple little booklet that would fit in my purse, but also worked with my faux-dori travelers notebook when I take that out and about.

You'll need: Printer paper, pretty card stock, a rotating stapler (get a good one, mine is junk and I silently scold myself every time I use it), and a rotary blade or xacto knife. Optional, but very helpful items are a bone folder and a scoring board. (See below for links.)

Step one:  Score all the paper (one at a time) at 5 1/2 inches. Fold and crease firmly with your bone folder.

Step two: Add all the folded printer paper inside your cardstock cover, and crease firmly.  Then staple the pages together.  

Step three: Trim off the overhang from the side of your book if it bothers you. I tried to use my paper trimmer but my book was too think so I ended up using my rotary cutter.

Step four: Decorate your cover, if you so desire. Looking at mine here, I realize I forgot to finish adding in my markers and pencils for that final little pop, but that's an easy fix.

Last but not least, fill the pages with anything your heart desires. :) I have a similar book for my grocery shopping. One that I use as a journal of sorts, and another holds my running to do lists.  I have some for gift tracking/wishlists for my family and friends, one for quotes and things that inspire me, and a bucket list for my family.  They are perfect for tracking pretty much anything. 

 And a close up just because I really love these little markers from the set!

What would you use a little insert booklet like this for? 

Supplies:

Stamp set: Art Collection

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx Black

Paper: Any printer paper will work

Cardstock: I bought a pack of 8x11 card stock from Walmart

Stapler: Rotating Stapler

Scoring board: Martha Stewart Scoring Board

Bone folder: Craft bone folder

Hey everyone, it's Jes today, back with a fun watercolored set of cards! Happy first day of spring! Here in Indiana it's a lovely (read: freezing) sunny day, with a high of 43 degrees.  A perfect day to stay inside and craft.  Today, I'm going to show you a set of cards that I made to keep in my bag.  I've often wished I had a pretty, blank card for various occasions, but never seemed to have one on hand. That inspired me to make this set of cards to have on hand.

This is what my final four looked like. There were five, but I really messed up on one, badly! I gave that one to my daughter.  For this project you'll need watercolor paper (cut to size), a pretty stamp set, card bases of your choice, embossing powder and ink, a heat tool, and your favorite watercolor medium (I like to use tombow markers and water brushes). 

(see below for links to everything I used.)

I chose to use the Flutterby stamp set from Lawn Fawn for my decorations.  The cards are from Michaels. When I got this stamp set I knew it would be perfect for embossing and watercoloring. I loved all the detail.   

Step one: Emboss a pretty design in the bottom corner of each pre-cut piece of water color paper. I used a silver embossing powder from the Michael's Recollection collection.  Stamp the image with the embossing ink of your choice, sprinkle the powder on, and heat set. I love the shimmery look of this powder. I like to work in sections when I'm doing multiple cards.  Here are all the cards after embossing.  (See the blue one? That's the one that became a major fail. Maybe someday I'll do a #fail blog post just for kicks.) 

My next step was to add a water colored background on each card.  I found a technique on Youtube (link below) called ink smooshing and I couldn't wait to try it.  I used my fiskars stamp press as a base. I scribbled on it with my Tombow markers. Make sure to leave the corner where your design is blank. Then, sprinkle some water on the stamp press just to wet the colors and make it easy to transfer. 

Lay your paper over the ink and press down. Leave it a few seconds to really soak up the water.  Then, peal it off very carefully. There will be some water pooling on the edges.  Just dab it off with a paper towel.  

I like to let my cards dry a bit before I tape them down to my work surface. That way, the color on the corners doesn't come up or pool when I take the tape off later.  It is much easier to color the designs if your project is taped down. 

Next, I used my tombow markers and water brushes to add color to each of the flowers and butterflies on the cards.  

This part was kind of time consuming, but it was my favorite part.  I got braver and experimented more with color as I moved from card to card.  Here is a close up of each of the final four cards. 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you liked this project. If you try it out, leave me a comment and let me see your final designs!  

Supplies: 

    Stamps-  Flutterby from Lawn Fawn

    Paper - Canson Watercolor Paper

    Ink -  Versamark

    Embossing Powder - Recollections Sparkle Powder

    Card Bases - Craft Smith: Textured Cards

    Stamp Press - Fiskars

    Markers - Tombows

    Water Brushes - Pentel Arts

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  It's Kristine with you today, and I hope you're making it through the workweek okay.  Personally, I can't wait for Friday because it's the start of Spring Break this weekend - woo hoo!  To help pass the days, I made myself this super cute Easter card.  What, you've never seen an Easter dragon before? When you don't have bunny stamps, you improvise!  This super cute set from Sweet Stamp Shop includes a dragon and egg, so I decided to turn Easter on its head this year:

Super cute, right?  But that's not even the best part - George has wobble action!

Read on below to see how insanely EASY it is to make your own wobble cards!

So to start, I decided I wanted the background of the card to have some texture.  I don't have a die cut machine, so I can't use embossing folders - but I didn't let that stop me!  I decided to weave my own paper background.  First, I cut the paper into strips 6 inches by one-quarter inch wide. (This paper is the kind you find in the scrapbooking section of the craft store - thicker than regular paper, but not quite as thick as cardstock).

Once the paper was all cut, I lined a bunch of the strips up next to each other and taped them down at the top end on my cutting mat. I used enough strips to go 6 inches, which was the width of my card base.

Next, I took the leftover strips and started weaving!  This was a little time consuming, though after the 5th or 6th strip, I got a system that worked well and I was able to move pretty quickly.  After each strip was woven in, I used my fingernails to gently but firmly pull it tight against the strip above it.

I continued on this way until I had a woven area that was the same size as my card base, about 6 in. by 4 in.  I taped the bottom edges of the woven paper together to make sure they wouldn't come apart in the next step.

Once it was all taped and secure, I removed the woven paper from the mat and turned it upside down on the table (this is because my paper had a matte side and a shiny side, and I wanted the shiny side to show on the front of my card - I made sure the shiny side was face down on the table).  I then positioned my card base over it and used hot glue to secure it - not so much that it squooshed through the weaving, but enough (especially around the edges) to keep it all secure.

Once the hot glue had cooled, I used my craft knife and a metal ruler to trim all around the edges.  The woven bits at the very edge are not glued down tightly, as you can see, but that's okay - they'll be secured in the next step.

Next, I chose a piece of coordinating scrapbook paper and made a frame for the card front.  I used my craft knife to cut out the inside, and used some scalloped scissors to cut the outside (I REALLY need to get a die cut machine, lol!).  

Before attaching the frame to the front of the card, I went ahead and attached the grass pieces to the bottom.  These are pieces of die cut grass that can be bought premade at the craft store in the scrapbooking section with all the stickers and other embellishments.  These do not have sticker backs, so I ran them through my Xyron sticker maker first to attach a layer of adhesive to them.  Then I peeled them off and stuck them down.

To attach the frame, I used foam tape around the edges.  This gave it a bit of nice dimension.

Now for the good part - George and his eggs!  I used Sweet Stamp Shop's Dragon set to stamp on white cardstock.  (I made multiple images of each item in case I messed up).

Using a thin-tipped Sharpie, I carefully drew a pair of bunny ears on the dragon.  What's an Easter dragon without bunny ears??  I think this was the moment I decided he had to be named George.

Once the dragon had his ears, I colored him, his eggs, and some fire with Prismacolor colored pencils and blended the colors with gamsol for a smooth, even look.  Then, using a basket embellishment that I also found in the scrapbooking section of the craft store, I arranged the basket, eggs, and fire on the lower left portion of the card and adhered them down.  

Now for George, I knew I wanted to make him wobble.  There are ready-made wobble springs that you can buy, but it was cheap and crazy easy to make my own.  To make a wobble spring, I cut a couple of small squares or circles of cardstock (small enough to attach to the back of the dragon without being seen) and some thin wire (mine is 26 gauge, and it worked perfectly). Using the handle of mycraft knife (any narrow cylindrical object would work), I wrapped the end of the wire 2 times around and cut.

Using plain old clear tape, I attached one end of the wire coil to one of the small pieces of cardstock, making sure it was as centered on the cardstock as I could make it.  If any tape hung over the edge, I just trimmed it with scissors.

Next I attached the other end of the wire to the other piece of cardstock the same way.

Using a few glue dots, I attached one side of the spring to the back of the dragon and the other side to the front of the card.  I added a bow to the basket, and voila!  George the Easter dragon was born.

And don't forget that awesome wobble action!  I've made him wobble dozens of times with no issues, so it's quite sturdy!

Can't you just imagine all kinds of projects that would be cuter with a little wobble action?  Try making your own!  Tag us on instagram (@teachplancraft, @jes_planning) so we can see your adorable creations.  Until next time, have a great afternoon!

Good morning from Kristine, and happy Sunday!  Today is the day we "sprung forward," and while I'm happy that it means spring is practically here, I'm always a bit unsettled to lose an hour out of the day.  Who would think that a measly hour would have such an impact??

Well, Sunday means we've got more planner layouts for you.  Below is a link to my second-ever Plan With Me video.  I streamlined the process a little, so it's a little shorter than last time, and there aren't as many cuts and jumps.  I also tried a new camera set-up, which resulted in a little unintended camera shake - I hope that doesn't bother you guys too much, and I'll figure something different out for next time.  Always a process, lol!

Anyhoo, here it is.  Please feel free to comment and let us know what you think - the good, the bad, and the ugly.  We want to get better!  Have a great week, everyone!

Hey everyone, it's Jes again.  Kristine and I have been working on setting up our new YouTube channel this week.  Sunday she posted an awesome full length plan with me video.  It turned out great! My video this week is also a plan with me video, but I chose to do it as a time-lapse.  We like both full length and time-lapse videos, and we decided that we would give them both a go on our channel and see which one suited our styles more.  Let us know what styles you like.

(Supplies and stores linked on YT)