I'm back...

After a week spent rearranging my whole house I am back to stamping. I had a lot of fun playing around with the "Gamsol Magic" technique this morning and I thought I would share a little tutorial with you. Now I usually use Stampin' Up! © products exclusively but we don't carry everything, so this technique does use some different stuff. I used Prismacolor brand colored pencils but you can use SU's pure color pencils or any colored pencils you have in the house, to do this technique, and Mona Lisa brand odorless paint thinner but you can use Gamsol (or any brand your hubby has in the garage) odorless mineral spirits or paint thinner and I understand that baby oil and rubbing alcohol also work though I have not tried them. I use a rolled paper blending stump but you can try using a q-tip in its place.
What I used:
Give Thanks stamp set
basic black and basic gray classic ink
basic gray, rose red, ballet blue, confetti white card stock and rose red prints designer paper
basic gray taffeta ribbon and a large oval punch
First you need to gather together your supplies: a line stamp that you can color the image, neutral card stock to stamp your image on, a dye based ink to stamp the image with, colored pencils, a paper stump, sand paper, odorless mineral spirits.
Stamp the line image with a dye based ink stamp pad such as Stampin' Up! basic black.
Start with the lightest color first. I just lightly shade around the edges of the image.
Moisten your stump with mineral spirits (not dripping) and using a circular motion blend, smooth and draw out the color.
Clean your stump between colors on the sand paper.
Repeat process with each color, thinking about highlights and shadows.