Hello, everyone!
This is Hussena from Quill and Punch Works hosting the first challenge for the year 2017 on the Pretty Paper Studio blog. I hope this year brings in more happiness and peace in all our lives. For the month of January, we have a very interesting theme which is ‘Rainbow’.
You can interpret this theme in various ways either by creating an actual rainbow on your card, using the rainbow colours, watercolouring, and much more. I hope you will play along with us! The Design Team can’t wait to see your projects 🙂
For my inspiration today, I have created 3 different projects. This is going to be a PICTURE HEAVY post so let’s get started.
These are the projects I created using my Tombow Markers. The coloring, the background, the stamping, everything is done using these brush pens. I will also be highlighting 5 different ways you can use your Tombow Brush Pens other than Brush Lettering.
FIRST TECHNIQUE – WATERCOLOURING
This is a fairly common technique used for colouring your stamped images. You can either directly colour your stamped images with your markers or you can scribble a bit of the colour on an acrylic block or any non porous surface & pick your colour with a water brush & colour your images.
Step 1 – I affixed the images from the Neat & Tangled- Donut For You set on an acrylic black. 
Step 2 – I stamped the images using Versafine Onyx black ink on some watercolor paper by Canson.
Step 3 – I stamped the little girl above the earlier stamped image.
Step 4 – I scribbled some of the markers on an acrylic below and started colouring my image using a Koi Medium Nib Water brush pen.
Step 5 – Here is the final image after colouring. I fussy-cut it and used them on my card pictured below.
SECOND TECHNIQUE – STAMPING
This is a quick & easy method of stamping using your rubber stamps with markers & the results are so pretty too. I am mentioning rubber stamps since they are more deeply etched than the photopolymer ones so they work better with this technique.
Step 1 – Take a stamp of your choice and trace the outline of the image using the Tombow Brush Markers. You can use multiple colours to stamp a single image using this technique unlike when we use inks where the entire image is coloured using a single ink colour only. I have used Yellow for the centre, red for the outline of the flowers & green for the leaves. (All supplies with codes for the markers listed below)
Step 2 – Take a water mist and spray on the rubber stamp. You need to spray lightly, maybe once or twice.
Step 3 – Stamp it on a piece of watercolour cardstock.
Step 4 – Here’s the stamped impression. It looks really pretty and you can really experiment a lot with this technique. The blend of colours is really nice.
THIRD TECHNIQUE – SMOOSHING
This technique involves using either a large acrylic block or any plastic sheets you have on hand.
Step 1 – I have taken four different colours of the Tombow Brush Markers and scribbled them randomly on a large acrylic block.
Step 2 – Spritz water from a distance of about 2-3 inches from the block. You will notice that the colours start blending & mixing into each other as they are dye-based.
Step 3 – Now carefully lift your block and smoosh it on a piece of watercolor paper for best results. It’s better to try out this technique on a plastic sheet or a Craft Sheet if you have one so as to not spoil your work surface. 
Step 5 – Carefully lift your block from the watercolor paper & you are left with a beautiful rainbow colored background. You can leave this to dry on its own or use a Heat Gun to speed up the process. Once dry, you can either use it as it is or you can die-cut for using on your projects. 
I die-cut the paper using a Stitched Circles die and mounted it onto a scalloped circle card base. You can really see how vibrant & cheerful this looks! All the flowers & the foliage on the card are coloured using the Brush Pens. You can go as vibrant or as soft you want with these markers. Lot of scope to play around with!
FOURTH TECHNIQUE – SPECKLING
This is another fun technique where in you can use the same colour marker, not only to colour your image, but also to highlight it.
Step 1 – Stamp the image of your choice onto a watercolor paper either using your marker or an ink pad.
Step 2 – Now scribble the marker onto an acrylic block, then using your waterbrush, pick up the colour from the block and colour your image.
Step 3 – Once the image is coloured & dried, using the Fine Tip of the marker, start creating small dots or confetti-like images on your image. (I am not very good at colouring & I don’t know the precise way of highlighting an image,I’ve just played around with this technique till I was satisfied with the end result.
Step 4 – The final flower looks like this. You can definitely do this in a more professional manner if you are good with colouring techniques.
I fussy-cut the image & used it on my tag as my focal. added some leaves and die-cut flowers & foliage using the Memory Box Playful Petal Bundle die to finish off my tag.
FIFTH TECHNIQUE – DOODLING
This is such a quick & easy technique and is something you can really get creative with since this is mostly done free-hand. You just need to have 2-3 colors of the Markers to create your project.
Below I have showed you how to create simple flowers, leaves & a butterfly by just pressing down your brush tip of the marker horizontally on your paper. Yes, these markers are pretty flexible and you can bend & flex them to create various shapes. I went with simple florals as that’s what I do best, but the possibilities are endless ofcourse if you are a creative person. 🙂 
– – – – – – – – – –
That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed my post & are inspired to try out the Tombow Dual Brush Markers. If you have any queries, please leave them below & I will try to get back to you as soon as possible.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
To enter this month’s challenge, here are the guidelines:
1. Create a project with the theme ‘Rainbow’ in it.
2. Upload your entry at our Member Gallery and link us up in this thread in the forum January 2017 – Rainbow.
3. All entries are due by January 31st, 2017.
4. Challenge winner will receive a prize pack worth AED50.
Note:
1. A winner will be announced only if we have THREE new submissions.
2. All projects submitted for the challenge must be NEW and created AFTER the challenge went live.
Hope you like my cards! I would love to hear your views on it.
– Have a nice day everyone!
