Introducing the Make It Market: Beautiful Brushstrokes kit...
June 30, 2014
Hello! I am so excited about everything I have to share with you today! It's finally time for the full reveal of the latest Make It Market kit from Papertrey Ink. This month's kit is called Beautiful Brushstrokes and it embraces the hot trend of all things watercolor and painterly. This kit will be available for purchase from the Papertrey Ink website at 10pm EST tomorrow, July 1st. For more information and detailed images of each item included in the kit, visit Nichole's blog.
As usual, I've put together an inspirational Pinterest board for you that's filled with some of the images that inspired the kit. You can find the board HERE. I will be adding all of the DT project photos using the kit to this board as well.
Before I begin, I also wanted to note a change in how the ordering will be handled for the Make It Market kits going forward. If a kit sells out within the first 24 hours, it will be deemed popular enough to open it up to pre-orders. This will be done with the understanding the the wait time for the pre-orders is not set in stone -- the time frame will depend on the total number of pre-orders and the speed with which the various manufacturers can supply the kit contents.
**Edited to add: The original inventory for this kit did in fact sell out within the first 24 hours. It is now open to pre-orders, which you can find HERE. The pre-order period closes at 10 pm EDT on Monday, July 7.
That being said, let me tell you all about what you will receive in the Beautiful Brushstrokes kit (a detailed supply list can be found at the bottom of this post).
First off, this kit is very stamp heavy (in a good way!!). The last kit focused a lot on the dies, but this time around the stamps take center stage. There are THREE stamp sets in the kit...a full $24 main floral set, plus two $5 mini sets.
The main set consists of some large-scale 3-step florals as well as lots of smaller florals to use for bouquet building or accents. You can use all three steps of the flowers, or just one or two to acheive different looks. You can use the outlines by themselves and experiment with different coloring or watercolor techniques. With the purchase of the kit you will receive a pdf download with the stamp "formulas" showing you which bits and pieces are meant to go together...but don't let that stop you from using them in other ways as well!
There are also two mini stamp sets in the kit. The first one is Beautiful Brushstrokes Additions and it features a couple of 2-step feathers and 2-step circles in two different sizes.
The second mini set in the kit is a sentiment set which has a few fun features too. All of the sentiments are designed to fit inside the label from the main kit. There are a couple of flourishes that can be stamped on the ends of the words "thanks" and "hello" to create a more elongated sentiment. There is also a tiny 3-step flower and a tiny 2-step leaf.
Besides all of the stamps, there are dies as well that coordinate with all of the flowers, leaves, stems, and feathers from the stamp set as well as the label image.
We've also included some different surfaces for you to experiment with. First, there is some high quality watercolor paper. The texture of this paper is amazing...we found a paper that is in between smooth and cold press (cold press is a textured watercolor paper). This paper has the perfect amount of texture for stamping. It's also considered to be one of the whitest watercolor papers on the market. (please note it's not as white as our Stamper's Select white cardstock...watercolor papers just aren't pure white, but this is one of the whitest available).
The other surface we included is some adhesive-backed canvas. It's just like artist's canvas, but in a sheet and with an adhesive backing so you can stamp on it, paint it, diecut it...or anything else you can think of.
As for embellishments, we've included two different colors of variegated twine (I love the way it mimics the look of watercolor), a vial of Rainstones (clear embellishments that look amazingly like drops of water!) and also a roll of black and white dotted washi tape...I've been spotting a trend of soft watercolor looks paired with a pop of black and white which inspired the choice of this washi tape (you can check out the Pinterest board to see some of the images I pinned). There is also a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" pad of patterned paper.
Ok, enough talk, let me show you my projects! I was teasing the forum members the other day that I made 19 cards using this kit! I won't show you all of them today...I chose my top 10 (+1) to share today and I'll post the remaing throughout the week.
First is the card I showed in the sneak peek a few weeks ago. I used just the outlines for the floral images and stamped them using a black waterproof ink (I used Palette Noir) and then used just my ink pads to watercolor them (press your ink pad onto a sheet of acetate and add a little water using a waterbrush).
I know there was some discussion during sneak peek time about whether the edge was a die or hand-cut ...it's just hand-cut. :-) I added some of the Rainstones sprinkled in among the flowers and some pink watercolor paper from the paper pad under the hand-cut edge. I added a strip of the washi tape along the bottom and some of the twine up at the top.
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Up next are a couple of cards that show how the stamps look when they're all layered. There are stems included in the set (matching dies too) so you can use them with or without the stems like I've shown here.
This pink watercolor-look paper is one of my favorites from the paper pad. I really like the brushstroke stripes too. Here I got a little creative and pieced two strips together (hiding the seam under the yellow flower) so that I could use the strip horizontally (it's a vertical stripe in the 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" pad).
I had fun diecutting and layering all of the different flower images on this card. I think my favorite might be the little hyacinth-like sprigs.
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I diecut the edges of the canvas panel with the pinking shears border die (not included in the kit). I also added some dots to the centers of the flowers using my Copic markers.
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My next card has a soft look as well. I stamped just the "center" layer of the rose image using Hibiscus Burst ink onto the watercolor paper from the kit. I stamped the rose once and then stamped it again without re-inking to get two different shades of pink roses. I filled in with lots of leaves and some of the other smaller flower images. Then I took a damp waterbrush (you don't want it too wet!) and brushed over the images, allowing the ink to blur and bleed a little to create a realistic watercolor effect. It's really very simple - the stamped images do the hard work for you!
I stamped the "thanks" sentiment using Classic Kraft ink and added a strip of the Winter Wisteria brushstroke stripe paper from the paper pad along the bottom.
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My next card uses the feathers from the additions set, along with a technique I showed on a Make It Monday video a few weeks back. I rolled the large feather in Oranze Zest and Raspberry Fizz inks, and the smaller feather in Hawaiian Shores and Simply Chartreuse inks. After stamping the feathers I embossed the outline of the feathers using the coordinating dies. Then I went over everything with my waterbrush, letting the ink bleed into the background.
I picked up some ink with my waterbrush (by pressing my inkpads onto an acetate sheet) and flicked the bristles to add the splatters in the background. I used both colors of twine along the bottom as well as a strip of the Aqua Mist brushstroke stripe paper from the paper pad.
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My next card uses the feathers again, this time along with the adhesive-backed canvas. I diecut several of the feathers, then stamped just the detail feather image. Again I went over the stamping with a damp waterbrush, just along the bottom edge of each of the "stripes" of the feather, so as not to distort the image too much...just enough to soften it and give it a more realistic effect.
After that I also inked up just the bottom stem portion of the base feather images and stamped them onto each diecut. I added a strip of the feather print paper from the paper pad and the "hello" sentiment stamped in black.
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My next card is a little more artsy. I heat embossed the outline images for the medium rose and leaves, as well as the "thanks" sentiment using white embossing powder. Then I used the watercolor paint set that we are offering as an optional add-on to the kit to paint randomly around the images. I wanted it to look very free-form, so I allowed the colors to extend way beyond the actual images and I let the colors bleed together.
I added a few splatters to the background by flicking the bristles of my waterbrush as well. A bit of twine wrapped around the top and a few Rainstones finish it off.
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Nwxt I used the 2-step circles from the Additions set included in the kit to create this quick and easy card. I stamped one of the circles with Hawaiian Shores ink, then stamped again without re-inking to get the lighter aqua circle. I did the same with Raspberry Fizz ink and Summer Sunrise. Then I went in with the detail brushstroke images and did the same thing, using the same ink colors. The layering of the ink gives just the right amount of depth to make it quite realistic looking...an I only used 3 ink pads!
I added the sentiment in black, a strip of the fun dotted washi, and the pink brushstroke stripe paper along the bottom.
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Here is a detailed list of the kit contents. The kit will retail for $90.
- Beautiful Brushstrokes stamp set
- Beautiful Brushstrokes Additions stamp set
- Beautiful Brushstrokes Sentiments stamp set
- Beautiful Brushstrokes Additions/Sentiments stamp label
- Beautiful Brushstrokes die collection
- Beautiful Brushstrokes linen patterned paper pad (4-1/4" x 5-1/2", 24 sheets)
- 10- Fabriana Artistico Soft Press Extra White Watercolor Sheets (4-1/4" x 5-1/2")
- 4- Sticky Back Canvas sheets (6" x 6")
- Pastel Variegated Twine (6-1/2 yards, 20lb. hemp)
- Taffy Variegated Twine (6-1/2 yards, 20lb. hemp)
- 3mm + 5mm Clear Rainstones Mix in test tube w/ cork (approx. 250-300 pieces)
- Black & White Swiss Dot Washi Tape (12 yards)
Just to recap, the Beautiful Brushstrokes kit will be available for puchase from the Papertrey Ink website at 10pm EST tomorrow, July 1st. For even more details and to see individual product images you can visit Nichole's blog or contact Customer Service with any questions.
I will post the rest of my projects over the course of the week. To see more projects today, but sure to visit the other Make It Market team members to see what they've created with this new kit!