September 3rd - Chalking

Chalks are a nice alternative to ink pads and promarkers, they can be much more subtle – especially if you use the pastels tones. However you do need to “fix” them when you have finished colouring with either a fixing spray or cheap hairspray (the cheap/value brands I have found to be the best). You can use the chalk “neat”, ie direct to paper/card; Using any of a variety of applicators or cotton buds and even cotton balls for an overall background colour. Hydrangea image coloured with chalks (Image to follow) I like applying chalk to the edging of a mat, especially if the mat is some pre-printed paper, it is much more subtle than ink-pads and is easier to use if you are a beginner. Two mats with chalked edges (Image to follow) Chalks can be used through a stencil, with or without embossing the image first. Two images one embossed first the other not. (Images to follow) You can watercolour with them. Mix together a little bit of chalk and water and apply to the image. Hydrangea image water-coloured (Images to follow) You can paint with them, using a chalk enhancer. Hydrangea image with chalk enhancer. (Image to follow) However my personal favourite it to stamp an image, colour it with promarkers, mask it and then apply pastel chalks around the image to create a background and/or shadow effect.

A lot of crafters use chalks over a white embossed background.

Black Card Applying chalk to black card is an alternative way to use chalks. 1) Using 3 or 4 strong chalk colours cover a piece of black card. Then ink up an stamp with versamark and stamp onto the chalk, this removes the chalk, leaving behind a black image. Make sure to fix the final result. Pear Image (Image to follow) 2) Ink up a stamp with versamark, images with some “solid blocks” within the image work best, stamp onto the black card. Next dab chalk over the stamped image, when covered then wipe and buff the image. Lastly fix the image. Fan image and Pear image (Images to follow)