♥ BUTTERY BLENDABILITIES ♥

If you follow a lot of Stampin' Up! demo blogs, you have surely already heard about one of Stampin' Up!'s newest products . . . Stampin' Blendabilities Markers.  They will be available for purchase from the new catalog, but my preorder arrived today . . . along with ALL of the Blendabilities.  I had said that I wouldn't purchase all that were available, but then it was just too hard to decide on one set and I knew that I would wish that I had all of them.  I could hardly wait to start coloring!  While I still have a lot to learn, I think this row of vases and flowers turned out quite well.  You'll notice what looks like an ill-blended green on the left of each vase, and let me assure you that it's not the result of faulty markers--that was all my doing.  I wanted to add an aged appearance to the vases and laid a thin line of the lightest Old Olive color on top of the Coastal Cabana-colored vases.

I am in love with the Blendabilities markers and, for the first time in my life, I'm looking for images to color.  What do I love about these markers?  For one thing, each set has three coordinating colors (light, medium, and dark) that are meant to be layered and blended.  This takes a lot of guesswork out of coloring.  I have a lot of Copic and Prismacolor alcohol markers and have tried to work with them off and on for a few years.  Late last year, I finally put them up because I didn't enjoy having  to figure out what blends with what, although I could have paid for classes to learn the best way to use them.  I suppose coloring just isn't that important to me--I just want coloring to be fun instead of work.  I love that the markers, even if you decide to not take the time to do a lot of blending, color with ease--they are so smooth!  I love that the tips seem quite durable but, at the same time, I've been mindful to not put pressure on them.  Most of all, I love that the Stampin' Blendabilities Markers come in colors that coordinate with the colors that I use all the time.  It's fun to look at a project that I colored and actually see blending and shading that was nearly effortless.  Did Stampin' Up! do a good thing with these markers?  Absolutely!  Are you going to want them?  Oh yes, you will.  Additional Stampin' Up! products used to complete my card include Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Vivid Vases stamp set, black Memento ink, Hello Honey, Whisper White, and Pool Party card stock, and Hello Honey (one of the new In Color colors) Stitched Satin Ribbon, which is a dream to work with.  So what do you think?  Did I do a decent job with these delicious new markers?
ETA:  For all of my marker trials, I used Stampin' Up!'s Whisper White card stock and "built" the color layers from dark to light.  When adding layers and layers of color, there's a tendency for the ink to move outside of the image lines because it's being moved a lot; however, this is less likely to happen if you take your time--don't rush when adding colors, and try to avoid moving color toward the stamped image lines.  The Color Lifter will help clean up ink that has moved outside the lines.  When using it with dark colors, you may need to use it several times, giving it a chance to work (and dry) each time.  BTW, I think Stampin' Up!'s Color Lifter works better than other alcohol blenders that I've tried!