Friday Focus - Ken Oliver Color Bursts (Part One)

Hello and welcome everyone. It's Jenny here, it's Friday and it's time for a brand new Friday Focus! This our opportunity to share with you ideas, tips and techniques for using a specific product or range currently available at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. And even better news, that product then has an extra 15% discount added for the coming two weeks!

In the spotlight this time are Ken Oliver Color Bursts, a product totally new to me so this is post will show my first efforts (be gentle!!!) OK, bit of name dropping here; I got to meet the man behind the brand again at this year's UK trade show and he gave me the lowdown on Color Bursts.

Having had a quick bash I was keen to experiment more, but let's just explain what they are if (like me) you are unfamiliar with them. Color Bursts are a finely granulated powder watercolor medium which come in easy to handle bottles with small nozzles(that's important). They are concentrated pigments so a little truly goes a very long way.

Now I'm going to break this focus into two parts, as you'll have seen from the title, basically because I got carried away! Today, let's start basic... you'll need your choice of Color Bursts, a stencil, watercolor paper, a water spray and clean tissue, oh and grab a large coffee to sustain you...

(click on each image for a close up)

Lay your stencil over one piece of paper and sprinkle tiny amounts of dry powder over; it's seriously concentrated and you'll want to put it in the right areas on your design, so that's why the fine nozzle is important.

Spray a fine mist of water over the stencil and lift it away.

With one gorgeous pattern revealed lay your stencil ink down on another piece of paper.

Dab your tissue over the stencil to push the color onto the paper and lift away.

I got greedy and repeated this process on a third piece of paper. As you get the smallest amounts left you can help the color spread by misting it with water.

Heat all three pieces with your heat gun and voila! Three fabulous backgrounds ready to go.

Want to see what I created with the first two? Unusually, I came over all CAS on these!!!...

On this second one I added some of Linda's Venise Lace, and yes, you can color the lace with Color Bursts to match your background!!!

So that's the basic 'sprinkle and spritz' technique in action. Now for some watercoloring. I'm no artist and I'm a bit of a control freak so I went with stamped images (Archival Ink as it's waterproof) and machine stitching to control the color this time. Start by 'drawing' lines of water along the stitching with a paint brush.

I diluted my Color Bursts by putting a small amount of each onto a daisy palette and adding water. Paint lines of each chosen color onto the wet lines, allowing the colors to bleed together a little before drying with your heat gun. I went with too similar and one contrasting color to prevent muddying.

Now add water to the stamped areas, drawing the brush outside the stamped lines.

Paint your three colors onto those stamped wet areas, working from the bottom up and again, allowing them to bleed together a little. When you're happy with the finished look dry again and add a sentiment if required.

Here are the finished cards (with close ups) and you can see they required little work to finish off.

I got very carried away and there's more to show but you'll need a break, so I'll be back next week for Color Bursts Part Two. Meantime I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial and give the ideas a go. Remember, with an extra 15% discount applied to Color Bursts for the next two weeks at The Funkie Junkie Boutique it makes sense to stock up now.

And of course there's still time to link your own layered creations to the current 'Layer it Up!' challenge for a chance to win one of several prizes.

For now I hope you have a wonderful weekend and, whatever you're up to, take care of yourselves.

Jenny xxx

Ken Oliver Color Burst 6 Pack - Caribbean Brights (February Pre-Order)	Ken Oliver Color Burst Bundle - Six Colors	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Scribbles	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Crazy Talk
Venise Lace Trim - 1/2 inch wide	Venise Lace Trim - 1 Inch	SSizzix® Thinlits™ Die Set 16PK - Friendship Words: Script by Tim Holtz®	$23.95 Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Rubber Stamps - Cityscapes	Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black Pad #3