Sweet Friend - 100 Days of Tombow

Hello, and welcome to the last day of September! Where does the time go?!

I have a fun post for you today. I was contacted by Tombow a few months ago and asked to participate in their "100 Days of Tombow" celebration. 

"Since its launch in March, more than 60 of your fellow crafting bloggers have joined forces in contributing to this amazing movement in crafting and scrapbooking history. Each of their projects have contributed to Tombow’s goal of donating up to $10,000 in product to the Council for Art Education and have been featured worldwide on social media outlets. Not to mention, the campaign has been recognized by multiple national crafting media outlets, resulting in more than 3 million media impressions amongst craft bloggers. Wow! This is definitely something that you do not want to miss!"

I said that I would play along and, Tombow sent me some fun goodies to play with!

Jelly Bean Dual Brush Pens

Irojiten Volume 6 Light Grayish Tone 1 Colored Pencils

Stamp Runner Dot Adhesive

I admit, it was not easy to "marry" the bright pens with the soft, gray-toned colored pencils, but I am always up for a challenge!

I created a 7 x 5 inch card. This is not a size I make very often, but the large stamped image needed a bit more breathing room!

I decided to try using a watercolor technique, which is not something I do very often. But, I do love a chance to play! I stamped the image onto watercolor paper with archival ink. I colored the leaves with the green marker from the Jelly Bean brush marker set. I then colored over the shaded ares with the Mist Green and Quartz Green colored pencils. (I only received the Vol. 6 colors, not the complete set of Woodlands set shown.)

I then used a watercolor brush to blend the leaves. Once they were dry, I went back over them with the yellow marker from the Jelly Bean set. I colored the berries and stems with colored pencils (sea fog, campanula blue, cork, mist green). I used the blue marker and a watercolor brush to add the blue sky around the outside of the image. I then smudged some brown ink onto the image panel to make it look more vintage.

Tip of the day: To create the blue sky around the image, I colored onto the plastic packaging with the blue marker. I then picked up the color with my watercolor brush and colored onto the paper with the brush. I used the water brush to blend and lighten the ink. Using the plastic packaging as a palette made it easy to pick up just a bit of color at a time, thus avoiding the harsh lines I may have gotten by coloring directly onto the paper with the blue marker. I simply wiped the packaging clean with a wet wipe when I was finished!

I used some great ribbons and twine to create a bow for the sentiment. I used the watercolor brush technique and the blue marker to add color to the sentiment.

I added some decorative ovals to the image, using die cuts. I popped each oval layer with foam tape. For the "flat" areas I used the Tombow Stamp Runner Dot Adhesive. 

I hope you enjoyed my Tombow post for today! Check out their Website for more great products and ideas. For a full supply list, see below.

Tombow Products:

Irojiten Vol. 6 Light Grayish Tone 1 Colored Pencils

The Craft Collection Dual Brush Pens Jelly Bean

Stamp Runner Dot Adhesive

Other Products:

Cardstock: WorldWin Papers ColorMates Light Totally Tan, Dark Spring Green, Red Wine

Designer paper: Graphic 45 French Country

Watercolor paper: Strathmore Cold Press

Stamps: Stampin' Up (berries), Flourishes (sentiment)

Ink: Clearsnap Colorbox Archival Wicked Black

Die cut shapes: Spellbinders Back to Basics Tags, Classic Ovals Large, Floral Ovals, Lacey Ovals

Button: unknown

Watercolor brush: craft supply

Twine, Silk ribbon: May Arts

Seam binding: Really Reasonable Ribbon

Adhesive: Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L 3D foam squares; Glue Dots adhesive dots