Stamping with Blending Chalks

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• Video

Author: Holly Craft

You remember chalk from your childhood….staining the fingers of the teacher when she wrote on the chalkboard. Maybe you were lucky enough to have sidewalk chalk to decorate your driveway. Well, chalk is not just for children anymore. Blending chalks are one of the most versatile ways to add color in your paper crafting.  Discover how blending chalks can add color to your world!

The example here uses chalks in seven different ways. Let’s go over these coloring techniques.
 

1. The focal point of the card is the black and white photograph. The photo was printed on white cardstock and then chalk added to the desired areas. You can use most any type of paper, but you might want to experiment and see which one you like the best. The chalked areas have a very soft look. This technique is great with vintage photos where you want to add a little color to a face or flowers. It has the look of the antique tinted photos you see in old photo albums.
   
   
2. Behind the photo is a piece of white cardstock that has been marbleized by scraping chalk into a tray of water, swirling the chalk on the surface of the water and then placing the cardstock on that surface. The cardstock will pick up the marbleized coloring. Lay it aside and allow it to dry. Take a paper towel and rub off any excess chalk.
   
   
3. Stamping butterflies using watermark ink on white cardstock and then applying chalks created another piece of background paper behind the oval. The chalk will stick to the watermark ink and the image will show up the color of the chalk.
   
   
4. Butterflies were also stamped on the pink card and chalk was used to color in those images.
5. Now let’s move on to the embellishments. It is said that a card looks finished if there is a focal image, a background and an embellishment. This particular card has three backgrounds and three embellishments. In most instances, this would be too much. The soft nature of chalk coloring allows one to use more than what would normally be pleasing to the eye. First, the butterfly in the upper right corner is made from shrink plastic. The image was stamped on the plastic using permanent ink. The ink was allowed to dry and then chalk was applied to give color to the backside of the butterfly. Many coloring methods become too intense on shrink plastic due to the shrinking of the plastic. The color becomes too concentrated. Chalking the shrink plastic is the perfect solution.
   
   
6. The butterfly in the lower left hand corner was stamped on a piece of clear acetate that had adhesive added to the reverse side. Cold laminating film can also be used. The chalk is applied to the sticky side, thus coloring the image and also getting rid of the stickiness.
   
   
7. The last set of embellishments are the buttons, color coordinated to match the card. Notice that the yarn tied to the buttons is also color coordinated? Each piece of yarn was white and chalk was added to make it match the button.
   
   

Controlling the Mess:
Perhaps you are under the impression that using chalks is messy. The chalk is actually sealed or secured on most of these techniques. You can always use a paper towel, tissue or cotton ball to remove any extra chalk. There are spray sealants you can use to make sure the chalking is stable. Always use a sponge, pom pom, makeup applicator, or cotton swab to do your chalking. Don’t be tempted to use your fingers for blending as not only is that messy, but the oils from your skin will affect the chalking.

There are many other ways of using chalks such as with a blender pen, on the back of vellum, with a stencil, over dry embossing, to give an aged look to paper, etc. If you have not experimented with blending chalks, pencil in some time to play….no, make that “chalk” in some time on your calendar and have some fun with blending chalks!