Happy Mother’s Day everyone!! Here with my very first tutorial….I am kind of hopeful because I have gotten this far,,,a tutorial on this blog has to be built from the last part to the first part so I am almost done here!! If it just loads without wiping anything out I am going to do the dance of JOY! So here is the completed card you are going for….or at least here is the completed card that has the strip of Black Magic with a White Twist which is the technique you want to learn to do….I DO love this technique…..and I hope you have as much fun with it as I do! Gee, I am even blabby in tutorials…..anyway – here we go………
Choose a solid image stamp and stamp it on dark cardstock with white craft ink. You can use black, brown, grey, or any other color. Way back in my blog I even experimented with some lighter colors like River Rock and that was also very striking! The technique is called Black Magic but you can really experiment and use it on any color cardstock – brown is one of my very favorites to use!! Once you start with this technique it gets kind of addicting and you find yourself buying all kinds of solid stamp images. Way back in my blog I even experimented with some outline stamps- it works if the image is more solid then not – like on the old Floral background stamp – I have one with that stamp way way back on my blog…..take a journey- you will see Black Magic all the way through my blog. I can only go so long without creating a new one – I just LOVE this technique!
Use your heat tool to dry your white craft ink stamped image – or you can let it sit out long enough to dry but it’s much quicker with your heat tool!
See I have chosen two colors for each flower or leave. Make sure they are sharply contrasting. That is what makes the shading so dramatic and the colors pop is starting out with very pale pink and shading with red! Starting out with such a pale blue it’s almost white and then shading with a bold, bright blue, and then using two very colors of green, one is a spring green that is bright and I used a hunter green to shade. If the colors are too close, you will not get the great contrast and shading that makes the Black Magic Technique so effective!! Experiment with your colored pencils. Make sure you are using a pigment pencil, like pure colored pencils or those other famous ones that artists use – I forget the name right now but make sure they are PIGMENT pencils! Do not be afraid to bear down when applying color- that’s how you get it to POP by really bearing down.
You start by applying the colored pencils in a very light shade solidly to your entire image. You can see if you stopped here it’s pretty bland…but that’s where you start and then you build color on color- you can see in the leaves on the right that I started out with the light shade of green and then used a darker color of green to shade the leaves. See how they pop when you shade them? But you have to start with that very pale shade and then build onto it.
Here is how it looks after you have shaded – you can see the flowers on the left have NOT been shaded, (the blue ones I mean) and the flowers on the right have been shaded -this step is crucial to making the colors come alive – Note how the leaves pop after the second shade of green is added for accent – and don’t forget to leave enough of your original color on there so that the contrast is evident. (don’t get carried away with the second shade because it looks so much prettier because part of why it looks so much prettier is the contrast between the first layer of color and the second!! Control yourself with the shading and you will be so much happier with the final result of your masterpiece – it’s just so pretty that writing about it makes me wanna go make another one!! You will love this technique once you get going with it – Trust me!!
After you have finished applying both the base layer of lighter colored pencil and then shaded with a darker shade of similar color, then you are ready to apply the white gel pen which will make your images POP!! This is the part I thought of on my own, (proud moment here) I always loved the Black Magic technique but sometimes it just looked DULL to me when I was finished and like it blended into the background too much. So I played around with a white gel pen, added a bit here and there and that is when I fell in LOVE with this technique – with the white gel on top for POP!! Try it – you will see what I mean – I call them my have faith cards, because all the way thru they look dull and boring and then POP! As soon as you add the white – they come to life and sing you a song!!
This background is just the small flower stamp from Simple Friendship repeated over and over and over and over…..I used the eyelet punch to make a lacey border, I paper pierced along the border of the main panel, I embossed Happy Mother’s Day on the center of the card, and added a one hole bow with that yummy white satin ribbon in the spring mini catalog…..(which incidentally can be dyed to any color in our entire spectrum of gorgeous colors with just a sponge dauber and a well inked pad!!
So here you have it – the final card!! Once you start playing with this technique I promise you you will not be able to STOP!! It’s one of my favorite things to do, and I can only go so long before I just have to come up with another Black Magic with a White Twist card! If you wander way back in my blog you will see gobs of samples using it, and there are lots on my SCS gallery too! I hope you have as much fun playing with this technique as I do!! Go make one now!! :O) Before you forget how!! I can’t believe I finally got through my first tutorial!! Happy Stamping everyone!!
Joan Ervin
May 9, 2009This is beautiful, Karen…such a super cool technique and wonderful tutorial!!! I’ll have to give this a try!!!
Kim Dunworth
May 9, 2009Thanks for putting this tutorial together! I’ve been admiring your black magic cards (and all your other cards) for a long time. Can you use Prismacolor pencils for this?
Sue C
May 9, 2009FABulous tutorial, Karen! Easy to follow and just blabby enough (is that a correct term…?) to totally know what you’re sayin’! I have to tell you that you are THE biggest enabler out there – you use stamp sets I NEVER wanted, and do such beautiful things with them that they end up on my wish list – or in my house – almost immediately! I know, I know…how could you know that I notice when I never say… I’m sort of a “fly-by” blurfer – I look and ooh and aah and move on. Well, I’m sayin’ now! Thanks (I s’pose) for keeping me broke (but happy)! Oh – and I concur with your thoughts on the whole layoff deal – well said! Ta!
Karen Barber
May 9, 2009Cannot think of a way to answer Kim Dunworth except here but YES, Prismacolored pencils is the name I was trying to think of…..those work wonderfully~~
Carol Dee
May 9, 2009WOW You did great on your 1st tutorial. I have always admired your card using this technique, so I am going to give it a try. TFS
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
Anonymous
May 9, 2009Karen, Way to go!!! I hope to see more of your stunning work in tutorial form. You did it!!!
ArtisticInkspirations
May 12, 2009What a wonderful blog and great tutorial!! found your link off SCS Banana tech!! Have to visit your blog again!
Darla
May 16, 2009Hi Karen,
I found your blog through SCS. I love your card you made for the inspiration challenge May 14.
I was looking back through your blog for other examples of the black magic technique and saw that you live in Ohio. I do also. I am in Hudson.
I love the songs on your playlist. We sing all the Chris Tomlin ones at church.
thanks for the tutorial. Easy to follow.
Jodi Collins
May 17, 2009This is AWESOME Karen! Thanks for such a great tutorial! I cannot wait to try this!!! Your card is AMAZING!!!
ND Stamper Spot
May 31, 2009This is a very pretty technique. I’ll have to give it a try.
mel m. m. mccarthy
July 27, 2009Amazing tutorial! I just have to try this out! Love the dots with the white pen especially. How captial G Gorgeous!!! :O)
Karen W
September 13, 2009Wow, this is beautiful and what a wonderful idea, I may have to case this idea. Thanks so much and thanks for the kind words on my SCS.
pam124
September 13, 2009Thanks for your great tutorial. This is beautiful and I must try it!!
Anonymous
October 27, 2009This is incredible and your Black Magic cards with a White Twist are Fantabulous! TY so much for sharing this tutorial!!!
What a wonderful Blog you have craeted too!!!
Happy Stamping!
Khara (scs)
Anonymous
October 29, 2009I can not print the whole tutorial for the black magic. Can you send this to me via e-mail. Thank You
Mary Gregor
mbgregor@hotmail.com
Anonymous
November 9, 2009This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Kim W in NC
January 3, 2010*WoW*! This is amazing! Will definitely be trying some day. Thanks so much for sharing this tutorial with us! :o)
Germaine Ferrao -Lenn
January 25, 2010Wow, TFS this technique I love your cards, each one of them is beautiful and so full of life! I would love to case some of them!! I came across it today through another blog! will visit more often! Hugs always!
Pat (mspfd)
March 9, 2010TFS! Your technique is stunning!
Francie G.
April 10, 2010Thanks for the tutorial, Karen! I have admired your black magic creations for a long time! I am going to give this a try! Thanks for sharine!
Francine
April 10, 2010Hi!
Your cards are beautiful. I'd like to learn this new technique: black magic. Please help me.
Elizabeth *^..^*
April 29, 2010ABSOLUTELY STUNNING WORK ON UR BLABBY BLOG! LOL Thanks for sharing your technique. Are those SU Watercolor Wonder Crayons??
KT
April 29, 2010Please don't stop with your love of the Black Magic technique!! I am mesmerized by your talents! The white ink idea truly makes your cards a work of art. You've got to frame some—They'd make me happy every time I looked at them!
Shari Winterstein
May 2, 2010The first time I saw your tutorial and card for this technique I wanted to do it – it took a year to finally get up enough courage and today I finished my first attempt and it is now on my blog with a link back here. Thank you for your tutorial and graciously sharing with all of us.
ShariW
southerncaliforniastamper.blogspot.com
Carmen
May 28, 2010Hi Karen,
A wonderful tutorial and a beautiful card and technique! I'm definitely going to try it myself! Just gorgeous results!