Poppin' Pastels or Chalk Popping

Chalk Popping is another technique I knew would be great with the Medallion stamp as soon as I saw it. It gives a very subtle color and you can vary the colors you use and how dark you apply them.
First, stamp the image onto the cardstock with Versamark ink. It leaves a faint image that is hard to see on white. I found the center of the image and dipped a sponge dauber in the green chalk that most closely matches the Certainly Celery cardstock that I was using in my layout. When you apply the chalk to the image, you don't have to rub hard, just rub the dauber onto the image, reapplying chalk to the dauber as needed until you get the shade you want. I had decided on 3 colors of cardstock so I used 3 colors of pastels that most closely matched those colors.







For the layout I used the green in the middle, pink on the next layer and blue on the outside layer. I also experimented with doing each "petal" in the blue/pink colors and like that look too.


If you don't have any sponge daubers you can use a regular sponge or cotton balls. The sponge daubers work better as the sponge is more compact and small so you get better coverage and can control where you put it better. You can see in this comparrison that the cotton ball works but the one with the sponge dauber gives a clearer image. The one with the cotton ball is on the left and the sponger dauber is on the right.

If you want to hand draw any part of the image or some doodling or title, use the VersaMarker and chalks for a nice pastel look also.

That's it! A very easy technique with a lot of impact. As the chalk can rub off a bit you may want to spray the chalked images lightly with an acrylic sealer.

For this layout I chalked several Medallion images (one at a time) on Whisper White cardstock. Then I trimmed it down to 11 1/2 X 11 1/2" and matted it onto a background of Certainly Celery cardstock. I matted one picture with a narrow mat of Certainly Celery and Bashful Blue cardstock. The other photo I matted with blue, leaving a few inches for journaling, then matted it on Pink Passion cardstock and then Certainly Celery cardstock that had been punched with the Scalloped Border punch.

I die cut the Top Note die from Whisper White and Pink Passion cardstock and trimmed down the Whisper White on the dotted line and matted it onto the Pink Passion for a title base. I knew the word "Welcome" stamped with the Jumbo Outline Alphabet stamp set would be too long for the Top Note die but I wanted it to run off some so I was very pleased with how it turned out. I stamped it on some scraps of the Kaladiscope DSP and cut each letter out. I experimented with placing the letters staggered up and down and felt like it needed to be straight. Do your layouts ever "speak" to you and tell you to do things differently? I know, I'm pretty strange sometimes.

Just a trick when using cut out letters or letter stickers and want them straight, put the adhesive on the back and line them up on a ruler or a scrap piece of cardstock and adjust them until you have them straight. Then lay it where you want your title and rub the top parts on, then carefully pull the ruler or cardstock out from under. What a great tip for us obsessive people who want it perfect!

Now I have the background, matting and title done but I need some finishing touches. I thought about ribbon but couldn't decide how to do it and then remembered this flower technique that I've been wanting to try. No time like the present! I found it on Utube here if you want to watch for more details. Basically, you just punch a scalloped circle and snip in every other petal being careful not to cut too far and cut any off. To give the flower dimention I used the handle of a stylus and the paper piercing pad form our Mat Pack. Rub in a circular motion at the end of each "petal" until it is curved. You can actually rub quite hard on the cardstock.





After the petals were formed I applied a glue dot in the center to hold it down but put a few Stampin Dimentionals under the petals to hold them out some. I added a bit of ribbon to imitate leaves and a button in the middle. I also added a few buttons at the corner of the journaling to finish off the layout.

So, am I right, is the Medallion stamp also perfect for the background of a scrapbook page??