Life Changing Blending Brushes

This week for Demo, we learned all about the AMAZING new Picket Fence Life Changing Blending Brushes!!

Picket Fence Blending Brushes are for blending your Dye-based or Pigment-based inks. The bristles are SUPER SOFT and are made from synthetic, plastic fibers. DO NOT GET THESE NEAR YOUR HEAT GUN!!! (otherwise those super soft bristles will melt!!)



There is SO MUCH you can do with these brushes!! There is a nice video up that really helps show how these brushes work.. and if you haven't played with the brushes yet, I highly recommend watching it!! 

Now, at first glance the brushes look like foam... but they are actually brushes with SUPER DENSE bristles so you can really blend those colors together!! 

Did I mention yet that these brushes are HEAVENLY SOFT?!!? Because they are. I mean it feels like FUR!! 

Right off the bat, we talked about blending with Distress Inks. I LOVE Distress Inks because you get the BEAUTIFUL gradation of color!! 

Here, we blended from Olive tones to Yellow tones using one of the brushes from the LARGE SET... just look how beautiful that blend is!! 

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Look how easy it is to cover a piece of paper!! Here we just used a few colors to show how a sunset background might be created... 

Here is another fun way to use your brushes!

Just stamp an image with Versamark ink and heat emboss with detail white embossing powder.

Then brush your inks over the top to reveal the image you stamped!! In the sample below, see how we stamped and embossed the image "Yes, but no, but yes" from Impression Obsession. Then, we used 4 colors of Distress Inks to go over the image 

​In the Small Set, there are these skinny blending brushes... which I love to use for creating shadows!! 

We used the Distress Ink, Weathered Wood as the background color and used the 2 sizes of skinny blending brushes to add in the Distress Inks Stormy Sky and Chipped Sapphire around the banner image below... just look how you can really get in the corners of the image!! 

You can also blend with your pigment inks!! Here, I used the new Versafine Clair Inks to show how EASY it is to blend them together!!! 

• First, we stamped and embossed an image with detail black embossing powder.
• Then, we brushed in some inks.. starting with the Versafine Clair Warm Breeze, then Twilight, and finally Nocturne at the top. 
• Next, we took a little bit of Brush Kleener on the end of a blending brush and buffed-out a Moon!! 
• We "flicked" a little bit of Brush Kleener across the image to look like a night sky. 
• Finally, we took the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Pen and made the Moon look iridescent!!

Isn't this SO COOL?!?! 

Now, traditionally, once the Versafine Clair inks are dry, they are waterproof. But one of our customers at Demo suggested using Stamp Cleaner (Brush Kleener) to remove some ink and IT WORKED!!! 

​I love the effect... Thanks for the idea Joanne!! 

You can also use die-cuts as a mask for creating interesting scenes and backgrounds on a piece of card stock.. here we cut out the Fresh Pine Forest Landscape die-cut from Memory Box and used it as a mask. Then we used the Blending Brushes to apply inks over the top. 

You can even use the reverse image as a mask!! Great for creating rows of trees!! 

When using the Blending Brushes, I found using a paper that has a coating on it is the BEST because you have more work-time with the inks! Below, I used a Rainbow Ink Pad (Kaleidacolor ink pad) to blend inks across the surface. The inks blend and move BEAUTIFULLY on both Kromkote and Stardream papers 

On the Kromokote paper, the inks float on the surface just long enough to blend the inks across the full sheet of paper... and then the inks dry immediately and remain just as vibrant as when you blended them!! 

Here, we showed the EXACT same technique on Ice Gold Stardream paper.. and as you can see the colors are more pastel because the ink FALLS BELOW THE METALLIC FINISH of the paper. Because of this metallic coating, the inks stay wet long enough for you to blend them.. and the results are WONDERFUL 

A SUPER FAST way to use your Blending Brushes is to apply Pearl-Ex Powders.

Start by first stamping an image with Versamark Ink (clear ink) and then use the Blending Brushes to brush on a SMALL amount of Pearl-Ex powders and become AMAZED as the stamped image appears before your eyes!! 

There are SO MANY THINGS you can do with these Life Changing Blending Brushes... 

The Blending Brushes come in 2 sets.. Large Set and the Small Set.

If you would like to order your very own set, give us a call today!! 

​360-647-9663