Pan Pastel & VersaMark

The Altered Pages Design Team is really excited to be working with PanPastels during the month of September.  We hope you enjoy seeing what we have created and hope to inspire you to work with them youself.  When you visit the blog during September be sure to comment each day for your chance to win a set of PanPastels.  A random drawing will take place at the end of the month, each time you comment you get another chance to win!  The more comments you leave, the more chances you have of winning! (one comment per day please).  Good Luck Everyone!!

And now on to my project....  I received the "Tints" set of PanPastels which consists of Magenta Tint, Red Iron Oxide Tint (which looks orange-ish), Bright Yellow Green Tint, Permanent Green Tint and Ultramarine Blue Tint.  Lovely pastel colors.

Since these colors are very light I decided to pair them with VersaMark ink which will make the lovely colors pop.  I started off by applying each color to a sheet of white cardstock one at a time.  When applying color one or two swipes across the pan will load the Sofft tool with quite a bit of pastel medium.  These pastels are highly concentrated with pigment so a little bit will go a long way.  

I continued to add each color of pastel until the entire page was covered.  NOTE: I used the same tool to apply each color of the PP.  You'll notice a piece of scrap paper off to the right in the above photo.  I simply swiped the Sofft tool across the scrap paper to remove the bulk of the remaining pastel from the sponge.  Works like a charm and it saves so much time so you don't have to continually switch tools for different colors.  Below is what it looked like once I had each color down.

I also applied the pastels to a sheet of black cardstock to demonstrate how well they worked on dark colored papers as well.

Once all of my color was applied to the cardstock I repeatedly stamped a single image across the pastel covered panel with the VersaMark ink.

I then applied a second layer of PanPastels over the VersaMark stamped images following the same pattern as I did originally.  You can see how the second layer of Pan Pastels takes on a darker shade over the VersaMark ink.  It really makes the images pop.  

Tip:  When applying the second coat of PanPastel to the VersaMark stamped images gently swipe the tool across the image...if you press too hard and drag the tool through the ink you could smear the image at the same time.  A light touch is all you need for beautiful results.

 And here is the entire panel covered with a second layer of the Pan Pastels.

I followed the same steps for the black panel only stamping the images horizontally instead of on a diagonal.  Since I was making cards that would be handled I decided to "fix" the pastels by spraying with a light coat of hairspray.  Normally you would use an actual art fixative made for this specific purpose but I didn't have any on hand so hairspray works perfectly in a pinch!  Once the hairspray drys you can apply additional pastels, inks or other mediums.  

Here are my finished cards....  Best Wishes incorporates the postcard from Flowers, Letters & Numbers collage sheet as well as the little cutie from the Think Pink collage sheet.

For my second card I used a beautiful vintage Zephyr label from the Victorian Labels collage sheet. It doesn't show up very well in this photo but I also applied a bit of the blue PanPastel to the center of the Petaloo flower petals.

So there you go...my first crack at these wonderful, fun pastels!  Be sure to check back often for many more inspiring projects from the rest of the team this month.