Thomas Kinkade & Me

Thanks for visiting Craft Critique! If you've come here from a search engine or from a direct link, you might be missing out on more content! Please visit CraftCritique.com. And for more amazing content such as projects, artist interviews and more, sign up for our Monthly Newsletter.

Reported by Melissa Norris

I believe that any good review, or any piece of journalism for that matter, begins with research. How can I give something a fair shake if I'm screwing it up? I remember when Cornish Heritage Farms first introduced the Thomas Kinkade line, the members of the design team for the line all mentioned that there is a lot of great information on the Thomas Kinkade page over at CHF. On that page be sure to click the link to the forums. The design team shares their opinions on what inks and papers work well with these stamps. And of course, the gallery will really get you inspired and ready to get to work.

With such a detailed stamp, I started off by cleaning it thoroughly, just to remove any dust and residue. I decided to try a few different inks and my Black Stazon really produced the clearest, crispest image. Here is where my dilema came into play, how in the world was I going to color these in. I will admit that I'm not the best "colorer" in the world and don't have a large variety of coloring medium. So I decided to do a side by side comparison of the different techniques I had available.

I started with my Prismacolor colored pencils without Odorless Mineral Spirits. I felt this was easy to do, I was able to get into the details with a sharpened pencil and could achieve the colors I wanted. Second, I used my Stampin' Up pastels applied dry with sponge applicators. The look was very soft, but I had a hard time with details and the colors were a bit lighter than I woul have liked. Next, I used my pastels again, this time applying with blender pens. This did not work well for me, in the larger color areas the application wasn't even and if I tried to go back over it with more color, my paper started pilling, ruining the image. Finally, I tried watercoloring. I just used ink from my SU Ink pads. When I first colored it, it was horrible. The colors were too bright and messy. After it dried overnight it looked a bit better, but I'm not really good at watercoloring yet and it was a bit too messy for me. So I decided to go with my Prismacolor pencils.

And here is my finished product. I stamped another image and colored it in with my pencils. The photo washed it out a bit but the colors are a bit bolder in real life.

I don't want to lead you astray here, using these stamps takes a bit of practice and trial and error. But really, all new stamps usually do. But once you find your personal style and rhythm you will create beautiful cards with these wonderful stamps. Be sure to head over to the Cornish Heritage Farms site today to read all about them and see the other wonderful designs.