Quick Pan Pastels Tutorial

I promised a few of the lovely French ladies that I met in Paris recently, a step by step tutorial of my Pan Pastels background technique......are you sitting comfortably?????.......then off we go!

Pan Pastels are pigments that have been refined over and over again to produce a really fine grade product. They leave behind very little dust but lots and lots of colour. These cute little pans of colour have to be one of the most user friendly mediums I have ever used......I really do love them.....A LOT!!!

1. I usually start by covering the complete background with colour (in this case I'm using Yellow Ochre). Simply take one swipe of colour from the pan using one of the Sofft sponges and this is enough pigment to cover an A5 piece of cardstock.  The card I'm using is Paperartsy's new smoothy card. I really like this as (a) it's white and doesn't change the colour of the pastels unlike the usual manila tags and (b) as it is so smooth, it doesn't damage my sponge. At first I thought that if the surface was really smooth, the pastels wouldn't adhere to the surface but they seem to stick pretty good to me!

 2. Next step is with a piece of Cut'n'Dry foam and a Versamark ink pad.

Simply load up the sponge with the Versamark ink and sponge through a stencil of your choice.

3. Using the Sofft sponge again, pounce more of the same colour Pan Pastels on to the wet ink. The colour will appear darker than the background.

 4. I normally choose a second stencil or sequin waste and repeat the sponging of Versamark and more Pan Pastels. This makes a much more interesting background.

5. Now I like to start layering up the colours. I have found that the Versamark is so sticky that a second colour can be applied on top of the first!!! This time I chose orange and I'm using a smaller sofft tool this time as I need a lighter pressure and I can colour selected areas easily.

 
6.The next step is to select a few stamps with a solid area of rubber rather than an outline stamp. These flowers on Paperartsy's Hot Pick 1006 are perfect for the job.

7. As you can see, with a bold stamps and a small tool, I can apply colour to shade my image.

8. The star on ID07 is also one of my favourites for this technique.

9.  Having stamped the star and coloured it first with orange Pan Pastel, I am now applying a small amount of Magenta around the edges of the star.

10. Either use a clean sponge or your finger to blend these two colours.

11. Not only do I think contrasting colours are important, I think it is equally important to have contrasting images.....some bold......some fine......some pictures.......some text. so the next step is to apply some fine text.

The postcard on ID04 is ideal. Same technique, Versamark first, followed by the Pan Pastels.......look how clear everything is!!!!

12. Now the final step. As Pan Pastels are a powder, you do need to fix them. You can use any of the regular Pastel fixatives that are on the market but I am not a great lover of aerosol cans. Paperartsy Fresco Finish Glazes do an amazing job. They are available in either Satin, Gloss or Metallic finishes but for this technique my preference is the Satin Glaze, it dries completely matt....just perfect for the job.

Simply use a piece of Cut'n'Dry foam to apply over your work using a dabbing motion, this way you will not smudge anything.

OK, Pan Pastels background complete, feel free to stamp anything over the top. I usually opt for a different script which I like to stamp with rangers Jet Black Archival ink.

I chose one of the new Lynne Perrella stamps for the foreground of my card.......same techniques as the background.

I tore a small piece of Paperartsy Crunchy paper and crumpled it up. I used black Pan Pastels to highlight the creases and fixed it with the Satin Glaze.

I added a layer of plain black cardstock and stapled all my layers together with Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher.

I'm all out of words now but I'll leave you with a few more examples in different colours.

I hope you all have a fabulous Easter weekend....don't eat too much chocolate!!!!
Lin