I'm posting some more cards from the Brisbane Craft Expo in June this year.
This lot of cards were also from a class run by Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door. These cards used huge black tags and then for the backgrounds I used a variety of techniques, including using Distress Sprays, stamping with a wet stamp pad to create a resist appearance, and smooshing with distress sprays on a craft mat.
Photo stamps were then used to add interest. The "Happy Birthday" card was just too dark in colour for the stamp to show up, so I used one of Rachel's photo chips on top instead. The ribbon was coloured to match each background.
The black tags were stamped with Picket Fence Distress Spray and then spritzed with metallic Distress Spray.
I had so much fun making these cards and totally ended up with multi-coloured fingers for the next couple of days. :)
Anyway, bye for now.
Love,
Janelle
Bonjour, mes amis. (Don't know why I did that, just felt like a little French flourish.)
I don't believe in waste (if I can help it), so when I recently tried out some new techniques (and failed) I turned them around to add to my stash of cards to offload onto my friends and family. :)
This first card was supposed to look like Therese Calvird's beautiful die embossed and stamped card (pictured here), but I couldn't get the tension right on my die cutting machine and it kept on cutting out the butterfly and not embossing the frame. Rather than throw out the lot I fell back on a favourite technique with colour sponging and foam tape to lift the coloured layer off the stamped image. I then sprinkled over some water drops to watermark the colours and when dry, drenched it in Glimmer Mist. It'll do! :)
The second card was a test run for a commission using Distress Markers and I was trying out a background colouring technique.
The image was stamped with Archival Ink and then masked with some Molotow Grafx Art Masking Liquid. (I only discovered it the other day and it was exactly what I wanted for what I had in mind - and I love using it already!) Only problem was that my background ending up a muddy grey colour - not a good look! After splashing on some more green and blue colours, I got it fairly reasonable. Once I splattered over some Glimmer Mist in a number of colours, it started looking even better. So here is the finished product.
Alex, my son, said it looked like a sympathy card, but maybe it could be a masculine card or a birthday card for some-one over 50 (they don't need a lot of colour!) ;?) Only joking - I'm in that group as well.
Anyway, I'm going back to try it out again (this time with another type of paper). Hopefully I'll get lucky this time.
Bye for now.
Love,
Janelle
I made this card from a piece of misting I created while working out ideas for a recent commission. After fiddling around with it for quite a while. I decided not to use it as it was so much more colourful than the other cards in the set (didn't go with them at all). Rather than throwing the paper away, I wanted to try the type of card I often don't get right - the CAS - and just have the design with the sentiment stamped.
Somehow though, I think there's something missing. What do you think? I thought I should start up a category called "What's Wrong Wednesday!", but I don't have the facility to have people link up their solutions to my "mistakes" - so it looks like this will be a one-off post!
I used a Kaisercraft Chevron mask and some Dylusions ink sprays (Vibrant Turquoise, Cut Grass and Lemon Zest) and then the sentiment was from Avery Elle Oh Happy Day stamp set. I inked the sentiment with some Ocean ColorBox chalk ink. I double stamped the sentiment to create a slightly wider font and I like the double tail at the start as just a happy coincidence. I also coloured in part of the sentiment and arrow with some Ocean Smooch.
I also want to toot my horn a bit...Some of my cards have been published in the latest Australian Simply Cards - Issue 61, which features six Quick Make Christmas cards using the Kaisercraft Gingerbread collection papers and other products.
I love doing my commissions for Practical Publishing, as I get to play around with a range of different styles and techniques. Once upon a time, all of my cards were shabby chic; but now, they are whatever is needed for the task - often way out of my comfort zone. I definitely need to do more challenges to remedy that! :)
Anyway, bye for now.
Janelle
