by Karen Endress | Nov 1, 2016 | Mixed Media
While cruising the clearance aisle at Michaels one day I saw some canvas letters. I didn’t need a leftover ‘Q’ or a ‘Z’ or ‘V,’ so was about to give them a pass when I spotted an ‘I’. I decided for only $.20 it would make a nice little canvas 🙂
It’s only 8”x2 ¾”x1” and the “Scatter Joy” vellum (see complete quote attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson here) piece fit onto it perfectly. I had that vellum in my stash for a long time along with some clearance napkins from Joann Fabric. I used the top layer of the napkin for the main background of white, blue & green floral and stripe patterns, positioning it so the blue pattern appeared on either side of the canvas.
The next layer was Golden fluid acrylic in green gold spread through The Crafter’s Workshop “Art Is” stencil. I also brushed the same acrylic onto the rest of the canvas and rubbed it off in several places with a baby wipe to let the background show through. At this point I also added some gesso to tone down parts using my finger rather than a brush.
Other layers included Golden molding paste through sequin waste on the top left and bottom right as well as some Tim Holtz Botanical Remnant Rubs rub-ons (flowers & music staff) in the opposite corners. I tore positive affirmations from Christy Tomlinson’s She Art coffee filter sheets text and placed them around the canvas.
Last was the quote, which I trimmed closely around the letters and used a very light touch with some of the green acrylic around the edges to integrate it. I smudged a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen from this set to add a bit of shadow around the quote.
I used Liquitex Matte Medium to adhere all the elements, including to seal on the rub-ons. It has always held everything for me with no problem but for some reason it just didn’t want to work on that vellum. I had a terrible time trying to get the quote to stick! Perseverance 🙂
Scatter joy! Karen
by Karen Endress | Sep 23, 2016 | Hello--Thinking of You
Hi, everyone! Here’s another card origin story for you!
Often my card ideas come from seeing a sentiment, some patterned paper, an embellishment (like the previous “Believe” card), or even just a particularly pleasing color combination. And very often, a new card will emerge from the scraps of a previous card with new elements added to round it out.
This idea came from the backdrop papers I used to photograph the last card. They looked really pretty together as they were from the same DCWV stack I used for that card. Hmmm…my mom likes pretty cards, she’d really like that floral paper & I could use another one of those words from the Color Splash pack!! A card idea is born 🙂
I double matted (DCWV) the blue floral to cover the entire cardbase (Neenah Solar White 80 lb.) and used the red dotted paper as an accent. I chose a darker red for contrast (Recollections Vintage Collector) and cut both with different sizes of the Spellbinders Labels One dies, positioning them so that the word would be about 2/3 of the way down the card. This time I used Faded Jeans Distress ink to color the chipboard word instead of Zig markers and it blended much better 🙂
I grabbed some textured light blue & vellum scraps (from the bits & pieces dishes that are overflowing onto my desk) to layer under the ‘Love’ word for contrast. Then I went to the color section of my ScrapRack for some red embellishments. Most everything in the ScrapRack is unlabeled and as old as the hills but still quite usable! I found the flower & the postage cancellation mark there–YAY! Using my stash!!
Finishing touches included some DMC floss that I wrapped around the ‘L’ and tied into a bow as well as a few coordinating enamel dots (MME Lost & Found Christmas) from my stash. Inside I stamped the Technique Tuesday Ali Edwards sentiment you can see test-stamped in the first picture. Looking back, I’m not totally pleased with the placement of that postage circle, but it is a handmade card and I’m pretty sure my 97 year old mom is not going to be critiquing her card! Have a great weekend!!
by Karen Endress | Sep 18, 2016 | Encouragement
Hello again! Thought you might like to see the card I made for my husband a few days ago. I knew the “believe” would be a perfect set up for the inside sentiment, which would mean absolutely nothing to anyone but him 🙂 He loved it!
The cardbase is my usual Neenah Solar White 80 lb. covered with royal blue glitter paper (DCWV mat stack), layered with patterned paper from DCWV’s Summer Dream Stack, another oldie but goodie. I wanted the dark coral strip to mimic the blue paper’s mottled pattern, so I ran a piece from the DCWV Brights Border punch strip stack through Tim Holtz/Sizzix Bubble embossing folder, then sanded the raised areas with an emery board.
For even more interest, I inked the sanded portions as well as all the panels’ edges with Distress inks in Chipped Sapphire and Abandoned Coral, then punched one edge with the Fiskars interchangeable border punch cartridge Up in the Clouds. I used the same punch on a scrap of the glitter paper and layered them onto the card.
The chipboard die cut is from this Recollections Color Splash collection embellishment pack I found in the 80% off clearance bin at Michaels. I’ve already used three of them (card posts to come 🙂 and have plans for the other two! That’s the kind of bargain I just love!!
My bargain embellishment pack–or what’s left of it 🙂
One of the embellishments after watercoloring!
I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers in deep blue & Persian blue to try to get an ombre effect. They didn’t blend as well as I had hoped, either because the surface was of a lower quality or I just need more practice with these markers.
I didn’t care for the dot on the ‘i’ so I cut out a tiny heart from one of the elements of Lawn Fawn’s Stitched Journaling Card die set to finish off the card. Next post—where I used one of the other words from that embellishment pack 🙂
Hope you have a crafty week!
