Friendship Challenge Card

Over at Silhouette Plus for this month is a challenge to make a card using "friend" as the theme in honor of International Friendship month. I have a friend who has been my best friend for decades now. So when I saw this image about friendship among my ton of images I knew it was perfect for a card for her. We don't live close but when we do manage to get together it is like we have never been apart.

(Click to enlarge image)

To make this card I first took my image into Studio and resized it. Then I drew my rectangle. Very basic stuff. Then came the fun part. I've had printing on gesso card stock on my want to do list for over a year. I decided to see if I could do a print and cut. I put a little bit of my gesso and some Butterscotch alcohol ink on my craft mat. I did not mix the ink in all the way. Then I took an expired plastic card and spread it over my gray card stock really thin. Not totally covering but letting some of the gray show through. Usually I'm not as meticulous as I was this time with spreading the gesso. As you spread the gesso the ink will mix in but I kept adding ink to my mixture on my craft mat. (If you don't have a craft mat you can use a piece of foil to mix it and then have decorative foil you can use for something else.)

The gesso will dry fairly quick. I helped my along since it was curling a little bit by ironing with my iron on the cotton setting. Just make sure if you do this that it is not tacky. My printer has a rear loader as well as a front one. For this I put it in the rear tray.  I was worried after I printed it that the registration marks were not going to be detected as they were not as crisp. No problem though as Cameron my faithful cutting machine detected and cut perfectly. Since I was using heavy card stock I used that setting and no problem cutting.

I inked the edges of the quote panel with gold ink and inked the rectangle panel with Distress tea dye ink. I then went and brushed Rock Candy crackle on the rectangle panel. While I was brushing it on I noticed that the gesso was mixing more with the ink and giving a more even coverage of the panel. While it was crackling I noticed that the panel was rippling in places. After it finished crackling I rubbed Distress tea dye ink over it. Unlike the White Picket Fence crackle the ink seem to color the panel more than seep into the cracks.

I have these small doilies and for some reason never use them. I thought since the quote image looks old fashioned that a doily would be perfect. I inked just the edges of the doily using a cotton ball with gold ink

I love how this card turned out. The gesso softened the printed image without making the quote hard to read. As well as gave the image more of a distressed look. I'm not that good with graphic programs to get the same effect. I will definitely be doing more print and cut with gesso covered card stock.

So what are you going to do for a friendship card? I would love if you were to join in the challenge. Do you have a friend who you love but don't have the chance to see often?

Thank you for stopping by and do come back. Now I'm off to cleaning and organizing so I can make room for a bookcase later this week.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!