Altered Playing Cards Week 4

Hi everyone! Right now I'm having an Indian Summer and just bought a second hand bike in better condition than the one I had so I'm enjoying the weather. However, I committed myself to the altered cards challenge so put together two cards yesterday using the theme home and shopping. The home card did not turn out like I wanted but at least I got to play with positioning my blade on my Cameo to cut where I want on some gelli prints. I also got to play with some painting techniques which were at least new to me.

The background on this card was made by coating the playing card with gesso and then placing in the wet gesso bits and pieces of wrapping paper tissue. I broke down and finally bought some Distress paint. After all I was able to get them using a 30% coupon. Only wish there would have been more of a selection of colors. I rubbed across the card Broken China. Then spritzed the card. I got it too wet but no problem I blotted up the excess moisture with a paper towel and got this beautiful sky.

I saw at a store a pack of Spouncers and for under a dollar decided to buy them. They were sitting on my worktable so I decided to see how they might work to make leaves with acrylic  paint. I also wanted to see if the look of acrylic paint could be softened like the Distress Paints by spritzing water. It can be done and the effect will determine on how wet the paint still is when you spritz. As well as how heavily you have used the paint.

I did not have a tree cutting file so took a cherry blossom branch  Replicating, welding, pruning off some branches with the knife tool in Studio as well as editing some pesky points and I finally had a tree. Lol! I think searching for a tree file already made would have been quicker. After the tree was cut out I painted it with a  Walnut gel stain.  Glued the tree on the background and added leaves with paint.

I found this free shopping image online. I traced it in Studio to make a cutting file. For some reason my printer does not print as shown in Studio so the detail of her glasses got lost. I tried to do a little bit of offset to lose the white but ended up losing some of her features.  I cut  her out with the margin showing and edged with ink but alas I got ink on her jacket so it was back to cutting out again. I decided to leave the white showing. You can't see in the photo but I took the end of a plastic paint brush and dipped it in dimensional magic and then placed a dot on the glasses for a lens. I was unable to capture the steam in the image so I took a piece of crotchet thread and dipped it  in glue. Then wrapped it around the handle of a paint brush. When it was dry I stretched out the curl and glued it to the back of the image. Then pop dotted her on the card.

The sentiment was printed using a Brother's label maker. I'm thinking I should have gone over it with a clear mat coating so it would not have been so shiny.

Claudine used printed tissue paper for her home card. I didn't have printed tissue paper so I decided to stamp on tissue paper with Stazon ink.  After I got my paper stamped I tore pieces and glued on the card.  Then since I wanted the stamped image to show through I added glaze to my paint. Only problem is when I applied the paint there was a chemical reaction and the ink bleed making a mess. Also it was darker than I wanted. I added a light blue to my glaze mixture and taking a credit card applied it. Not only did it lighten the background but the brown from the ink turned more ta sunset pink. I didn't realize that the Moss Green paint was a metallic paint until I had squeezed some out.. I decided to go ahead and use it for grass. Then when it was dry I  pounced over it some Forest Green Stazon ink so it was not so yellowish color nor so flat looking.

While looking for my cloud file which I ended up not using I found a house cutting file. I have no idea where I got it from so alas am unable to credit the creator. All the pieces were cut out using some gelli prints I had previously made. After the pieces were cut and glued I took a black and a clear glaze pen. I used the black for the door frame and handle as well as the window mullions. I was going to use Dimensional Magic for the glass but decided to use the clear. Although it doesn't really show in the picture there is a shine like glass. Instead of using a cloud I decided to use crotchet thread as smoke coming out of the chimney.  Lol! that is suppose to be a heart smoke shape. Drawing with string is a little bit harder than I thought. Here again though my drawing skills are pre-school level.

Using Silver with Gold tape I printed the sentiment with my Brother's label maker. I had originally bought this tape for my sister to print out for her wedding album but she decided to go with the clear with the black print. I thought since I had the gold color path to use it here instead of the clear black tape.

Now that I know how to cut a shape out of a certain part of a gelli print I'll be using the prints I have stashed away more often. Especially the ones I weren't so thrilled about.

It has rained and the air is fresh smelling  It is turning out to be another tee shirt day so I'm off to enjoy the sun. As soon as I create a second card using lattice I'll be posting those here so stay tuned.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!