Monday, September 22, 2014

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 4

Back again for week 4 of the challenge. I got some of my ducks in a row last week so I already had one of these almost done. The other was inspired by one of Claudine's cards for this week - check them out here.

This first one has so many layers I'm not sure I even remember. It started out with spray inks and passport stamps... then I decided I didn't like the color so I added something else and made it worse. So I sanded it down a little, added some more color (acrylic paint) and re-stamped the passport stamps.



This second one was fun. I liked Claudine's houses on her week 4 example and it fit perfectly with one the quotes I wanted to use. This one is pretty basic - acrylic background, hand drawn house and tree both painted with acrylics... and a quote. But it turned out pretty cute.


Friday, September 19, 2014

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 3

I realized after I posted last week that I totally forgot to give credit to Claudine, the talented lady who has given this challenge. Check out her blog here - http://claudinesartcorner.blogspot.com/ and there is a link to the playing card challenge on the right.

I'm having a lot of fun doing these so far. I have more ideas in my head than I know what to do with. But since I'm a bit new at this, they don't always translate to the cards as well as I'd hoped. I have a few with weird backgrounds and I've just been staring at them hoping that inspiration will pop into my head. I know it will.

Onwards!

Here are my two cards for this week. This first one started with a weirder background using alcohol inks. I'd never used them before and they're pretty funky to work with. This was red and yellow swirls and the longer I stared at it the more I saw a brick wall. So I added a mix of brown and red acrylic paint and added the grout lines with a white gel pen.



This second one is a little bit milky way. I used metallic and regular acrylics for the background and a white gel pen for the stars. Due to the metallic it didn't really photograph well, the stars are more visible. To be totally honest, I'm not sure it's done, I kind of feel like it's missing something.


Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 1 and 2

So I've been gone for way too long once again. I have some tangles that I may post later, but for now... new project... new source of inspiration. My hubby's aunt posted a link to an Altered Art Playing Card Challenge and I thought that it looked like a good way to get into altered art... because, hey... I need one more hobby, right?  In any case, so far I love it! We're doing two cards a week, but all these ideas popped into my head so I've kind of sketched out a bunch already. Plus, two cards a week should be easy to get done, so away we go.

First step was to prep all the cards. Most of them I just used gesso with various textures, but some of them I put some mesh (kind of like tulle, but not really) onto the cards for an extra bit of I-wonder-how-this-will-turn-out punch.


My mind has been on travel quite a bit lately and when I saw this challenge, that's the theme that popped into my head. All my cards will be travel and here are my first two. The one on the left I used metallic acrylic paints for the background. The cityscape I found online, cropped it, printed it, then cut it out by hand - yikes! The one on the right I used Dylusions Ink Spray for the background and stamps for the feet.



I am really enjoying the project so far. I will be doing a couple things differently for future cards though. To be honest, I'm not sure what I was thinking... I used regular printer paper for the words, the cityscape, and the heart. I used Modge Podge Matte to glue everything down. And let's just say... the ink on the right really doesn't work well with the Modge Podge - I think it's just too wet. Plus my words got a bit warped - again, too wet. So my card stock is now sitting by the printer so I don't forget.

On to the next two!