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!