Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 8

Week 8 of the Altered Art Playing Card Challenge and I'm still actively participating! That's a good sign, I think. Perhaps this is actually a project that I will finish. I'm horrible at finishing things... or I pick up a new hobby and go at it non-stop for a while and completely stop. I like doing these cards though because they're small and relatively easy to finish in one sitting.

Anyway, this first card is another I finished a couple weeks ago, but it fits pretty well with the theme of the week. Also, it's one of my favorites so far. The background is acrylic paint, the heart I cut out of cardstock and then painted with metallic acrylic. The road is lined with white gel pen.

On the second one I used a Recollections marker for the sky. Nothing fancy. The buildings I cut out of cardstock, added windows with a silver gel pen, and windows/doors on the houses with a black micron.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 7

This last week was a wee bit crazy so I'll be honest... I completed these cards a couple weeks ago. I got a little ahead of myself and figured I'd save them for a week without time or inspiration. Since they were done early I didn't use any of the cool techniques that Claudia used for week 7 - these are much more simple and not sea themed at all.

Both cards have the mesh in the background and both cards used alcohol inks for the main colors. I added detail in acrylic paint, micron pen, and white gel pen. Nothing too complicated but I think they turned out alright.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 6

This week Claudine did some really cute Halloween cards - here. But... I'm still sticking with my travel theme and I'm really bad at doing holidays. So... here are my cards for week 6.

This first one has the mesh background, I used alcohol inks for the main colors, then touches of acrylic, a sharpie, and a silver gel pen.

I LOVE this second one. I am generally a perfectionist when it comes to art and I had to let go of a lot over the last couple years to move on artistically. Once I accepted that I am just not the type to paint something that looks exactly real, it made things a lot easier and I'm enjoying the results. The background is acrylic paint and I just kind of smudged the darker green trees with a brush, the car was a stamp from Michaels with touch-up from a white gel pen and a black micron pen. The driver is a random sticker that I had in my collection.

Altered Art Playing Card Challenge - Week 5

On to week 5 of the Altered Art Playing Card Challenge from Claudine's Art Corner. Since a lot of these materials are new to me I've had a few backgrounds not quite work out how I'd like. When that happens I set the cards off to the side and do another... then I just leave them in my workspace to stare at them until something pops into my head.

When doing the first step with gesso, I added some mesh-tulle-like stuff onto about 10 of my cards. The week where alcohol inks were used for the background I added some to one of those cards and it turned out really cool, but it wasn't what I wanted for that week. So this is mesh, alcohol inks, acrylic paint, an old world map stamp, sharpie, and white gel pen.

This second card just started out with a blue acrylic background because I accidentally pushed too much paint out when I was working on something else. Then I added some fluffy cloud-ish swirls. The words are torn out of a dictionary and I dyed the paper blue with alcohol ink - it was a total experiment and to be honest I was surprised at how well it worked. I really like the alcohol inks because they don't warp paper like water based products.

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.

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.

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!