A Card from Scratch

Hello!

This week’s Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp is to make something from scratch.  For me  gardening and drying flowers extends our short summer and carries happy memories into our long winter. So I am very excited to start in my garden to create this card from scratch.  I select the best flowers and plants for their size, color and quality to make the card. I use a microwave flower press to quickly dry the plant material. For this challenge I decided to incorporate watercolor, acrylic paints and stamping with the 2 dried flowers and fern.  Here is my card created from scratch.

 

   

The image background is started with a watercolor technique.  After the background is dry I ink a background script stamp and stamped it off onto scrap paper and then onto the watercolor background.  To create some additional interest I ink a flower blossom stamp with white acrylic paint and stamp the subtle image onto the background then completely dry it. 

Each dried piece is laid into place for a final layout check.  I put a small amount of gel medium on the background to adhere the flower and then a small amount on my finger I very delicately rub it on the front of each petal from the center to the outer tip of the petal. Hooray, the gel medium did not react with the watercolor background. Then I use a white pen to color in accents on the stamped image and add a flower stock.  

For my card base I used a high quality paper for acrylic paint to create a metallic and iridescent background.  I start by covering the paper with a black paint and after drying I sponge on metallic silver and repeat additional layers of black and silver iridescent paints, drying between each layer. 

This project is also a reminder of the new Mixed Media Card Challenge #1 .  I am on their design team and encourage you to consider entering before the deadline of July 25, 11:55 p.m. PDT (GMT -700).                                        

Happy inky moments!...Jan

 

Supplies

Stamps: Stampendous Agapanthus background flower;  Hero Arts Cherish Yesterday

Paper: Arches white wove, Tim Holtz watercolor paper

Acrylic Paint: Golden fluid acrylic carbon black, metallic sparkle and silver iridescent  

Inks: Archival Black and Watering Can; Kaleidacolor multicolor, Uniball Signo white pen, Micron Archival Ink Pen

Other Supplies:  Golden Soft Gel Medium and Microfleur flower press

Thank you for a special year Stacy!

Serving on a creative team for a full year is a large volunteer commitment. So I wanted to say a BIG thanks to Stacy {jbgreendawn } for the tremendous effort she put forth to making the Stamp Shack creative team projects a success. Stacy and I share the joy of gardening so I made her a lunchbox and of course sent the red and yellow card I posted earlier.

Drying flowers so I can enjoy summer throughout the year is a favorite of mine. I love incorporating them into boxes. Here I use a white lunchbox (perfect for storing our A2 cards) and covered it in alcohol inks. I use coordinating Adirondack pens to complete the coverage next to the hardware. A layer of background images is stamped and heat embossed. Ferns and a net background are stamped and embossed with Ranger's seafoam white powder. Finally I add the flowers and ferns that I have dried with a microfleur in the microwave. I put down a layer of modpodge where I want to place them and place the flower on top. Then I add another layer of modpodge on top starting in the center of the flower and gently stroking it onto each petal to the tip in an effort to complete coverage without bubbles. A coat may take approx 15 minutes to dry. I used a foam bush to add an additional layers. I generally add 3-4 coats before I like full coverage.

My original photos turned out blurry so I want to say an added thanks to Stacy for taking these for me.

Perfect summer day!

Oh a glorious summer day with beautiful sunshine and warmth in the high 70's, clear skies for miles and a little time to sit in a bird sanctuary area to watch a demonstration on beginning watercolor painting. Later went downtown to the river with a few thousand community friends to watch the annual Rubber Duckie race. Yes, we all cheer them on as they float by in hopes that the first one across the finish line is ours with the lucky # we have purchased.

In between all of the summer fun I have been trying to learn more about the workings of this blog and work on a few birthday presents and other things I would like to get in the mail. So some quick little projects to share...This first one is all scraps to make a 4x4 notecard. I used paint jewels on the sunflower to give it some depth.

I picked and dried a few more wildflowers...so made a little 4x4 incorporating them. Used sparkle modge podge to attach them. The background is from DCWV's luxury stack of pearlize paper--a beautiful RAK sent to me from my friend Fern/Moosemama-thanks a bunch it makes a beautiful backdrop for these flowers!

Here I added flowers to a glassine envelope.

I know that this seems like a lot for a envie but I will use it when I am enclosing a special note that is "the gift" I am sending. I will tie the envie with a sheer gold ribbon.

I hope the summer sun is good to you and the flowers are blooming and bringing joyful colors to your corner of the world...Jan