Mother’s day card

This is the card I made for my mother for Mother’s Day. As a little kid, I was always picking flowers for her. Looking back, I’m sure I must have brought home a lot of weeds, but she was always happy to get them.

For the background of my flowers I glued gold marbleized paper onto cardstock using gel medium. I glued tissue paper with glitter on it on top of the paper.

I colored the sky with blue soft pastels and the grass with green.

I painted the flowers using puffy paints, and drew in the stems with colored pencils. I colored the edge of the cardstock using a blue marker, and then wrapped blue yarn around the card. Then I glued the cardstock with the flowers onto a light blue cardstock.

I wanted the card to look a little rough to remind my mother of the flowers I used to pick for her. I hope she likes the card.

Tissue paper and pastels handmade card

I started with white cardstock that I marbleized with gold spray paint. I decided instead of a color wash I would glue tissue paper with glitter on to the cardstock using gel medium.

Using soft pastels I added color to the tissue paper.

I applied mod-podge to the tissue paper to seal the pastel; when I did the pastels blended together.  The painting looked muddy after that. In order to add contrast, I painted some mixed medium paper with gesso that I had colored with light blue acrylic paint, then I put the cardstock with the tissue on top of it and pressed down lightly. The gesso covered only the raised parts of the tissue paper.

I cut the cardstock up into pieces and made two simple cards that can have more added to them later, to make father’s day cards or thank you cards.

Handmade collage card

I had planned to make this card simple, but I got carried away. I starting with the marbleized paper with the blue wash, it did not seem like enough, so I tore off a piece of a acrylic painting I had already cut up.

I glued both pieces to orange cardstock, and then I decided I did not like the background, so I cut most the background out. I outlined the paper that did not get cut out with copper acrylic paint.  I painted the rest of the background with gold acrylic paint. I needed to attach white cardstock to the inside of the card to give me something to glue the new background to. The new background was more blue paper, brown cardstock and a piece of a watercolor painting that matched perfectly.

 The card can be a thinking of you card or something can be written or drawn on to the top right hand corner. I love all the layers on this card; I will have to make another one like it, on purpose this time.

Thank you card from marbleized paper

I’m still working on replenishing my thank you card reserve. 

On this card I used two sheets of my marbleized paper. I used the one with the orange wash and the one with the blue wash.

I cut a piece from the orange wash paper and taped it to the front of the card using double-sided tape. I cut curvy strips off the blue wash paper and glued it on top using tacking glue. I wrote thank you on the small strip, then used watercolor to add shading and shadow. I used a white sharpie pen to add highlights. 

The card is a little strange; I’ll just need to pick someone that appreciates strange to give the card to.

Cards using marbleized watercolor paper

The gold paint on the watercolor paper was a little flaky, so after I cut out the shapes I sealed the paper with mod-podge.

         

I made the two cards pretty much the same. The watercolor paper is outlined in gold on the first card and blue on the second. It is glued on blue cardstock using tacky glue on the first card, glued on light orange on the second. Both cards have white cardstock taped on the inside using double sided tape. The first card could be used for anything. If I get better at my handwriting, I will write happy father’s day on the front. The second card is a thank you card. I am happy with the two cards, I'm sure I will use both layouts again.

Cards using marbleized red construction paper

I cut out a piece of my marbleized construction paper and painted the edges with gold acrylic paint.

I painted watered down black acrylic over the gold to give it an antique look. I cut out two pieces of yellow cardstock, a bar to go across the card and a smaller piece for the thank you tag. I decorated the bar with red markers and wrote thank you on the tag. I painted the edges on both bar and tag with gold acrylic paint. I wrapped yellow embroidery floss around the bar. I glued bar and tag to the card using tacky glue, then added bows I made from the yellow floss.

front

back

On the second card, I decided to make the card from the construction paper. I glued some shapes from cardstock onto the front of the card, and then painted them. Then I painted around the shapes. I taped white cardstock on the inside of the card using double sided tape. 

I love this card, but I’m not sure what I will use it for.

More watercolor crayon cards

I did another watercolor crayon painting; using a rainbow color scheme. I started the same, coloring red to blue, but this time I only filled up two thirds of the page. When I was finished with the crayons I held the painting up and sprayed it with water until the rest of the watercolor paper has some color drips.

The top half of the painting looked like the first painting, I cut off a piece for a simple card that I can add to later.

I cut off another piece and drew circles with soft pastels, than I painted over the pastels with gesso.  The blue pastel mixed with the gesso making a pretty light blue background.  I gave the circles highlights and shadows with watercolor pencils.

This card can be a thinking of you card or more can be added to it to make it into a thank you card or even a Easter card.

I cut off a piece of the bottom of the painting and glued it to a piece of yellow cardstock. Next I ripped the yellow cardstock in two, the ripped part off the top and bottom. Then I glued the pieces onto red construction paper. Using a Bic wite-out pen I wrote thank you on the construction paper. I added strips and highlights using gel pens.

Using double sided tape, I taped the other half of the bottom part of the drawing to yellow cardstock. I cut strips from the top of the painting and taped them across the painting already taped to the cardstock. Using markers I painted light blue across the top of the strips and dark blue across the bottom of the strips. This card could be a thinking of you card, or I could ad more to it later to make it into a thank you card or maybe a mother’s day card.

Watercolor crayons thank you cards

I needed some thank you cards; I decided that watercolor crayons would make a nice background. I started by drawing lines across watercolor paper using the colors of a rainbow, red to blue.

I used a wet brush to blend the colors.

I tore off a part of the painting and glued it to blue cardstock using a glue stick.

Using a glue stick I glued strips of light blue cardstock over the card stock and painting.

I did not like the card, so I cut it into curvy strips.

I glued the new strips onto red cardstock.

I filled the blue stripes in with random shapes and glued a orange piece of cardstock across the center of the card. I shaded in the center and strips, and wrote thank you on the card. I loved how this card turned out in the end, bright and cheerful. I only problem is my handwriting, I need to pull out the calligraphy pens.

handmade card with watercolor

This was an easy card to make. First I tore of a piece of heavy watercolor paper. I painted a sky blending blues and purples wet on wet. After gluing the watercolor on the red cardstock, I drew a simple plant that started on the cardstock and went onto the watercolor. I was going to try to draw a flower, but I chickened out and went for the simple plant. I do like how it turned out.

handmade cards with paper towels

After I finished a watercolor I was painting I noticed that the paper towel I used looked interesting. So I looked to see if anyone had done anything with paper towels. I found a great site. Paper Towels: Stamped, Punched then Collaged : : Tutorial
I loved what she did, but I don't have the stamps and cutouts she has, so I had to go simpler. I had not used the sewing machine in years so did a text card first. It turned out I liked my test card, but it was on yellow card stock, that I did not like. So I painted over the yellow on the front, and on the inside and back I covered it with green card stock.

I put a sheet of green resume paper on the inside and outlined it and the card with a darker green

I have no idea what I'm going to do with the card, but I like it. I think it has a steampunk look.
The next card I made to be a thank you card, so I kept it simple. Using the sewing machine again, i sewed one piece on the front on the cardstock and then using tacky glue I glued a yellow ribbon on the side.  All in all I think it's a nice thank you card.

The next card I was just goofing around. I glued the paper towel to cardstock, brushed mod podge on top of that, cut around the paper towel, glued that to blue cardstock, drew around the wrinkles with green marker and black ink, painted a white stripe with gesso, drew in some rocks and squiggles with black ink and colored them in with pastel pencils.

I don't know what I could do with this card, I just wanted to see what I could do with the paper towel. The paper towels held up through all the sewing and gluing. If you have stamps I would suggest stamping them too. Have fun!

Owl thank you card

The picture is an owl thank you card I made for my mother. I just recently started learning about zentangle art (that is what the owl is supposed to be) and I pretty much only make cards for my mother, so there is a lot of room for improvement.
What I did was ink the owl and branch on cardstock, then filled it in with colored pencils and markers. Then I glued the owl to a folded cardstock. I did not get fancy, because I thought the owl OK by himself.