Sunday, January 31, 2016

Winter Birthday Card

We're actually having a cold, rainy winter here in California, and we need it so badly.  After a very hot summer and terrible drought it's so welcome to hear rain falling outside.  I've been enjoying spending the rainy days at home whenever possible, drinking tea, listening to music, and playing with new crafty toys.  My son gave me a Gelli Arts gel printing plate for Christmas, and I'm having a great time experimenting with monoprinting. 
The background for this card was made using acrylic paints and bubble wrap on the Gelli Plate, then stamping with Darkroom Door rubber stamps.  I used the bubble wrap to lift some paint off the plate before  placing cardstock on the plate to lift a print.  Then I used a 'Tumbled Glass' Distress Ink pad on the Word Block stamp, and highlighted a few selected words with a 'Peacock Feathers' Distress Marker before stamping over the printed background.
I love the way the marker picks out just a few words for emphasis.  Next step was to stamp the tree in black 'Memento' ink, and then use the 'Polka Dots' texture stamp with 'Peacock Feathers' Distress Ink in several places, so that it echoes the bubble wrap shapes, and the scratchy surface of the polka dots image is just right for adding color but still allowing the background color to come through.  I suspect this stamp will be showing up all over the place in my projects :)
To finish up the card I trimmed the image down and added a mat of black cardstock to echo the black line around the tree image, then mounted on a white card base.  Finally, I went back in with the 'Peacock Feathers' marker and stamped the word 'Balance', also from the Word Block stamp, it felt like the right thing to do, rather than stamp a sentiment in black ink.  There's plenty of room to stamp a sentiment inside the card, and write a message too, I wanted the front of the card to stay peaceful and reflective, possibly even frameable :)

I hope you are enjoying the seasonal changes, whether it's winter or summer where you are, consider letting the season influence your next art play.  Feel free to link to your current projects in the comments. Thanks for wandering by!

Materials:
Stamps - Darkroom Door - Word Block 'Wellbeing', Photo Stamp 'Winter Tree', Texture Stamp 'Polka Dots'; Inks - Ranger - Distress Ink 'Tumbled Glass' and 'Peacock Feathers', Distress Marker 'Peacock Feathers', Memento 'Black Tuxedo'; paints by Kaisercraft; Gelli Arts 5" x 7" gelli plate; bubble wrap and cardstock (white and black) from the craft stash

#DarkroomDoor #Ranger_Ink #RangerArts #GelliArts #Gelliprint



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