This is my card for the "Thanksgiving" LTC tracker. I love the simple Life is Good images so I looked for a Thanksgiving theme one. I liked this one but thought that I would have to make it really big to get the detail and text to look nice. Then I decided to make the stamp into a shrinky dink. I probably should have made it bigger but I was worried about using too much carving material.
Shrinky Dinks
The start of this card is a lot like my Gesso one. I cut my paper to be tag shaped. Then I tore some old music paper and glued it to the card using Gesso and a knife. I put the stencil on and put more Gesso on and let it dry. I hadn't played around with alcohol inks in a while so I wanted to try that again. I put the ink on the craft mat, sprayed it with a little water, and rubbed my card thru it.
Background before and after the inks
They started off really colorful but I quickly learned that alcohol ink doesn't take well to Gesso. The color quickly faded. I still thought they were pretty so I rolled with it. To jazz it up a bit I sprayed the card with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist gold spray.
Then came the leaf. I looked around the craft store for a leaf punch but didn't see one big enough. I thought about printing one off on card stock to make a template and cutting out my own. But I ending up ordering some die cut leaves from Etsy. They came in 3 shapes and 5 colors. I took a Distress Stain ink pad and a alcohol ink applicator and rubbed the ink onto the edge of the leaves.
Added ink to the leaves
I glued the whole think together with school glue which was probably a mistake. Some of the color behind the shrinky dink bled and looked odd. But it is too late now. I think they turned out pretty good.
I am in the "Owl you need is love" LTC swap. My card is called, "Gelli Owl." I got my Gelli plate in January and I really like playing with it.
When I got it I bought a book too with many ideas, tips for tools to use, examples of others work, etc. I have also watched a lot of videos and pined ideas on Pinterest.
This technique is laid out step by step in my book but I thought it would be easier to show you the video. I love this way to use my Gelli plate and I will definitely use it again. In this technique you use packing tape. (Video at the bottom.)
I got the idea for leaves on Pinterest. I wasn't a huge fan of Gesso when I used it before but now I have a whole jar of it sitting around so why not use it, right?
So, I cut my dictionary pages to size, took a craft knife thing, and smeared a thin layer of Gesso across the page. When that was dry I did the same thing with green paint. I did the dark green, let it dry, then the light green, and let it dry. Then I drew the edge & vein with a fine Sharpie, and cut them out. I glued the whole thing together and decided that it needed something so I added the brad. I recently got a big hole punch/grommet thing so you should see some of those in the future.
I know nothing about Gesso but Team Awesome Pants twisted my arm and I joined her tracker. The tracker is, "I Guess so...What Do You Think?" and my card is "Bloom." I stole this idea entirely from Pinterest.
I cut my cards to size and tore some paper from a dictionary and glued it to two corners of the card using gesso on a sponge brush. Then I covered the card with gesso, laid a stencil on, and put more gesso on top of the stencil. You can't really see the text paper and I think I applied too much gesso in these spots.
While that was drying I carved my iris flower stamp. Once the background was dry I painted it using watercolors. I knew that my iris would be purple so I consulted the great and powerful color wheel to choose the perfect background color. Green is opposite of purple so I used that but didn't want the whole background to be green. That is why it faded to blue at the top. I love how the one on Pinterest has so much yellow. So I added some too.
I Guess so...What Do You Think?: Bloom
Then I painted my iris with watercolor paints. While they were drying I stamped a text stamp on the background and printed/cut my "Bloom where you are planted text." I put the whole thing together and I feel like it is missing something but I am not sure what. I thought about adding a ribbon but was scared to do so and didn't want to hide the raised gesso. I am not sure if I will use this technique again.
