Thursday, March 24, 2016

Thank You Card

This is the project I entered in the FaveCrafts Blogger Contest. If you like it, please consider voting for it here:  http://www.favecrafts.com/voting/Blogger-Contest/ Thank you.

Art coloring books are one of the hottest trends in the crafts industry at the moment and I was excited to receive coloring books from Leisure Arts. I love to draw and have a large collection of markers, colored pencils, pastels, paints and more from many different manufacturers.  Unfortunately however, I'm not someone who can sit and color.  For me, coloring has to have a purpose so I decided to work with the sheet of border designs then use them as embellishments for this Thank You card - the perfect project for the manufacturers who sent me the product.


 I used the following manufacturer product samples:

        Fairfield - Metallic Oly*Fun™multi purpose craft material - Silver
        Leisure Arts - Art of Coloring Books - Patterns
        Therm O Web - iCraft Gold Deco Foil, Adhesive Pen, ZOTS™ Clear Adhesive Dots
                                   & 3 D Foam Squares
        Sakura of America - 3-D Ink Glaze and 3-D Soufflé Opaque Puffy Ink markers
                                            & a KOI WaterBrush
 
and supplies and tools I already had on hand:
         Craft Glue (stick), Cream Card stock - 8.5" x 11", Water Color Pencils
         24" gold ric rac trim, paper trimmer, small tag and 4" silver thread


Step 1: Color the areas of the leaves as shown with the green glaze marker. As you can see on the left the glaze produces a shiny look.  Color around the glazed areas with a light green water color pencil. Use a light touch when coloring with pencils.


Step 2: Use a yellow water color pencil to color the center of the flowers, purple and blue glaze to color the outer petals of the flowers and orange soufflé for the small center ring and dots at the end of each stamen.


Step 3: Color the large petals with dark pink glaze and light blue soufflé on the outer circle of the round flower. Use a damp paintbrush, or the water brush to lightly blend the areas colored with water color pencils.


Step 4: To add even more dimension, I colored a second, small flower as follows: Trace the outline of the petals with the adhesive pen. After about 30 seconds, place the gold foil sheet with the gold facing UP on top of the design. The gold foil will stick to the adhesive to give those areas a look of gold leafing. I love the look of foiling, so I outlined some of the leaves with the chisel tip of the adhesive pen and added foil to those areas too.


TIP: Each adhesive pen comes with two tips. A bullet point and a chisel tip. The tips are easy to switch out, but I was concerned that the adhesive would dry in the tip I removed, so I bought 2 pens and put the chisel tip in the second one and keep both tightly capped when not in use. And, I have 2 replacement tips when needed!

Step 5:  Lightly color the petals with dark pink water color pencil, then blend with a damp brush. Dot the tips of the stamens with dark purple glaze. Note: The color on the 2 petals on the lower left was not blended to show the difference blending makes.

 

Step 6:  Cut all the colored pieces apart!


Step 7: Make a card by cutting the sheet of letter sized card stock in half to create two, 5.5" x 8.5" pieces. Set one piece aside. Score then fold the second piece in half to create a "quarter card", 5.5" x 4.25". Cut a 3.75" x 5" piece of silver metallic Oly*Fun, center then glue to the front of the card. Attach one end of the ric rac trim to the back of the front of the card. Wrap around the front of the card twice, crossing at the center then glue the end at the back.

Step 8: Assemble the cut pieces of your colored design starting with the leaves at the base using glue dots. Overlapping the base of the leaves, layer the large flower and the round flower and attach with foam squares. The design will remain the same except the pieces are pushed toward the center so they overlap. Snip between the petals of the pink flower and turn up slightly around the center. Glue on top of the larger flower then add a jewel at the center.  To finish, I added a small tag and 2 additional strips of ric rac at the bottom right for balance. I also added one of the leftover squares of gold aluminor under the leaves and trim.  The photo below is to show how prettily the foil and glaze colors shine.


Not just for cards, you can use these techniques for many kinds of paper and mixed media projects. There are so many coloring books available, but not all can be colored with water color markers and pencils, so always look for books with good quality paper.

Enjoy!  Y'all come back now........

Yours truly,
Julie :)

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON CRAFTING!

2 comments:

  1. Julie - This card is so beautiful and your instructions are so thorough. Love it!

    ReplyDelete