Monochrome Madness, Part 2

 Hello Crafty Friends, 

 For my last monochrome card, I have the blues!

I trotted out a tried and true background technique that made for an afternoon of fun in the sun with #1 son helping out as my iPhone videographer.  (Thanks, son...we'll miss you when you're away at school in the fall.)

The background technique (called marbling) is SO easy--and you can make boatloads of backgrounds in moments.  Here's a small sampling of the 20 or so backgrounds I made in about 30 minutes:

You can read all about how I made this card on Hero Arts' blog.  I've also made a super quick video about how to make these marbled backgrounds that you can watch on You Tube.  

I hope you'll give marbling a try and let me know how it goes!  And if you stick with a monochrome palette, why not join us on A Blog Named Hero--(those prizes can really help you increase your treasure trove of Hero Arts supplies!)

Thanks for dropping by,

Essie

Monochrome Madness, Part 1

 Hi Crafty Friends,

I'm in a monochromatic state of mind and wanted to share a few of my most recent monochromatic creations with you--all in summery shades of blue-green--from light pool to deep teal, but each in a very different style:  

I made all of these for our June monochrome challenge over at A Blog Named Hero--and my center (shaker) card is also for this week's Beyond the Blue Challenges.   And all the stamps and dies above are from Hero Arts!  I am getting pretty attached to this idea of a simple singular color palette--it gives my brain a chance to focus on other aspects of a card--texture, material, layout.  

In fact, I like this idea so much that I have one more one color card--and my second YouTube video to help illustrate a background technique I use in the card.  Perhaps you'll drop by again tomorrow for this Part 2 blog post of my monochromatic obsession.

I hope you like these cards--and that you'll visit these two challenge blogs for some more inspiration from my very talented co-designers and also to join the challenges.

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie  

Crafting on the Edge: A Die Cut Booklover's Delight

 Hello friends, my card today helps kick off the May challenge for A Blog Named Hero, "shaped cards."  And before I forget, if you play along at our blog's website by posting your own shaped card, you'll be eligible for a very handsome prize from our blog sponsor, Hero Arts

This is a nearly effortless shaped card, using watercolors and showcasing one of my favorite pastimes, reading.  Hero Arts recently launched an entire stamp and die line all about books and reading--and it could be that I went a little crazy in ensuring I added nearly all of them to my stash!  

Here's how I made this one layer card with the bookish border:

1.  Partially die cut the stacked books fancy die from a piece of water color paper (I like Fabriano Artistico, but any good watercolor paper will work), creating an A2 sized card (the 4.25' width includes the shaped right edge of the card)

2.   Leaving the die in place on the watercolor paper, I changed my die cutting sandwich to a set up for die embossing a die and ran the paper through again, this time embossing the book stack image into the paper.  

3.  Water colored the panel--because the book stack is embossed into the paper, it's really easy to get the color to stay exactly where I wanted it.  And that straight line between the yellow wall and the gray-brown table stayed straight and separate by using a piece of painter's tape to keep the darker color nice and straight.

4.  Used a gold pen to go over every embossed line in the book stack --this not only adds some extra interest and shine, it also gives the card a finish look.

5.  Stamped the sentiment, which is one of my favorites from the Literary Quotes stamp set--and well, that's that!

I hope you'll show off your shaped card by linking it to A Blog Named Hero--and please use the hashtag #ablognamedhero so that we can all ooh and ahh over your creation! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Essie

Take Time to Smell the Flowers on a Blog Named Hero

Our floral challenge is in full swing, and honestly, the toughest problem I had was deciding which floral image to use.  

I finally decided to break out my new bees and flowers and honey pot fancy dies to make this slimline card that upcycles a page from an old road atlas (remember those!) and reshapes a large die cut honey pot into a smaller, rather elegant vase.  

Details are over on A Blog Named Hero (and so is your chance to win one of two $50 vouchers for Hero Arts).

 Can’t wait to see what you make! 

 Thanks for stopping by,

Essie

Big Floral Fantasy Flower for A Blog Named Hero's March Challenge

 Hello crafty friends!  

It's month two for me on A Blog Named Hero's design team, and what a talented group of people I'm finding in my co-designers! (It's pretty intimidating, really...but also seems to push me to try new things.)

This month's challenge (and the chance to win a $50 gift certificate from Hero Arts!) may be my one of my favorite themes for cardmaking:  Florals.

the first cards I made were all about florals--and flowers are still my very favorite things to color.  I love all the color you can use with flowers and those color can be soft or strong, true to life or simply fantastical.

What I did:  For today's card I tried a technique that was new to me--I heat embossed the outline of this biiiiig flower (I mean really big--like five inches (13cm) across on an alcohol ink panel.  I wondered if I could successfully heat emboss the paper--I had used Yupo, which is basically a plastic paper--without melting it or making the embossing powder bubble. Turns out it worked out just fine. I'll be doing this again, for sure!

I fussy cut the flower and leaves; popped them up on a gel press background using foam squares (look closely and you'll see I the mail jumble peekaboo stamp doing duty as a background)with some spattered gold and green and black inks and paints to give that background some interest; and added one of my favorite sentiment dies that I embossed about 4 times, to get a really rounded standout effect. I matted my panel with black card stock, popped it onto my card base--et voila (as my French design team friend might say), a finished card!  

By the way:  This is a 5X7 inch (A7) card.  I've been making those a lot lately. I think that this large format is a real wow from the time the envelope arrives in your recipient's mailbox.  Also, I really love big bold images--and this larger format really helps show off those images.  Honestly, it would have broken my heart to cut up that big peony.

Have you tried a 5X7 card?  What about heat embossing?  Gel press?  Alcohol ink?  It seems this card--which features each of these--is sort of a demo of all of these techniques (I love to color, too, but a little experimentation is good fun, too!)

Can't wait to see your floral cards--I hope you'll play along with us!

Thanks so much for stopping by, 

Essie

Rustic Reimagined: A Wood and Feathers Fantasy

 Hello Friends and Happy Friday! 

My crafty cohorts and I have a new card challenge for you over at Beyond the Blue.  It's easy and fun!

For this challenge, you make a woodgrain card front with a stamp or embossing folder (I used an embossing folder), cut it up, color/ink blend it in at least two different ways, and reassemble the pieces.  You get a cool barn plank effect that makes a great back drop for a quote or a diecut...or--in my case--both!

The feathers are from my overly large stash, colored during a gel press session with splash inks, and I've "gilded" them with iridescent foil applied with the help of a glue pen.  The quote "art grows brain cells" is from Picket Fence Studios--and it was their original video by card designer and Crafty Queen Susan Wymer that got our Beyond the Blue Team fired up for this latest challenge.  

Hope you'll join us in trying out this fun and easy effect!

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie

A Blog Named Hero--Sending Love.

I am so excited to be part of the Design Team for A Blog Named Hero, and today my first DT cards have been posted.  

For this month’s “Anything Goes” challenge, I made a set of four cards that send love. 

You'll find closeups of each card and a some info about how I made each card.  You'll also find my teammates' creations and a place to link your own "Anything Goes" creations (there are prizes!).   

I hope you'll play along--I'd love to see what you make!                                         

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Essie

Abstract Seascape with a gel press and stencil

It's Friday.  Let's daydream a little. 

During these unprecedented, often difficult, times, art takes me away from the worries of the day. While I'm immersed in colors, shapes, and textures, my doubts just recede into the back bits of brain.  

Lydia Fiedler (aka Understand Blue) is a great artist AND a great teacher.  Some of us get together most weekday evening for her Facebook Live "classes" and we chat with her and each other--and it is a saving grace, for me, of the pandemic.  At the Beyond the Blue challenge blog we try out Lydia's techniques, share them, and encourage you to join us with your own creations.

So, our Beyond the Blue Challenge this week is to make a "folded" gel press landscape--and Lydia's short video explains it best.  Do watch it -- and all of us on the BTB Design Team would LOVE you to give it a try.  Please post it on our blog and let us see what you make!

Here's mine: 

I added a favorite swirly Hero Arts stencil to the bottom of my print, and used two yellows and a blue and a blue-green acrylic (Golden Open is the brand I've like best for gel press) for this abstract print.  

Here's what I see:   (and you can see what you want!). This is my imaginary view from aboard a large ship as I lean out over the water, and peer into the hazy, hot horizon, where I see a foreign port coming into view.  I see minarets, or tall masts of sailing ships.  If I close my eyes, I hear the ocean.

I've put this 8X8 framed gel print in our family room--where I can look at it and dream of new adventures.  

I hope you'll try this technique and post your creation on our challenge blog!  It's much easier than it looks--and so much fun!

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie

New Year, New Challenge (Blog): Beyond The Blue

 New Year, New Challenge (Blog)! 

I have been crafting with some new Facebook friends for a few months now (thank you, Pandemic), and, under the guidance and tutoring of @understandblue (Lydia Fiedler), we've all been discovering the wide world of mixed media papercrafting techniques.  The new techniques and new friends are a powerful combo--and the results often pop up in my cardmaking.  

Enter this:  Beyond the Blue--a papercrafting techniques weekly challenge blog, where a few of us will try out one of Lydia's techniques that are mostly demo'd in one of her many YouTube videos, and we'll post our results, in order to inspire you to try out that mixed media craze.  As our fearless leader, Lee is choosing the techniques, and we're trying them on, one at a time.  

We hope you'll try these techniques, too and link them to our new challenge blog--anything goes and definitely, definitely Use. Your.  Stash!  My fellow design team members are all Understand Blue followers, and I hope you'll follow them, too!  

Looking forward to seeing what you create, and we'll all be "showing some love" to your linked creations.  

How I made it:  Today's new technique is to use your gel plate or gel press (same, same)  with something most of us have in our cardmaking stash:  dye reinkers, embossing ink (like Versamark) reinkers, and stencils.  Lydia's instructional video is linked in the challenge blog.  The card above is my favorite result--so far!

What I used:  The reinkers were a combo of things in my stash, the stencil is a leafy bordered 6X6 from Simon Says Stamp, and the die cut is a set called Botanic Images from Mama Elephant (that I coveted, bought, and never used...until now!). And the gel plate measures 6X6 The bits below the card are to show you that I've used EVERY little bit of the print I made--those scraps are all that's left!--and also peeking out beneath the card and scarps is a second print I pulled that uses the stenciled image in reverse.  I'll use that in another card, or maybe in my art journal. 

I hope you'll check out the rest of my friends' creations when you go to our challenge blog.  Most of all, I hope you'll try this technique for yoursel, and please post your creations!

We'll be back next week with a new technique--and a new challenge!

Thanks for stopping by,

Essie

Use Those Gel Press Prints!

 

I struggle a bit with backgrounds (I may have mentioned this previously) but with gel press prints, I have a ready supply of interesting colors, patterns and even depth and shine to use as card backgrounds.  Today, instead of focusing on one of those backgrounds, I've used my gel press prints for die cuts the clean and simple 5X7 inch card you see above.  

Method and Chat:  Using a gel press is easy and relatively inexpensive. The only real equipment you need is a gel press, a brayer, copy paper (yes, the stuff you use in your computer), and some pigment. For the card above, I used Golden Open acrylic paints, but  I've also used dye inks, pigment inks, distress inks, alcohol inks, and watercolor (so there's almost certainly something in your stash that works).  Understand Blue has great gel press videos on You Tube - if you're interested in good tips and techniques and videos, I've linked you to her playlist. 

I've made some pretty successful prints (meaning: just what I wanted!).  Here are three I like:

 I've also had some failures (meaning:  not what I was aiming for....cue sad horn music, mwah, mwaaaah, mwaaaaaaah).

And that's where today's card originates--with this gel press failure:

This print was just NOT pleasing to me--the cake impression is blurry, and the gifts didn't work out at all, but I did like the colors.  I decided to salvage the print because of those happy, saturated colors--they look like a party to me.  

First, I pasted the copy paper print onto a thin piece of card stock (65#, the inexpensive kind) to give me enough body to be able to die cut the page.  Next, I grabbed the (Hero Arts) cake die I used to make the impression you see above and die cut the cake from a colorful part of that same failed print.  

I grabbed a (My Favorite Things) sentiment die, and cut it out twice from a second (similar) failed print, which I'd also (first) pasted to lightweight card stock.  Tip:  The glue needs to be FULLY dry before you die cut...ask me how I know!

Next:  I aligned and die cut the sentiment out of white cardstock, and carefully pieced in (inlaid) the gel press letters.  I put the cake on a wobbler and placed it to the right of the sentiment.  Done.  I get wobblers from Art Impressions. I think they not only elevate the piece cake to give the card some texture/interest, but I really like the whimsy of that cake kind of wobbling about.  

And that's it--I'd love to hear what you think of the card and whether you've entered the gel press craze!  

Thanks so much for stopping by, 

Essie
 

Beveled Foiling--New technique!

I'm kind of a youtube crafting addict--almost everything I know about card making I learned on weekend mornings, watching those youtube videos with my daughter, while we ate breakfast and marveled at techniques, products, and all of those beautiful cards!

After watching hundreds (maybe thousands) of those videos, I've made one of my own.  It's a technique video I made after a friend got my holiday card and asked "How did you do it?"

So, here's the card:  

...and the part that is a new technique is the beveled foiling background that shows the black cardstock behind the foiling and stenciling.  

Here's the foiled, stenciled background before it "grew up" into that card for Lydia: 

I hope you can see that there's height for the snowflake--that's what really gives that beveled look to the piece!

Materials I used:  

1. Super shiny card stock (several different kinds work)
2. Heat transfer foil (although Glimmer Foil works, too!),
3. Foil transfer gel (and a couple of other gels work as well!), 
4. Stencils
5. A foiling machine (mine is a Heidi Swapp Minc machine, and since that's the only one I own, I can't make any claims about whether others will produce a similar result).  

Here's a collage of my results--I created these beautiful foil pieces, with raised stenciling and beveled edges that allow the cardstock underneath to show through.

I've been able to repeat the process--and can't wait for the weekend when I can experiment some more!  

 

Especially if you're a foiling fan, I'd love to see what you make! Your comments kind of make my day.

And as all those youtube videos say at the end, "please like, share, and subscribe." 

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Essie

Hope

Although starting a cardmaking blog as a New Year's resolution is hardly a novel idea, I'm hopeful that it's an idea I can actually make good on in 2021!

As I move into 2021, I'll try to post my cards not only on Instagram (see me there @escards) and Facebook (you can friend me there, I'm Essie Cards), but also here.  When I have some techniques to show you, I may really go out on a limb and make a little youtube video.  Just because it's a good year to try new things, to start over, and to stretch our way into whatever our brave new world will look like.

That overwhelming feeling--of hopefulness--has made its presence known in the cards I've been making in the last week.  I've been playing with cards to send my friends and family in the new year that are all about hope and brighter tomorrows.  Here are three, all using the December 2020 Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit*, which is, as ever, unique, beautiful, and timely.  I hope you enjoy them.  

I hope you'll drop by again--it will help to keep me honest, so that I can keep my little New Year's resolution! 

Thanks for visiting!

Essie

*I have not been compensated or sponsored by any company mentioned in this post.  I like to make cards, and am simply happy to share the materials and products I enjoy.