Congrats! You Are Really Going Places Card

Since I’ve been listening to a lot of radio shows lately, (for a class I’m in) I’ve been doing more and more coloring, which is where this card came in! (Although don’t necessarily expect a lot more coloring to show up here—I reject a lot of what I color if it’s not quite right!)

I colored the bus first, using Martha Stewart’s Art & Craft Markers. I love this set, but unfortunately, it does not have a lot of very light colors. That color on the roof is one of the lightest! So I used my watercolor brush to tint the windows a bit darker than the paper without competing with the dark brown color.

Once I had finished all of the coloring, (I spent a long time getting some cool shading going with the markers, a lá Copic Markers), I accidentally swiped across the largest van door with the watercolor brush, which softened the whole thing, so I went back, and brushed water over the whole thing. So now it looks a bit splotchy. Oh well!

I hand-lettered the “Congrats!” part of the card, but then I thought it would be super fun to do a little smaller greeting with my typewriter. Unfortunately I miscalculated a little, and had to use three lines to keep the whole thing centered, which put my text right along the bottom edge. I tried to cover it up a bit by accenting the top and sides of the panel with a little gray ink (Colorbox Chalk Ink in Charcoal) and brown ink (Distress Ink in Tea Dye.)

Otherwise, though, I like this card a lot. It makes me laugh, which, I think is the most important thing!

Tools

Recollections Value Pack Cardstock Paper in Neutral
Martha Stewart Art & Craft Marker in
Recollections Stamp Set
Tombow Mono Adhesive
Scotch Mounting Tape
Tsukineko Versafine in Onyx Black

Distress Ink in Tea Dye

Colorbox Chalk Ink in Charcoal
Bone Folder
Provocraft Paper Trimmer

Typewriter

Handwritten Love Card

Hey guys!

It's Antonia, and I'm back with a new card.

This one started out so neat! I wanted to get creative in the background of my cards this week. I've been watching a lot of Tim Holtz videos--I think you can tell. Tim loves to mix colors and watch them blend, and I started thinking about this the other day, when I realized my Martha Stewart Art and Craft Markers are described as "watercolor" markers on the back of the packaging!

And that got me thinking about some of the neat stuff I've been seeing about Ranger's new Distress Markers. One of Tim's videos on it talks about all the cool stuff you can do with them:

Anyway, I started thinking about what it looks like when you add a lot of water to markers when the ink doesn't really want to move around on the page, much. You can make coloring look a lot softer, and forgive harsh mistakes in handwriting! I love the way handwriting looks, but I know a lot of people feel pretty unconfident about their own handwriting. This technique lets you put a personal touch into your card, and still not compromise the look of the greater card.

I started off by writing the word, "love" on my cardfront until it was completely filled up. Consistency is far more important than actually "good" handwriting, I think!

As you can probably tell, I didn't
even use a ruler to draw straight lines.
I think it looks more organic
this way.

So then, after writing it all out, I pulled out the water-filled watercolor brush by Bienfang. (Incidentally, that brush is my second favorite way to apply ink from stamp pads to cards--the first is the ink applicator.)

With no particular pattern in mind, I blurred the writing. You can still read it very easily, but the contrast between writing and background is now far-less stark. I also love how smooth this technique makes the background look!

Then I wiped across the tea dye stamp pad, stamped a pattern in white chalk ink up one side, wrote out a sentiment, attached it with staples, and used an ink blending tool to blend the edges.

Then, on top of everything else, I added some bronze watercolor paint, and some dark blue essie nail polish. I love brining in unusual supplies--nail polish reminds me of liquid pearls or something. Just be sure you're only using it in a well-ventilated area!

My supplies!

Not Pictured: Provocraft Paper Trimmer and bone folder

I finished off the card with rounded corners! 

I guess it looks like this week's card turned out to be really inspired by the mess on my desk at the time. Everything near the top ended up on the card!