Altered Index Card by Cathy

 Hello, Today I have an Altered Index Card for you.

                                                                         Stamps Used:

                                                               19416 waybill/invoice 

                                                               19415 butterfly specimens

I started out by coffee dying some blank index cards.

Next, I stamped the waybill/invoice in distress oxide. I then smudged the ink. 

Stamp the butterfly specimens in black ink in the middle of the index card.

I added a little string and a label to the bottom of the card.

Index card - Dream big

Hey everyone,

This will be the last index card for this year I'm sharing as we are in the middle of the last ICAD week. The weekly theme I'm following is all about music.

I did some grungy layering of acrylic paints for the background until I liked it and then stamped some sheet music on top.

The astonished boy looks a little like he could be singing, don't you think? So I chose him as my focal point. I stamped him on a piece of watercolor paper, colored him and cut him out.

I also glued down a few strips of sheet music and blended it in with more acrylic paint and some splatters. After drying everything really well (and still it hasn't been completely dry) I heatembossed the words "dream big" onto the card to finish it.

Stamps used:
Sheet Music Background (19557)
Astonished Boy (1061)
Dream Big (19047)

Other material:
- index card (3 x 5 inch)
- Canson watercolor paper
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- Lukas acrylic paints (prussian blue, mauve, sand)
- ZIG watercolor brush pens
- sheet music


See you soon!

Interactive index card - Zodiac wheel

Hi everyone,

who doen't love interactive elements on cards! So here's one for the ICAD challenge. This weeks theme I'm working on is about diagrams, maps and blueprints and the stamps I used here came into my mind immediately.

This is how my interactive "dial" looks like. In this blog post, I'm going to show you how I did it.

 

I started with a simple two steps background: a layer of acrylic paint with a light paper towel pattern and a layer of heat embossing. For this second layer I used the eclipse chart stamp. The embossing powder I used is a chunky one so the details of the stamped image don't show too much, but that didn't bother me.

For the interactive element I stamped the zodiac wheel two times on watercolor paper. I cut them out, one as a whole and from the second one just the center moon face. I inked the edges with a black marker.

I had a picture in my head where the center part with the face was fixed while the rest of the diagram can be moved around it. Therefore I adhered a paper fastener to the smaller element I cut out using masking tape. I wanted to make sure that it sticks well and also added a little bit of glue. In the picture you can see how it looks like right before I cut the overhanging masking tape.

Next, I pricked a hole into the center of the large zodiac wheel as well as on the index card itself. I assembled the three layers as shown in the picture, bended the two pins of the fastener and secured them on the back of the index card with another piece of masking tape.

All I had to do now was adding a little quote. I found a matching one in my box of book text fragments.

Stamps used:
Eclipse Chart 1715 (20614)
Zodiac Wheel (20619)

Other material:
- index card 3 x 5 inch
- Canson watercolor paper
- acrylic paint (payne's grey)
- Versafine Claire ink (nocturne)
- Versamark ink
- Lindy's embossing powder (tin roof rusted)
- paper fastener
- masking tape


I hope you got inspired to make your own interactive "dial" element.

See you soon!

 

Index card - Please wait for dial tone

Hey everyone,

I'm still enjoying ICAD - which is the index card a day challenge - and so I wanted to share another inspiration card with you. The theme for this week is mixed media collage. My card features some of the stamps from the latest release. 

I started with collaging some old torn papers in the background. Here I didn't take too much care about having nice straight edges. With my fingers, I added a little black and white paint on top. I just made sure that some of the vintage paper is still showing through. Next I stamped the rotary phone dial with the help of a stamping tool. Due to the slight texture on my card I wanted to stamp it multimple times. I also added the writings and scribbles collage stamp in different spots.

While looking at the new stamps, I thought the vintage man would make a nice focal point for the index card. I just didn't want to have the jars he's looking at, but cutting him without them was easy. I stamped him on some watercolor paper, colored him with watercolor, cut him out and inked the edges with a black marker. 

To finish the card, I glued the man onto the card as well as some found words - I have grown a certain addiction for using text fragments over the last weeks.

Stamps used:
Rotary Phone Dial Grunge (20692)
Writing and Scribbles Collage (20695)
Vintage Man Examining Jars (20683)


Other material:
- index card, 3 x 5 inch
- Canson watercolor paper
- vintage paper
- Lukas acrylic paint (titanium white, iron oxide black)
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- ZIG and Arteza watercolor brush pens
- book text fragment(s)

See you soon!

Index card - Into the abyss

Hi everyone,

It's June and that means for me it's ICAD time! If you are not familiar with this, it stands for "index card a day" and is about doing something creative on an index card every day for two months. This is the third year I'm participating in the challenge and I decided to follow the weekly prompts. This week is about typography, text and poetry and so today's card contains a few text and letter elements.

When I started, I knew I wanted to do something a little "steampunky" and had a rough idea for my focal point. With an eye towards the weekly theme, I started with this fantastic steampunk alphabet stamp set. I got out my quite dry Archival Ink and stamped the words "brave hearts dive deep", not caring too much about a perfect stamp impression.

I wanted to add some color and therefore chose two Moonshadow Mists. I sprayed them on top and also dipped the card into the puddles on my working surface to get some additional texture. When building layers with these sprays (or any other water soluable colors) it can be helpful to dry the piece in between as it adds some interesting textures.

Next, I stamped my focal image - the whimsical diver - with Versafine Claire Ink and used watercolor brush pens to color it in. I used some brown and orange/gold tones first and went over parts of the image with a very light blue wash then. Doing this wash is easy: Instead of adding the color directly to the page, I scribbled some on my glass mat and picked it up with a water tank brush. The blue wash created this pretty greenish metal look.

I cut my image and inked up the edges with a black marker. Then I decided where to place it on my index card. For more interest in the background I added some messy stamping with the "into the abyss" text stamp. As I wanted a stonger impression as I had with my first layer, I used my juicy Versafine Claire ink pad again and made multiple stamp impressions without reinking the stamp very often. With this technique I did two areas around the diving helmet and one in the right top corner.

To finish my card, I did two more steps. First, I glues the image down together with some washi tape to avoid a weirdly floating focal point. Of course I could have simply glued the image to the bottom, but I just liked it to be a little higher.
Also, I collected some text fragments from books. I have a few old/used books (novels and poetry) that I just keep for this purpose. I went through them quickly (just a quick skimming) and through the snippets I already cut from some of the books and chose some fragments to form a new text. I love when you can see that the fragments are taken from different books, and to be honest, I love that it turned out a little oppressive.

So heres my finished index card again, as well as a few detail images:

Stamps used:
Steampunk Alphabet Unmounted (5888)
Whimsical Diver (19354)
Into The Abyss (19352)

Other material:
- index card
- Archival Ink (jet black)
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- Lindy's Moonshadow Mist (buccaneer bay blue, moonlit mulberry)
- ZIG watercolor brush pens
- washi tape
- old books / text fragments

See you soon!

Adventure Awaits - ICAD

Hi everyone,

This year's ICAD challenge is almost over and today's index card is already no. 60 out of 61. Of course, I had to do one more with some VLVS stamps that I want to share with you today. It's a simple one and you could easily recreate this design for a card. So I'm giving you a quick overview about how I made this.

I started with collaging old book page fragments for my background. I added a layer of gesso as well as some Distress Paints so it does not appear too busy.
I chose the world map for my background, but wanted it to kind of fade into the background. Therefore, I did some second generation stamping, which means that I stamped the image onto a scrap paper and then onto my card without reinking the stamp. This way you can get a lighter impression.
To finish the background I used a blending tool to ink the egdes in brown.

For the focal points I used another trick: My background had some texture from the book pages, but there were some fine details in the stamps I wanted to use. So instead of stamping them directly onto the card, I used a napkin (one of the white layers when you seperate the napkin). I like using pigment ink for this technique because the impression is a bit better and even with a stamping platform I'm not able to stamp the image twice.
After leaving the napkin to dry for a minute or two, I tore the images (a slightly wet brush helps) and glued them to the card with matte medium. Make sure you don't use this technique on a water-reacvtive background.

Just added the quote that I stamped onto another piece of a book page and that's it for my card.

Stamps used:

Men In Balloon Basket (19002)
Paris Skyline (10995)
Map of the World (19340)
Adventure Awaits (19009)

Other material:
- Index card 3 x 5 inch
- old book/ledger paper
- Archival Ink (Potting soil, Blue violet)
- Versafine Ink (Onyx black)
- Distress Paint (Stormy sky, Broken China, Tumbled glass)
- napkin (white or plane layer from seperating printed napkins)
- matte gel medium (not a heavy one)


See you soon!

altered Index cards

Hello Crafty Friends!

Happy Monday!

I hope you all are having a wonderful December! 

Here in Ohio we have been blessed with wonderful and unseasonable weather! 

(50's and 60's rather than the usual teens or lower!!)

Today I want to share 2 altered index cards with you.

I seem to be feeling the itch for them again... I love the size and how fun they are to flip through when you have several together.  This time I am not trying to convince myself that I will finish 1 a day (#ICAD). Rather, I am just following whatever my crafty muse tells me to do!

I am also on a kick for faux postage of late, so maybe I will share some of that in a later post.

Anyhow, lets get on with showing you these mini works of art.

Stamps Used: 
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
Boy in Cape
Grandville Bug
Postcard - ATC

This one was fun to be able to match with my washi tape that had the quote on it!

(Background was created with Distress Oxide ink and a layering stencil)

This one is of course this one is total love for me! 

I had this piece of scrap paper cut to index card size already.  A while back I had used it to test my crackle medium, but never went any farther with it. 

I saw it the other day and I instantly knew what was missing... So along came my Grandville character and the postal marks (along with some ink distressing) and it was instant love!

Have you made any altered index cards or participated in #ICAD ?

Always Be a Mermaid | Sue Plumb

Hi everyone!

Sue Plumb here today to share a sweet little project I created recently for my daughter, and it's in stark contrast to my previous project share which featured my "zombie" cat. This time I opted for a small scale project - working on an index card, which fits perfectly into a small 6x4" frame that can then go into my daughters bedroom.

I started by applying a light coat of gesso all over the card, before using Faber-Castell gelatos to add some colour. I used a moist baby wipe to blend each colour, mixing the 3 colours together, but concentrating on having the darkest tone around the outer edge to border it. Once I was happy with the colour, I set it aside to dry.

I then took the Cat Mermaid stamp, which was to be my focal image, and stamped it onto some white cardstock using Staz On ink. I again used my gelatos to add colour; this time by adding a little to my craft mat and then using a water brush to pick up the colour so I could colour my image.

I then turned my attention back to my index card, using the gorgeous Sky of Stars Background stamp and Ranger Archival ink to add a whimsical touch. I also used the Scribble Heart stamp to add a little love.

Next, I fussy cut around my cat mermaid; before stamping the quote using the Always Be Yourself/Mermaid stamp onto cardstock. I again used a gelato to add some colour, then fussy cut the quote into two pieces.

Now it was time to construct my piece. I started by adding a small paper doily to the centre of the card, topped with some messy cotton thread, then added my cat mermaid on top.

I then added the two pieces of the quote above and below the cat.

For a bit of extra whimsy, I finished my piece with a sprinkle of sequins.

This was a super fun little project to make. I must admit that I wasn't really used to creating pieces on such a small scale when I began working on this team; but my amazing VLVS teamies inspired me to give it a go and now I love creating these delicate little pieces! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope I have inspired you to get inky too!

Stamps used: 

- Cat Mermaid

- Sky of Stars Background

- Scribble Heart

- Always Be Yourself/Mermaid

Other materials: 

- Index card

- Colour Blast White Heavy Gesso

- Cardstock

- Faber-Castell Gelatos

- Tsukineko Staz On ink

- Ranger Archival ink

- Paper doily, cotton thread, sequins

- Miracle Tape