Mailable Mixed-Media Cards

One of the most difficult things about making cards is mailability. You have to decide pretty early in the process if you're good with paying that extra dime, using a padded envelope or *gasp* reining in your creative ideas to fit the medium and it's mode of transportation. 

The tension between artistic expression and practicality is never greater for me than when card making. But, since I send most of the cards I make to Canada, I've decided that 

flat is phat and lumpy makes me grumpy. 

LOL. No. I haven't been drinking. I'm just a giant geek today :-)

Michelle Wooderson makes great cards and her designs are easy to flatten if you leave off the top layer - usually buttons, chip board etc. I've used her ideas as a jumping off point for all of these cards. 

Also, soft embellishments, like a modest amount of seam binding, are wonderfully crushable and can rarely be felt through the envelope. It's my go-to supply when I want to add a little softness to a flat(ish) card.

My go-to supplies for cards like this are washi tape, tags and gesso. They pack a lot of punch without adding thickness.

For these cards I employed one of my favorite little tricks, I stamped on pre-printed journal cards.

 The one on the right had the brown border and I added the stamped flower and sentiment. 

I love how the stamping integrates into the design.

This duo was made using the scraps on my craft table.

 I employed a similar design on both, but they ended up looking fairly different. 

Both cards needed a little more oomph so I colored around the tag with watercolor pencils and then softened it with water. This quick technique totally changed the look and feel of the whole card without adding any (literal) depth.

These are my favorite. Notice anything missing? 

I left the sentiments off so I could add them once I know what is appropriate. The style seems versatile enough to accommodate everything from a birthday to a feel better soon. 

~~~

How important is mailing ease for you? Do you make cards with mailing in mind or leave it up to the universe to sort out? Do you struggle with adding interest to relatively flat cards? What's your favorite technique for creating visual interest without bulk?

Handmade Canvas Watercolor Art Journal

Remember all that canvas I painted, cut up and made Prayer Flags with? Well, I found it when I was unpacking and since it's been a few months, I declared that project abandoned and decided to use the pieces willy-nilly to make some journals.

How many notepads, art journals, smash books, diaries etc. do you have going at once? I have about a zillion. Seriously. Because sometimes I want marker paper and sometimes I want watercolor. One book is for drawing, one painting, some are tall and skinny, others are HUGE (like 18x24 huge), one is square... it's endless. So I needed to make a bunch of journals each with specific paper needs. This one is watercolor.

I sewed a velcro clasp to help it stay closed once it's stuffed with mixed-media goodness.

Inside Cover:

I added in some paper scraps so each page had a little tag like Donna Downey's journals. I'll let you know if I like the extra little bit of space, texture and visual interest.

Inside Back Cover:

I made a pocket for holding my beloved Faber Castell Aquarelles

Back:

It was a fun project and I liked that I kept it simple. To be honest, I was considering stamping, doodling, being all crazy but there's something appealing to me about how basic and uncluttered it is. 

It's just a little hint to what you'll find inside.

Sorry I've been quiet lately. It's just been a really hard time. And now Father's Day is coming. My husband and I both lost our Dads this year (4 months for me, six months for him) and it feels so weird and sad not having them anymore. If you are missing someone this year please consider this a big hug from me. It's a terrible thing to say goodbye to family.

Frida Kahlo Mixed-Media Wall Art

It's Stampotique Designer's Challenge once again and I was so excited when Sarinda chose text paper to be the theme for their 101st challenge.

I LOVE text paper and I rarely do any projects without it. Hooray!

I thought it would be fun to make another Modern Girl, this time using Frida Grande.

After stamping her head and shoulders on book paper using Staz-On ink, I drew the rough shape of a blouse on deli paper, using it like you would tracing paper. 

Then I cut out the blouse from an embellished index card.

For her skirt I made a mono print using my Gelli Plate and layered long strips of the painted paper to form the skirt. I was going for a boho-formal vibe which I felt was consistent to what I've seen her wear in photos.

Then I added jewel and pearl embellishments.

The quote:

I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.

~~~~- Frida Kahlo

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today. It's my last week as guest designer for Stampotique and again, I truly couldn't be more honored to have the privilege. 

Note: Some of you eagle-eyed blog readers may notice there are two different spellings of, "Frida" shown in the pictures. When I printed the quote I was working from an official Frida Kahlo website and her birth name had the 'e' in "Frieda" but the spelling she used professionally drops the 'e'. I went back and forth and finally decided to correct the art. Some of the pictures are from before, some after. For the final work I went with the commonly used, "Frida Kahlo"

Art Journal Page Featuring Stampotique

(click to see this full-sized)

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hope your week is going well. We're busy unpacking and getting ready for our trip back to Canada next week. It's exciting to see the house coming together.
I'll share pictures as soon as I can find my camera ASAP

This week Kim picked the challenge over at the Stampotique  Designer Challenge Blog and would you believe it's their 100th challenge? Huge congrats to everyone involved. It's one of the few challenge blogs I can't wait for each week and I play along with regularly.

The  SDC Challenge 100  theme is, "Anything Goes" and I LOVE being able to just mess around and see where inspiration takes me.

It took me to my art journal. Surprise. Surprise.

On the left side I used Beauty Verse on a mixed media tag that features spray ink, stenciling, french dictionary text and messy stitching with black thread. 

The base of the page has layers of paint, stencils (fragmented flowers is one), stamping and Neocolor II and I brought it all together with a tiny bit of striped wash tape. 

For the right side, I built the base up with paint, stencils, spray and music paper. 

 I stamped Heart Throb on a Handmade layers tags from Elle's Sudio and colored him with copics. Stamping on pre-made (printed) tags is one of my favorite short cuts. What you lose in control over the paper you more than gain back in the illusion of complexity.

Doesn't it look like the red chevron at his feet is washi tape and the blue dotted 'stamping' to his left is also the printed tag. The "no. 12' too. In reality, all I added to the tag was Heart Throb and the red splatter. 

Isn't Heart Throb just the most loveable stamp? I'm smitten.

To match things up nicely I added the other half of the ripped piece of striped washi tape above the focal image. I think that sort of symmetry brings a lot of balance to an art journal page.

Speaking of balance, did you notice how the two sides are very different but the weight of the images is about the same, the colors are repeated (blue on the left in amongst the orange and red and the yellow on the right)

Also in addition to the striped washi tape,  I had manilla tags on both sides as well as red paint splatters.

Sometimes art journal pages can get a little crazy - and that's awesome - but if you are looking for something a bit more calm to look at, or you want to make sure your quote gets as much attention as your focal image, you can do that with weight and symmetry and you don't have to sacrifice fun painty layers. 

Thanks so much for popping by.

Warmly,
~~~Nicole

Summer Garden Fairy Mixed Media Collage

Hey Everyone! 

The SDC99 challenge, chosen by Carol, is "Summertime"and the first thing that came to mind was gardens, flowers, fireflies... and that led me to creating a garden fairy clothed in a cheerful sundress.  

The piece measures 6x12 and the background is acrylic paint on MDF, with layers of stamping and stencils. The majority of the stencils used in this mixed-media wall hanging are TCW - Balzer Designs. 

For her wings, dress and boots I made Gelli Plate mono-prints using regular typing paper and deli paper. The deli paper is translucent (like vellum) and it gives the wings a lovely ethereal quality. 

For the head I stamped Jill on book paper, I just love her big eyes and sassy hair. I'll be investing in the other heads ASAP here's a link to the ones I'm coveting Stampotique carries: Leeta, Jeepers, Miss Snottie, Clover,  Muffin, Pockets and Mervyn

The flowers were made with scraps from my mixed-media index cards and a heart punch. 

For the quote I stamped Sometimes on typing paper using Staz-on. I could really relate to the sentiment:

*snort*

This is also my entry for the Simon Says Stamp: Inspired By Challenge. I was inspired by this pin:

And it's my "Inspired by Gardens"  'Take the Challenge' with Mou entry. 

My youngest said this is his favorite piece I've ever made. I think my heart just about exploded with happiness :-)

Thanks so much for visiting.

Warmly,

~~Nicole

Tooting My Own Horn

I had some happy things going on and I thought I'd share.

(this is a card I blogged ages ago but wanted to share again)

Firstly, there is a little 'about me' write up over on the Stampotique Designer's Blog. I'd love it if you popped over there and left a comment.

HERE'S THE LINK

Also, one of my Bombshell Stamps cards, featuring Cherry Bomb, was published:

Hooray!

SDC98: Pink & Turquoise

So I've been bursting my buttons trying to hold in my exciting news. 

I'm the Guest Designer for May at Stampotique!

*SQUEAL*

The first challenge is creating with Pink and Turquoise and I thought it would be awesome to make an art journal page since my art journal is already filled to the brim with Stampotique stamps - like HERE, Here and HERE.

I began by making some Gelli Plate prints on thick art paper using hot pink and turquoise paints.

Next, I stamped Frida Grande on one of the prints with black Staz-On ink, fussy-cut the image and matted her on a mixed-media index card and then layered that on the hot pink polka-dot print. I pulled it all together with a few splatters from a neon pink Sharpie paint pen and a teensy bit of washi tape.

I just love how this color palette interacts with black so I made a Gelli printed background mixing the turquoise with white paint and black gesso. 

I worked some marks into the wet paint and then added some circles with neocolors once it was dry. For continuity there are some neon splatters in there too as a final layer.

The quote, 
"A certain darkness is needed to see the stars."
 seemed to fit what I know about Frida Kahlo and it's a quote that speaks to me too.

Can you tell I'm absolutely obsessed with making my own custom papers? And trust me, you'll be seeing this stamp again and again.