Altered Playing Cards

Happy Friday...and if you are in Canada, Happy Canada Day weekend. We celebrate Canada Day on July 1 with big celebrations, fireworks, and lots of red and white. Lately, I have been slightly (!!) obsessed with altering playing cards because of an online class I am taking from Mary Jane Chadbourne called The Spoken Soul. Today I thought I would share three of my completed cards on the eclectic Paperie blog. I am a huge fan of ATCs...just love the size of these little canvases and they are a fabulous place to test drive some mixed media techniques and products.

All of the playing cards were sanded and coated with clear gesso before applying colour in the form of Inktense blocks or Neocolor II watercolour crayons. Then I intensified the colour with Faber-Castell Gelatos, Big Brush pens, Distress inks and stains. All stamping was done with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink using a variety of Tim Holtz stamps. Watered down white gesso was applied in rings with a bottle top or brayered lightly across the background. The white dots were made with Signo Uniball pen. The papers were scraps from my box and the images came from various downloaded collage sheets. I used saved up bits of embossed card which I highlighted with Metallic Distress paint and even a piece of cheesecloth for texture.

Each image piece was lined around the edges with the Faber-Castell Black Big Brush pen. I use that pen all the time because it gets rid of the white edges left from fussy cutting and will give you a fine black outline or a thicker one if you tip the pen toward the image. Shading on the backgrounds was done with a sketch and wash pencil and spread with a waterbrush. The sentiments were computer generated , inked with Black Soot  and/or Vintage Photo Distress inks, and matted with black cardstock.

The final details are the part of the process that feels like icing on the cake. You'll see brads, flat pearls, charms, Icicle Stickles, anything and everything from my stash that suits the card. Each card was edged with Black Big Brush pen to finish the edges. Well, that's it for me today. I hope you have been a little tempted to play mixed media on this ATC size (2.5" x 3.5") background. What a wonderful way to dip your toe into mixed media, to try out new ideas if you are already a mixed media fan, and just to play with composition and "stuff" I love my stuff :)

Thanks for visiting. There are links below to some of the products I have used which can be found in the eclectic Paperie shop.

Bonnie

Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Green	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pens - Red	Faber Castell - Big Brush Pen - Black
Faber Castell - Gelatos - Yellow Colors	Faber Castell Gelatos - Red Colors	Faber Castell - Gelatos - Green Colors	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo
Distress Ink Pad - Black Soot	Uni-Ball White Gel Pen	Speedball 4" Pop-In Rubber Brayer	Archival Ink - Jet Black Ink Pad