A blog devoted to the cards I make in my tiny upstairs space. When my sister stays there, she calls it an "artist's garret". I'm not an artist, but am an enthusiastic cardmaker - hence the title "Cardmaker's Garret".
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Wednesday 6 April 2016

Mixed Media Wings

As part of the Happy Little Stampers' Mixed Media challenge Design Team, I was thrilled to see that the April challenge is "Wings".  But then my dilemma was whether to go with birds, butterflies, or dragonflies!  I love them all!


I started mucking about making a mixed media background and it evolved into a butterfly theme since there are stenciled butterflies as well as the die cut one.  Here's my card:


I laid down some purple and yellow acrylic paints on a piece of mixed media cs, thinking mauve and yellow are perfect spring colours.  Then stamped a text stamp over it.

I love The Crafters Workshop stencils like the one I used here - it's a mish mash of circles, lines, and a trio of butterflies.  I stencilled it with a texture paste and then sprinkled gold Perfect Pearls over most of the wet paste.

The purple and yellow were definitely spring-like but way too bright with too much contrast between them, so I sponged over the whole thing with Distress Brushed Corduroy ink to tone it down.  Then darkened the edges with more Brushed Corduroy.

I stamped, heat embossed, and die cut the Tim Holtz butterfly and the sentiment and popped them on top with foam tape.  The whole panel is popped up on the card base with a piece of fun foam.

I hope you like it!  I'm still trying to get comfortable with mixed media!  Thanks go to my friend, Christine (aka calex on SCS), for inspiring and encouraging me, and teaching me different techniques!

Come and join us at Happy Little Stampers!






Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz butterfly, Stamp It Australia text stamp, Textures Words of Wonder sentiment
Ink - Archival Jet Black, ColorBox gold, Distress Brushed Corduroy
Paper - white cs, mixed media cs
Size - A2
Accessories -Tim Holtz butterfly die, The Crafters Workshop "Specimen" stencil, texture paste, purple and yellow acrylic paints, gold embossing powder, gold Pearl Ex, fun foam, foam tape



10 comments:

  1. Such a gorgeous mixed media card. Loving the colours, the texture and the techniques. Thank you for the inspiration.

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  2. AMAZING! Great mixed media card Susan. I'd say you've got it! Beautiful mix of colours and layering of techniques. Very cool!! xx

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  3. I'm with you Susan and still struggling with the MM techniques but it seems to me that you have it down pat. This is such a rich and vibrant piece of art.

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  4. I'm with you Susan and still struggling with the MM techniques but it seems to me that you have it down pat. This is such a rich and vibrant piece of art.

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  5. Wow...I am so impressed with your mixed media design Susan. Isn't great how you can always "fix" mixed media with another layer of ....whatever? You are inspiring me to join in with your challenge. TFS my friend.

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  6. Lovely mixed media card and love your stencil. Thanks for advice on making changes to get a different result too. Just a small thing to help us keep on trying!

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  7. I can't tell that you're not completely at ease with mixed media, Susan! This is AWESOME! Beautiful colors and textures!

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  8. you really nailed this mixed media, I love how you softened the colours with the brushed corduroy distress inks. It's even prettier in real life.

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  9. Gorgeous card, the colours and textures look amazing, Cathy x

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  10. Beautiful MM card Susan. Awesome textures and colors, they are just perfect. I never seem to ever get them right.

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