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 12 July 2017

Gesso and Distress Oxides

Loll Thompson hosted a few of us for a fun day of crafting on Sunday and one of the things we wanted to try was this technique Brenda posted on Country View Crafts.  Loll and I were looking at the instructions as we went along, and you'd think, being two educated adults, we'd be able to read and follow instructions well, but we just rushed ahead picking up odd details.  Needless to say, our results didn't look like Brenda's!

We did the smooshing with Oxide inks really well as we've done that before and ended up with great backgrounds.  What we did wrong was to read the next step as making a wash with gesso and water, and brushing it over the whole panel.

We ended up with kind of murky chalky pieces but went ahead and stamped our images on them.  Here's my finished card:


It's a pretty enough card but I lost all the lovely colour layering from the Oxide inks.

The flower stamps were inked up with Distress markers, using a MISTI, then spritzed with water and stamped on the background - I repeated the process to get a bit more detail.

The wildflower die was cut out twice and glued together for more dimension, and coloured with the same Distress markers.  I went over it with Wink of Stella for a bit of sparkle.

I kept the sentiment muted so as not to take away from the busy flower layers.

When I got home that night, I re-read Brenda's instructions and realized we'd done the gesso wash wrong.  So made another card doing it correctly, using the same colours, die, etc..  Come back tomorrow to see it - this blog post is already long enough!





Supplies:
Stamps - Unity "Insightful Meadows" flower, Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Distress Oxide Peacock Feathers and Salty Ocean
Paper - mixed media and white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz wildflower die, Tim Holtz blue and green markers, gesso, Wink of Stella, fun foam



6 comments:

  1. TFS your 1st card to show us what NOT to do, but still turned out to be a pretty card. Can't wait for tomorrow, Susan Hugs..

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  2. Even though we didn't follow the instructions properly, you have to admit that this is one gorgeous card. All we did was give it our own twist and now we have a new technique. :) I LOVE this card. It's so you, Susan!! xx

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  3. I think this is beautiful, Susan! I can't wait to see the other one!

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  4. No..no...no!...THIS is a BEAUTIFUL CARD and background! I can't wait for tomorrow to see the 'variation' on a technique! :D

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  5. This one looks so pretty Susan, they are never mistakes only a new approach. I can't wait to see the second. I must get mine finished and posted, it was lots of fun last weekend at Lolls.

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