Thursday 14 November 2013

Christmas card fun with a dash of pain.

Every year I have a mad panic
right at Christmas time
as I haven't made any cards
and usually I beg Little Miss to make
cards for me.
She is really clever with stamps 
and design and she is only 12.

This year I was determined to make 
at least a few cards myself.
Now you can forget stamping
as I couldn't stamp the side of a barn,
so I decided to do some
quick
 (yeah right)
water colour cards.
I started with some thin
(that was my first mistake)
smooth
(that was my second mistake)
water colour paper and cut
it to size for cards.


 Then drew some baubles
and used the gloopy stuff
to create quick patterns on them.



I wet the paper and had fun
blobbing dots of colour into
the background.

My teacher has taught me that
although I love bright colour,
I need to have some muddy
colour in there to make the colour pop.
Hence the darker background.


I painted the baubles
and she was right
the dull colour made the baubles pop.
This is before the gloop was rubbed off and

   
this was after rubbing it off.
I still need to paint in the 
little rings but getting there.

The paper started to curl 
not long after this shot and that
was the trouble, then this
 
 the paint had gone under and
all over the other side.
Plus it won't stand up 
as the paper is too thin.
So, cards take two.

I got out my good paper 
and drew up lots of just the fronts.
I will paint them up
and then cut and stick them
to proper cards.

This paper is much thicker and
has a rougher texture.
The only trouble is that this
surface doesn't keep the crisp
clean colours.



 
 They aren't too bad here
but they have dulled off a lot now.

I'll keep playing and hope they 
will turn out okay.
If not it's back to 
Little Miss! 
 


6 comments:

  1. WoW..what a mindblowing idea! I like it will try it for sure.

    Thanks..
    ~ sunita
    Christmas Cards

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  2. Uh-oh! I haven't made any cards this year either - Gaaagh! And yet Christmas is hurtling towards us at an alarming rate!! Your cards look gorgeous! I need to take a leaf from your book! :0)

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  3. Thin, buckling watercolor paper is the pits! I have to cut and paste anything watercolor to the card front, too, because of back leakage. These do look great, though. You could still use the first one glued to the front of some cardstock, too. I am getting panicky! Got to have something or other to start with by Wednesday when Leah comes over....awk!! ;)

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  4. Wow! Your serial production of these wonderful colorful christmas cards is phantastic! And I love your new blog design as well. The blue parrot is awesome! Did you learn that in your acrylic class as well?

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  5. Beautiful bright baubles Vonny!! I loved seeing the process. I hope you are pleased with the final outcome and find you have enough to send out.

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  6. Looking like christmas joy those cards! I should do some christmascards myself, but I never get to it!

    ReplyDelete

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Thanks, Von.