The Altered Playing Card Challenge Week 27

Thanks so much for coming by the blog again today. We are on week 27, the final week of the Altered Playing Card Challenge

If you have missed any of the previous week's here are the links

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 
Week 7
Week 8

Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 25
Week 26

and our Facebook group

Facebook Group

and the Pinterest Board link

Pinterest Board

I cannot believe we have made it through the entire deck of 52 cards, how fun has this been? I hope to give you all a couple of weeks to finish your decks and then move on to something else. I'm not sure what yet but keep following the blog to find out. 

This week I want to do some embossing onto our backgrounds
the first thing I did was add color with my Archival inks

Once your cards are inked you have to let them dry thoroughly, either use your heat gun to dry or set them aside for a couple hours to dry. 

Next I'm going to use a stamp, versamark ink and embossing powder to heat emboss onto my background
 The reason you need to let your card dry thoroughly after you first inked it, if you don't your embossing powder will not only stick to your stamped image it will stick to your background ink too. So it's important to let your card dry before this step

For the next card I used colored powder
I also used the stamp several times and then sprinkled with the colored embossing powder and heat set

These are my two backgrounds after the embossing step

For the next step, I'm using some old book paper, I chose a stamp and stamped directly onto the paper and cut out my image

I also drew my own heart and cut it out, I edged it with black marker

Working with the green card first I found a stamp that I liked that will go behind my butterfly

I used my Faber Castell oil pastel black to edge the stamp

Using my same piece of book page, I cut out a ribbon and edged that with black marker
I also used Tim Holtz chitchat stickers and grabbed a few words that I wanted to use

I went over the words with distress ink old paper so they would look aged. 

I glued my stamp and butterfly onto the card and using a smudging tool and my oil pastel crayon I went around my butterfly with the black, I simply rubbed the tool onto my crayon trapping some color and then using the tool I colored around my butterfly. This gives a soft hue around my image

Lastly, add everything to your card, I also went around my ribbon with the oil pastel just like I did the butterfly.

Here is my finished card

Working with the second card, I took a lot of the same steps
I used Tim's chitchat stickers again, this time I chose some words that were brown colored instead of white

I figured out what stamp and stickers I wanted to use and kind of positioned everything onto my card to see how I wanted to lay everything out

I then used my oil pastel and my tool to go around some of the items in my background

This is my finished second Altered Playing Card

and here are the two cards together

And the entire Deck!

Have fun making your last two cards, I hope you have enjoyed this adventure. I know it has been such fun for me to put out these tutorials each week. Seeing what you all create is the best part of this whole thing! I have loved it!
I know some of you have asked how I am going to store my cards so.....
Next week, I'm going to post a project I did for that purpose, come back next week to check it out
I had promised a give-a-way for those of you that have followed along and attempted to complete this challenge
So one lucky winner will win this prize pack!

In order to win the prize you must have 

1. followed along with the challenge 
2. Attempted to complete or completed the challenge 
3. Displayed my blog button or the challenge button on your blog (if you have a blog)

So just leave a comment to win and I will draw a winner and announce them next week with my display tutorial

Thank you for following along and have a wonderful week!!

Altered Playing Card Challenge Week 8

Hello all and welcome back to week 8 of the Altered Playing Card Challenge, I really hope your all having fun!!

Here are the links to the previous weeks of the challenge

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 
Week 7

and our Facebook page

Facebook Group

and the Pinterest Board link

Pinterest Board

This week it's all about hearts and love
For my first altered card I added color to my background using gelatos and a water brush
(I had previously made a heart by drawing into my gesso)

I simply colored on my color and used the water brush to blend them together. Gelato's are so smooth and creamy and a water brush is all you need to blend them, I sprayed my card with water and then blended using the brush
You can use anything here if you don't have gelatos, paint, sprays, whatever you'd like

Next I used a Donna Downey Stamp and some ink colors that matched my background and simply stamped here and there

I used my Faber-Castell black oil pastel around my heart to make it pop a little more (I like the oil pastels because i can use my finger to blend them out and make the color and edges a little softer)  I then also colored in my heart with a red gelato

I then took a Faber Castell black fine tip pen and wrote my sentiment, you can use whatever black pen you want to I just like these because they write on anything and it comes in a finer tip 

Lastly I edged with the archival ink and added the "love" word

Here is my first finished card - I love that the texture from the gesso is still visible even with the gelato colors and such

For my next card, I went with a really simple but effective background. I used some watercolor paints, I love watercolors but I don't really use them as much as I should
I started with three colors and just put them in these little cups and added some water

 With a paintbrush I brushed the paint across the top of my card, I then added a bit more water and let the paint "drip" down the card face
(again, I had drawn my heart previously)

I added a second color and did the same thing

I added one last color and again the same

Once my card face was dry I used a circle punch to make a black circle and used a Sizzix Bigz die to create my heart out of cardboard
I then used a green Sharpie marker to color my heart green
I also edged my heart with black marker

I wrote the word "LOVE" onto the heart and drew around the mini heart with my white gel pen
This is where I was thinking that I really just like the simplicity of this card and didn't want to do much else with it

I ended up drawing some stitches around the rim of my card and edged with the black archival ink and I thought it looked done!
Here is my second finished card

and the two together

Thanks for coming by once again, I always love to see what you all do during the week so keep the photos and links coming.

I am having surgery on my foot on Wednesday so I might not be able to do my post next week. I am really going to try and get my cards done and posted but If I miss next weeks post I will definitely get back to posting on November 3rd
Thanks for following along everyone!!
CHEERS

Red, White and Beautiful - Artist Trading Block

Hello all, today there is a new post over at The Artist On The Block so make sure to check out all the great inspiration that the design team has created.

There is also a fun challenge over at Eileen Hull's blog, The Art with Heart Challenges run monthly and this month it's all about "Red, White and Beautiful" give us your best red, white and blue creations. I really encourage you to take part in these fun challenges, you can win a great prize package from Eileen and Sizzix and what better way to expand your crafty tools!

I decided to create my Artist Trading Block in the Red, White and Beautiful theme this time and what fun it was!

I didn't want to go with the traditional firework or Americana theme so I went with a "love" theme.

So for starters I created a background using torn tissue paper 

Once that was dry I used Tim's Distress paints to add the blue color

I drew and painted the heart on the front with Faber Castell red Gelatos, water and a paintbrush, I like the look of the gelatos because you can still see some of the background tissue paper through it

The flowers were created with Tim's tattered floral movers and shapers dies and the tissue paper

I picked up bits and pieces of paint with the tissue paper, set aside to dry and then cut the flowers with the dies

(I forgot to photograph sorry but here are some photos of my finished flower)

I accidentally got black paint on this one but I kinda liked it so I left it. :)

I also colored the flower center button with Alcohol inks, they were white to begin with

I had some firecracker red yarn that I glued around my base and whalla!!

Here are some photos

The heart that is on the very top of this ATB was made and sent to me by my wonderful friend Terri, she's awesome! I knew it was perfect for this creations.

Thanks for coming by, I hope you have enjoyed my creation and make sure to check out the Art With Heart challenge over at Eileen's Blog

Have a wonderful day!