Happy Valentine's Day!

Lately I've been creating some mixed media Valentine's Day cards to send off to Cards For Kindness. Here are a few of my latest designs... I think they came out pretty cute!

All my cards are A2 size (4.25"x5.50") because that's what Cards For Kindness prefers. I usually start out with a white cardstock base and add another cardstock layer (3.75"x5.0") on top of that one using double-sided tape to prevent my cards from warping. This gives me a nice white border around my design. From there, anything goes! 

I like to use my own original illustrations on my cards. I draw the designs on heavy white cardstock and ink them with Micron pens. Then I paint them with acrylic paints and add details to my illustrations with colored pencils (I like Prismacolor pencils the best!). Next I "fussy cut" each design and adhere them to the card base using a UHU glue stick. Sometimes I add Modge Podge Sparkle to my lettering or other small parts of the design, which gives the card a nice glittery finish. I've even been experimenting with sewing on my cards with my sewing machine!

 

Cards For Kindness prefers that all the cards they receive are left blank on the inside... but sometimes I just can't help myself, so I like to add a cute border and a tiny handpainted embellishment on the inside of the card, just for fun! I also add a tiny colorful punched paper heart of the back of the card. So far I haven't been signing my cards... but I think it's OK to initial them on the back if you'd like.

My hope is that my silly designs will bring a smile to someone's day! Cards For Kindness sends cards to all kinds of different organizations... from hospitals to Ronald McDonald House charities to nursing homes, and everything in between! If you'd like to see a list of Cards For Kindness' partner organizations, you can find it HERE.

Wishing you a very Happy Valentine's Day wherever you are! 

XOXO

 

Hello From Ocacroke Island!

 

How is it August already? The summer has both slowly crept along and quickly flown by!... slow because it's been a super HOT summer (global warming anyone?) and fast because I've only just blinked and May has turned into August. But maybe that's the way most summers feel to me!

Memorial Day week we headed as a family to Ocacroke Island, which is just off the North Carolina coast. To get to Ocacroke, you have to take a ferry... and our ferry ride lasted 2 1/2 hours, just enough time to detach from "normal life" and shift into "island mode." I love Ocacroke! The town itself is very walkable... or if you'd prefer, you can rent a golf cart of bike. It has long stretches of unspoiled sandy beach where you can walk without seeing many other beach goers... just you, the vast ocean, the wind and salt air, lots of seashells, driftwood, seagulls and sandpipers. Perfect!

Unlike last year's Ocacroke vacation, this time we had LOTS of rainy days too. And so we explored some of my favorite little shops... Village Craftsmen (a great destination for pottery!), Over The Moon (my favorite shop for quirky, colorful gifts), and Books To Be Red (because you can't go to the beach without a fun book to read!).

I also brought a personal project along with me in case of rain. I'd been wanting to learn how to crochet granny squares, so before I left home, I found a YouTube video with simple instructions on how to crochet granny squares (without them coming out wonky!) I happily filled a few rainy afternoons by surrounding myself with colorful yarns and crocheting to my heart's content!

I hope you've had a chance to do a little adventuring this summer!... and that you've also had the opportunity for some fun creativity too!

** Just a little note about the artwork in this post. It came from a mixed media card that I created this summer for Cards For Kindness. I used white cardstock, my own illustrations, colored textured cardstock, Micron pens and acrylic paint. The lighthouse was the design on the outside of the card and the green sailboat below was the design on the inside of the card. I think it came out super cute!

 

Making Mixed Media Scripture Cards

The first card I made

A while back, as I was beginning to learn more about mixed media art, I began watching Youtube videos (have you done that too?... there's a wealth of art instruction over there!)... and I stumbled upon a series of videos by mixed media artist Stacy Spangler. Stacy is a Christian artist like me, and one of the things she's done over the years is create art cards with her favorite Bible verses on them. Well, I loved that idea and decided to try my hand at creating scripture cards in my own style.

I decided to use the 9x12 inch 100lb Strathmore Bristol paper that I had on hand for my card backgrounds, since it's nice and sturdy. Then I took an old gift card and "scraped" two or three coordinating colors of acrylic paint over the entire 9x12 sheet. Scraped paint dries very quickly, so once it was dry, I cut the larger sheet into A2 sized cards (4.25"x5.5"). You could cut your cards any size that you like!... I just wanted mine to be on the bigger side!  Each individual card then had a different design, but they all coordinated with each other since they shared the same colors. 

 

The second card I made

At that time, I was also experimenting with some intuitive painting... so I added another layer of dots, dashes, squiggly lines and other marks with acrylic paint on top of my cards. (More is better, right?). I loved the way this looked!... Doing this made each card completely unique.

Next, I took each card to my sewing machine and did a zig-zag stitch around the border of each card. I like using white thread, since it blends into the background, but you could use a colorful or contrasting thread if you like that look better.

In her videos, Stacy writes out the words of her scripture verse on cardstock and then cuts them out individually... but that felt a little bit too "fiddly" to me. So I printed the words of my verse in a random "block" with my micron pen and cut around them, adding a border with pen to make them stand out more. You could definitely type or stamp out your words, but I like using my own imperfect hand lettering instead.

Finally, I hand painted embellishments for each card (mine mostly have a nature theme), cut them out, and used my handy UHU glue stick to adhere them. On the first card above, I also added a button from my stash and adhered it with Elmer's Glue. I decided to add a colorful tab with the scripture verse at the top of each card using a little tab I cut from my hand painted paper. On the first card, I added a few stitches with embroidery thread to the tab, and on the second card, I cut a small piece of painted paper for decoration.

I really had fun making these mixed media cards and look forward to making many more! Thanks for the great idea Stacy!!

If using a Bible verse is just not your cup of tea, you could totally create cards like this using favorite quotes or inspiring words... whatever your heart desires! I hope you'll try to make some mixed media cards of your own!

Happy Creating!!

 

You can find Stacy Spangler's Youtube videos with her instructions about how to make these mixed media cards here:

Video #1

Video #2

Video #3

 

** Just a little tip!... I found that my painted cards tended to warp as they dried, but placing them overnight under some heavy books really helped to flatten them out!