Summer in the City

I managed to miss last month in the Craft Barn song title challenge so I've tried to be more organised and get it done in plenty of time this month!

This month's song is Summer in the City. I've stuck with my postcard format for this challenge and I seem to be developing a bit of a thing for image transfer!

The background is shaving foam marbling done with alcohol inks in hot colours to go with the theme of the song. Twiggy was the Face of 66, the same year The Lovin' Spoonful had a hit with Summer in the City and I think she'd definitely have been the kind of girl to dance all night. I used one of Andy Skinner's threshold graphics (you can find them all here) and did an image transfer over the background.

The number stamps are already a bit eroded/grungy in style so when they didn't stamp absolutely perfectly first time I decided I liked the way it looked and left it alone. Sadly, the handwritten song title and band name did smudge a little when I added a final coat of satin glaze but I decided they're still legible so I'll grin and bear it - waiting for an image transfer to dry is not my strong point so I didn't want to start again!

Supplies:
Bristol board
Copic reinkers (Cadmium Yellow and Cadmium Orange)
Laser printed image
White acrylic paint
Satin Glaze by DecoArt
Fineline black marker
A & P Number stamps by Ma Vinci's Reliquary (sadly defunct)
Stazon ink (Jet Black)

Thanks for stopping by!

Wonderland

It's Svenja's turn to set the challenge over at Daring Cardmakers - the Disney film of Alice in Wonderland celebrates its birthday today so she'd like us to make cards inspired by wonderland or its beloved characters.

I love the original Tenniel illustrations more than the Disney ones. They're old enough I had a hunch they'd be public domain by now so I decided to go down that route. I found this version of the dodo here and had some fun with an image transfer. If you're new to the world of transfer, this video from Andy Skinner is a good introduction to the technique of making areas opaque.

The background is re-inkers on watercolour paper with water droplets and a few circles stenciled in white pigment ink over the top. I didn't decide to stamp the flourishes until after I'd done the image transfer so those are stamped with Stazon as it had to be something that would be OK on the surface that had been coated with satin glaze.

I've absolutely no idea what I'll do with this card but it was fun to make!

Supplies:

Digital image (laser printed)
Cold press watercolour paper
Tim Holtz Distress inks by Ranger (Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Blueprint Sketch)
Adirondack Pigment ink (Snowcap)
Stazon (Teal)
Vintage Flourish stamp by Indigo Blu
Dymo labeller
Font One dies by Spellbinder
Little Stars die (comes with embossing folder) by Marianne Designs
Wink of Stella pen (clear)
White acrylic paint
Satin Glaze by DecoArt

Thanks for stopping by! Do have a look at the ideas from the DT, some of which go to show you don't necessarily need stamps or other "specific" Alice in Wonderland stash to evoke the story!

Wonderful world

Time for another song title challenge at The Craft Barn and this month's song is "What a Wonderful World". It doesn't always feel very wonderful when we look at the news so this is probably a timely reminder that there really are lots of wonderful things for us to appreciate.

I combined stamping with a laser printer (or photocopy) image transfer technique for my postcard this time.

The world map and compass are stamped around the edge of the card (the shapes are very simple to mask so they all overlap) and then sealed with a satin varnish. Make sure you use a waterproof ink if you do this (ask me how I know!).

I found a vintage handshake image and added tiny text for the lyrics onto one of the hands and the song title around it before printing on a laser printer. Because there's text, it needs to be a mirror image print otherwise your finished text will be backwards - explore your printer settings if necessary! I used acrylic paint (white for the cuffs and sleeves, flesh toned for the hands) on the print out so those bits would be opaque and then sealed with the same varnish.

Once everything had dried, the base got another coat of varnish and while wet the image was burnished onto it and left to dry thoroughly (image transfer is not for you if you're in a hurry!). Dampening the paper and rolling the pulp off to reveal the transferred image has some magic about it!

Louis Armstrong is the only man for me when it comes to this song so I hand wrote his name onto a shirt cuff - as it's an acrylic paint surface there's enough "tooth" to make that feasible.

Stamps:
Journey set by Crafty Secrets (no longer making stamps, they've gone digital only these days)

Paper: kraft

Ink:
Vintage Sepia Versafine by Tsukineko

Other:
Vintage image
Computer and laser printer
White and Desert Sand acrylic paints by DecoArt
Satin Varnish by DecoArt
Black fineline marker

Thanks for stopping by!