Art Cards and a Journal Page by Nicole

HELLO ARTISTS! I am so excited to share another guest artist post with you. When I saw the new ArtFoamies a few months ago, I not only knew I wanted the “twig” stamp, but I also knew exactly what I wanted to do with it!

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy sending mail just as much as I love seeing a hand-addressed envelope in my mailbox. However, I just can’t send store-bought cards. I think I’ve created homemade cards most of my life. My cards have evolved from crayons and markers to rubber stamping and now I love sending small works of art. The art becomes a gift, and the recipient can choose to frame or display their card if they want! With my stash getting low and a couple birthdays approaching, I grabbed my ArtFoamies to begin.

To save time, and because it’s just fun, most of my card making sessions include creating multiples of the same card. This time I grabbed six pre-cut 4x6 index cards. I discovered these extra heavy index cards that are archival for ICAD (index card a day) and have been using them to create small works of art ever since. First, I applied two layers of gesso. I like to apply in one direction, let it dry, and then apply in the other direction. I think this helps with a smoother front and even coverage. Next, I ripped book text and ledger pages and secured them to the front of my cards with matte medium.

Once the book text was dry, I applied gesso again. This time, around the edges of the ephemera and other random other places at full strength and watered down. I also splattered it! I love how gesso interacts with old papers. Adding the gesso embeds the text and provides another layer of interest.

After the gesso was dry, I grabbed the “twig” and stamped it with sepia India ink. I used a small gel plate as my stamp pad and palette throughout the entire process.

Once stamped, I watered down the leftover ink to spatter and paint on the cards.

While the sepia ink dried, I also stamped a twig on each envelope for my art cards along with, of course, some splatters.

To help with contrast and add even more interest, I used Payne’s Gray acrylic paint watered down and full strength around the stamped image, and then I stamped the Writer's Block (Small) ArtFoamie also in the Paynes Gray.

For a final layer of interest, I grabbed turquoise paint and the Right Here ArtFoamie and stamped it. For this process, I used a piece of dictionary paper to mask the cards. This paper actually became important in part 2! I also painted a bit of the watered-down turquoise on the cards.

At this point, the centers of the Twig stamp were becoming a little lost, so I filled the insides with gesso. Also, I splattered large drops of gesso on the top of the cards.

To finish off the cards I added a piece of colored card stock behind with some foam squares. Check out the process of making these small works of art in a video here:

https://youtu.be/Je7WSQHVZd8

I am so excited to send these cards. In fact, I already sent two of them! To add a message on the cards, I simply used some washi tape and a piece of printer paper.

However, I can only send 5, because I did not add the blue cardstock to one of the cards!

Since I liked my small works of art so much, I decided to stick one in my art journal! I opened to a burlap page in my Dina Wakley journal, and I played a bit with some of the off-stamp images (you can see me create these in the video above). In the end I decided to grab that dictionary page I used for masking to layer behind my piece of art.

One thing I’ve learned in creating is to stamp off my images, and save any bits of paper or masking paper to use for future projects. These unplanned papers are always the best to create with!

I stuck the dictionary page down, added some more foam Right Here stamped images on the burlap. ArtFoamies stamp so amazingly well on burlap. Then, topped the pages off with some Payne’s Gray and some sepia splatters. The final step was to adhere my art card and then I added a small sticker that said “the last flowers of summer.” The twig image reminded me so much of the brown, tired flowers from summer in my garden.

Check out the Part 2 video to see the simple process of creating a journal page with one of the art cards here:

https://youtu.be/JxQArmQ_ftY

I hope this inspires you to create some small works of art to mail. I’d love to see your creations with your ArtFoamies inspired by my technique. All the supplies are linked in my videos if you’d like to use the same index cards. When you do, tag me on Instagram so I can see your amazing art (@nicolewatsonart).


-Nicole
http://nicolewatsonart.com