Some cards from this year...so far

Here are some of the cards I have been making this year, so far.  Above was one for my brother-in-law, using some layering stencils. 

This collaged one was for my colleague at work, celebrating her love of entomology.  I was really pleased with how the collaged beetles turned out.  I had made the papers previously so this really is all my own work.

I added an extra beetle on the back and stamped the gift envelope.

A pretty butterfly...with some white on white flower die cuts behind it which look really effective and add some texture.

A card for my sister-in-law using some slow drawing patterns on the front, the envelope...

...and the inside.

A card for a fox loving friend.  

Collage, stamping and die cuts were used for this one.  She has used the fox tag as a bookmark, I believe.

A card inspired by Alison Bomber (Words and Pictures) who is my latest 'must see' creator on Youtube. I have recently bought several of her beautiful stamp sets and although this flower isn't one of hers, the background is inspired by one of her videos. 

There will no doubt be more cards made in the next six months!
 

Junk Journal January 2024

Last month I took part in Junk Journal January for the first time.  This is organised by Meg from megjournals on Youtube and there is a list of prompts and daily videos from different people showing what they have made. I decided that it would be a good thing to start using some of the paper, digikits, and ephemera I have been collecting and this seemed do-able. Below are some of my favourite pages.

This is 'throwback' so I went for a vintage feeling, making a pretend slide with insects on it.  I made my colleague a birthday card similar to this last year so used some of the digital images I had left over, together with stamps, a postage stamp and some digi labels. 

There was 'eclectic' which was a mix of gel prints, a digikit photo, a die cut flower which I watercoloured, a leaf and a flower I made from last year's art journal, and a label I had inked and stamped.  An eclectic mix indeed, but I like it!!

'Fabric' was a sort of patchwork of scraps with an inked and dried baby wipe used as the focal heart.  

'Ombre' was easy with a watercolour background but I didn't know what I wanted to put on top until I thought about slow drawing so I added these ginkgo leaves, which are so relaxing to draw as they are lots of repeated lines.

'Translucent' was inspired by a piece of gel printed paper. I echoed the brushstroke pattern on a piece of tracing paper to become the translucent element.

Here's what's underneath - music paper, book page, the gel print paper, labels and a digikit camellia.

Finally, here is 'reflect' which I took to be reflecting on the whole Junk Journal January experience.  This page has a piece of paper pad, labels, book pages, ivy from a napkin, a piece of packaging from some bulbs and a digikit photo.  

I made this little journal for the challenge and I really enjoyed filling the small pages. Junk Journal July is also a challenge, so I may join in with that too.

May Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

 

Here is May's ATC, continuing the challenge I set myself for this year - to create an ATC for each month of 2020.  I am enjoying this project very much, using lots of different techniques and media.  I used one of my favourite stamps (by Jane Davenport) which appeared in my art journal and which I knew I would be revisiting.

Here is the art journal page.

Chris suggested using small die cut flowers rather than painted ones, particularly as the card is on a smaller scale.  Luckily, I had just invested in some small flower dies - how fortuitous!)  I painted the flowers in gouache, using bright happy colours.  Leaves were added and then gold dots in the background.  The centres of the flowers have glitter in them and the lady also has glittery hair and ribbons on her dress. The gemstones are citrine, pink dyed shell, amazonite, carnelian, larimar, emerald and aquamarine.  The gemstone for May is emerald, so that is the charm at the bottom.

The back of the card has a lamb image and more flowers, together with the May verse, which mentions lambs.  

I think it is a happy, bright and cheerful card, which makes me smile.