Altered Playing Cards for Finnabair

 

Hello friends,

 

When you don’t have enough time or energy for a large-scale crafting project, but still Want to Create Something, a quick, light, and easy is the way to go. Here is one idea that is easily altered for your own purposes: altered playing cards. You can make tags, tiny greeting cards, or, like I did, a mini art journal that can be used as a herbarium, a journal, a memory keeper, a swatch booklet... All you need is some playing cards, leftover papers that might or might not be already on your desk, a cup of coffee and fifteen minutes precious me-time.

 

Here's the how.

 

Take a few playing cards, some vintage papers, or other papers you want to cover your playing cards with, some prints or stickers or whatever you want to decorate your altered cards with, and maybe, if you are a lace hoarder like I am, some bits and bobs of those, too. You’ll also need white Heavy Gesso and Soft Matte Gel, and if you like vintage style, Impasto paints Pitch Black, and Dark Chocolate. Clear Gesso and Snow White Impasto paint are optional.

 

First, choose the paper you are going to cover the playing cards with. Add a layer of Soft Matte Gel onto your playing card, press the paper on top, cut the edges, and add another layer of Soft Matte Gel to seal the surface. Let dry. Repeat from both sides, as long as you have playing cards to do so. 

 

 

If you like to create a mini background collage, use scraps of papers, and attach them with Soft Matte Gel, and let dry. Make a hole onto the corner (a mini flip journal), on top (a tag), or two on the edge (a proper mini art journal), and add a hole strengthener, if you want and have the tool for it.

 

Whitewash the surface with white Heavy Gesso and let dry. If you want vintage look, mix some black and brown Impasto paint, and paint the edges with very watery brush, and let dry.

 

Now you have background for decorating the altered playing cards the way you like.

 

I did some different kind of examples for you. 

 

 

Using pressed flowers: Add one layer of ordinary tissue paper on top of the background collage with Soft Matte Gel, let dry, and paint over with white gesso. Add Soft Matte Gel, press your flower on top, add Soft Matte Gel gently over the pressed flower, and press tissue paper on top. Let dry. Use either Soft Matte Gel or Clear Gesso to seal the surface and add just a hint of black-brown paint mix onto the card.

 

Using prints: Glue your print and seal with either Soft Matte Gel or Clear Gesso. Let dry. Highlight the edges with black-brown paint mix, add some splashes of white paint.

 

Using fabrics: onto your background collage, glue or staple layers of fabric and lace. I started with attaching botanically dyed cheese cloth with Soft Matte Gel, and glued fabric and lace on top, and as a finishing touch, added a vintage button with silk ribbon sewn through it.

 

 

 Attach the cards with either silk ribbon or a metal ring, and it’s done.

 

Link to the video of the process here: https://youtu.be/3KNNaEsS2Hs

 

Wishing you all things gentle and beautiful,

Emilia

 

MATERIALS USED:

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-clear

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-soft-matte-gel

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-snow-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-pitch-black

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-dark-chocolate

 

 

 

 

 

Art Daily Cafe June 2022

 

Hello friends,

 

For a person loving books and creating journals, this month’s theme was absolute treat. Only, it was nearly impossible to choose one among millions of ideas! In the end, I decided to go with a sea themed project. This way I could combine treasures from our summer travels and an over hundred years old book about sea creatures from Helsinki University that I had started to work with for another project but found out the pages were too fragile.

 

 

I had already taken out most of the pages from the book, and there were only maybe 1/3 left, so this was a quick project to create. (If you want to do a similar project, take most of the pages out, and leave only signature pages. This way your book should not fall apart.) Next step was to rip the pages horizontally. I opened the book from the middle and starting from the lower part of the pages I ripped the pages, layer by larger, making sure each layer was slightly wider than the previous one. Then I crumbled and ripped and twisted the layers to look a bit like very vintage paper waves and added some heavy Body Gel here and there among the page layers. It didn’t need much, as the crumbled layers held themselves quite easily, especially after I primed them with white Heavy Gesso.

 

 

Making sure each page and corner, everything exposed to later paint layers, were primed with white or clear gesso, I added Heavy Body Gel in places the pages were still loose, and let everything dry.

 

 

Next step was to add seashells and driftwood onto the paper nooks with Heavy Body Gel, and mixture of Mini Art Stones and Mega Art Stones (and attached with Heavy Body Gel) between them and the paper layers, to create sand and sea foam effect. I also added some buttons to give a nice round effect to contrast all the horizontal and vertical lines of the book. After letting everything dry, I added a layer of Soft Matte Gel on top of the art stones to make sure they will stay where they should, when I add paint.

 

 

I did not use much paint, as the vintage book itself had such a lovely beige colour, so I only mixed some Dark Chocolate and Pitch Black Impasto and added some watery shadowing into the paper edges, and after it was completely dry, added another layer with Manor Blue and Snow White Impastos on top, and to give a bit lighter tone of brown, a drop of Liquid Acrylic Burnt Sienna here and there. It needed some highlighting, so I run a very thin lines of Sparks Ancient Coin paint along the page edges.

 

 

 

The next day, when I was certain everything was completely dry, I added some waxes as a finishing touch. I am yet to discover a project Vintage Silk wax does not rise to a next level. I love how it turns any project into a gentler version of itself. And it did the trick this time, too, a light shimmer, a whisper of sunlight, a thread of hope. I also added some White Pearl to imitate glistening sea, and matte wax Old White as contrast.

 

I thought about adding some text (or some drawn seagulls) on the upper part of the book but decided against it. Sometimes it is fun to leave the imagination fly free and space for your own thoughts to emerge.  

 

 

This project was almost quicker to create than to write this, so don’t be intimidated by the length of my writing; it’s easy, it’s fun, and you cannot go wrong with an old book and some summer treasures!

 

Wishing, as always, all things gentle and beautiful,

Emilia

 

MATERIALS USED:

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-clear

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-soft-matte-gel

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-body-gel

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-ingredients-art-stones-mini

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-ingredients-mega-art-stones

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-pitch-black

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-dark-chocolate

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-snow-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-manor-blue

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-liquid-acrylic-burnt-sienna

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-metallique-ancient-coin

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-metallique-wax-white-pearl

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-opal-magic-wax-vintage-silk

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-matte-wax-old-white

 

 

Altered Playing Cards for Finnabair

 

Hello friends,

 

When you don’t have enough time or energy for a large-scale crafting project, but still Want to Create Something, a quick, light, and easy is the way to go. Here is one idea that is easily altered for your own purposes: altered playing cards. You can make tags, tiny greeting cards, or, like I did, a mini art journal that can be used as a herbarium, a journal, a memory keeper, a swatch booklet... All you need is some playing cards, leftover papers that might or might not be already on your desk, a cup of coffee and fifteen minutes precious me-time.

 

 

Here's the how.

 

Take a few playing cards, some vintage papers, or other papers you want to cover your playing cards with, some prints or stickers or whatever you want to decorate your altered cards with, and maybe, if you are a lace hoarder like I am, some bits and bobs of those, too. You’ll also need white Heavy Gesso and Soft Matte Gel, and if you like vintage style, Impasto paints Pitch Black, and Dark Chocolate. Clear Gesso and Snow White Impasto paint are optional.

 

 

First, choose the paper you are going to cover the playing cards with. Add a layer of Soft Matte Gel onto your playing card, press the paper on top, cut the edges, and add another layer of Soft Matte Gel to seal the surface. Let dry. Repeat from both sides, as long as you have playing cards to do so.

 

If you like to create a mini background collage, use scraps of papers, and attach them with Soft Matte Gel, and let dry. Make a hole onto the corner (a mini flip journal), on top (a tag), or two on the edge (a proper mini art journal), and add a hole strengthener, if you want and have the tool for it.

 

 

 

Whitewash the surface with white Heavy Gesso and let dry. If you want vintage look, mix some black and brown Impasto paint, and paint the edges with very watery brush, and let dry.

 

Now you have background for decorating the altered playing cards the way you like.

 

I did some different kind of examples for you.

 

Using pressed flowers: Add one layer of ordinary tissue paper on top of the background collage with Soft Matte Gel, let dry, and paint over with white gesso. Add Soft Matte Gel, press your flower on top, add Soft Matte Gel gently over the pressed flower, and press tissue paper on top. Let dry. Use either Soft Matte Gel or Clear Gesso to seal the surface and add just a hint of black-brown paint mix onto the card.

 

 

Using prints: Glue your print and seal with either Soft Matte Gel or Clear Gesso. Let dry. Highlight the edges with black-brown paint mix, add some splashes of white paint.

 

Using fabrics: onto your background collage, glue or staple layers of fabric and lace. I started with attaching botanically dyed cheese cloth with Soft Matte Gel, and glued fabric and lace on top, and as a finishing touch, added a vintage button with silk ribbon sewn through it.

 

 Attach the cards with either silk ribbon or a metal ring, and it’s done.

 

Link to the video of the process here:  https://youtu.be/3KNNaEsS2Hs

 

Wishing you all things gentle and beautiful,

Emilia

 

MATERIALS USED:

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-clear

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-soft-matte-gel

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-snow-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-pitch-black

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-dark-chocolate