Wednesday 4 June 2014

We love Popcorn! - For him and for her

Hi, Amanda here again, this time with masculine and feminine versions of a design using images from the Popcorn bear range of stamps.  Both feature frames made from the same striped paper, and layered backgrounds using alcohol inks and watercolours.  I hope you like them!


Between them, the Popcorn stamps include greetings for most occasions, but I've made the feminine version up as an 'any occasion' card - I like to have a stock of cards without greetings, ready to personalise when I need them.

Note: The Popcorn bear stamps are sold unmounted and uncut, so the first time you use them you need to cut out all the stamps.  Leave a gap of a couple of millimetres around each image when you do this, or you'll find it hard to get a clean image.  You don't have to mount the stamps before use, but it's more convenient if you do.  I used U-mount - simply stick to the stickiest side and cut round.


Once my stamps were mounted, I started each project by stamping the main image in black archival ink and colouring with watercolour pencils.


I blended the pencil using a wet paintbrush and cut out, then made a frame on an aperture card using striped paper from the English Garden stack, cutting the corners diagonally like this:


I use a pokey tool to mark where to cut when mitring corners like this, as it's more accurate than a pencil, and can mark both of the mating edges at once. 

Next, I made a three layer background for the image.  The top layer is acetate, onto which I 'painted' a grassy hill and blue sky using alcohol inks/mixative.  To get the shape of the hill I cut a piece of scrap acetate into two pieces and used each half of this as a mask.  For the sky, I randomly dotted denim alcohol ink and pearl mixative onto an applicator and added blending solution:


I applied this to the acetate by first dabbing, then streaking, in 2 or 3 layers to build up the colour. 


For the hill colour, I randomly dotted two colours of green alcohol ink onto the applicator, added blending solution and then dabbed onto the acetate, again building up layers.  Here's the finished acetate layer:


I fixed the acetate to the aperture card using double sided tape, then fixed a sheet of white vellum behind it.  The vellum adds depth to the overall image, by making the back layer look more distant.

For the back layer  I painted rough hills onto white card using watercolour pencils - a light hill the same as that on the acetate, and two dark ones visible above.  The distant hills need to be dark as they'll have part of the sky layer over them - the result looks like cloud shadows and mistiness.


Finally, I stuck the aperture pocket closed, then stuck Popcorn into place.  I stamped a few extra flowers by part inking the stamp, and cut out.  To give the flowers some shape, I placed them on a soft mouse mat and rubbed the centres with the rounded end of a pen before sticking them into place.  A little dimensional paint in the flower centres finished the card off.


I made the masculine card in the same way, but omitted the vellum layer, so show the difference.  I also rearranged the elements of the main image in the stamp set.  Here's what the original image looked like when stamped and coloured:


I also added a little section of die cut fencing, distressed with Vintage Photo distress ink, to give the idea that Popcorn is in his garden.


Thanks for stopping by, happy crafting!




1 comment:

  1. Two fab cards, the Popcorn Bear stamps are quite cute, beautiful colouring:-) x

    ReplyDelete