An easy way to make beautiful hand-made cards...

Hand-painted card for any occasion

Hand-made cards are a beautiful personal touch to any gift or for any occasion. I will show you how easy it can be to make a series of gorgeous, unique cards in three fun steps.

Materials for this project:

• YUPO 11 X 14 inch Watercolour Paper *Note this is very DIFFERENT to normal watercolour paper. It has quite a thick, very smooth and almost shiny finish.
• Schmincke Aero Colour inks 
• Spray bottle of water
• Spray bottle Diggers Isopropyl Alcohol
• Hair dryer
• Mexpy Design Markers (24 basic colours box)
• Fine paint pens (such as Posca brand) in white and black (and other colours if desired)
• Gel pens (such as Uni-ball Signo in assorted colours)
• Canson Coloured Card in assorted colours to match your colour scheme
• glue stick or glue tape runner
• Craft knife or rotary cutting device and cutting mat or paper cutting device
• pencil for marking
• scissors
• ruler, quilting rulers are great
• baby wipes 
• Workable Fixative Spray
• Bone Folder to score nice sharp folds on cards (or back of the handle on a pair of scissors can work)

Stage 1: The first step in this project is to create the beautiful, gorgeous looking backgrounds. You can do two or three different colour schemes at a time and have enough background to make a whole stack of cards.

Take your YUPO paper and wet it with your spray bottle. Add a few drops of ink in two or three colours. Spray with more water and let the colours run together. Use your hairdryer to spread the colours without having to add more water. Here are some backgrounds I have created in this way.

Start with drops of ink on wet paper

Spray more water, move your page to mix the inks, blast with a hair dyer to move the liquid around. Add more water and ink if required.

Using White and Neutral Grey Inks

Look at the beautiful details in these close-ups....

Here I did two at time. The top one is Magenta and Cyan  inks, the bottom  Brown Brazil and Cyan.

Below is a before and after picture showing what happens when you add a spray of Diggers Isopropyl Alcohol to your wet inks. This is one of my favourite processes.

Inks and water spread on YUPO paper

Add a spray of Isopropyl Alcohol

Once you are satisfied with your designs you will need to let them dry for about 24 hours. Don't leave them on top of paper or anything they will stick to as they dry. A craft mat or similar surface is best.

You are then ready to move onto stage two. Firstly spray each of your finished and dry designs with A workable fixative spray and allow to dry. Then divide into six sections. 

In order to get nice straight lines use a craft knife against a ruler or a rotary cutting device rather than scissors. Now you can embellish each piece using your Mexpy Markers, Paint pens and Gel Pens. Of course the backgrounds are beautiful enough to use on their own if you prefer.

My embellished designs.

You will find that you will get lots of weird and wonderful effects with the Mexpy Markers on top of the surface so play with it and enjoy the process. If you do something you don't like you can rub it out with a baby wipe if you do it quick before it dries.

Stage 3: Make your cards.

The fish were drawn free-hand with paint pen then coloured in with Mexpy  Markers.  Then details added with with paint pens and gel pens. I've used a glue tape runner to adhere the design to the folded card leaving a border.

Fairy and Butterflies drawn free-hand. Mount the design on a piece of card trimmed just larger than the design itself. Adhere this to a folded card slightly larger again for this border effect.


Free hand drawing with paint pen coloured in with Mexpy Markers. The card has been trimmed to the exact size so it doesn't have a border.

You don't have to draw free-hand if you are not confident. This design was created with a stencil.  Again Mexpy Markers Gel and Paint Pens are used.

Trim your picture to the shape you want using scissors, then adhere to your card. Fold the card on the straight edge then cut the excess card away with scissors.

Freehand doodles and squiggles with Mexpy markers, Paint pens and Gel pens. Adhered to card and trimmed to the exact size. Unfolded, like a postcard.  

Simple text done with white and black Posca pen. Blue shadow effect with  Mexpy Marker.  Cut design into a fun shape with scissors then angered to a folded card which is also cut into a free-form shape.

Mepxy Max 11th Edition

MEPXY MAX 11TH EDITION

Peonies

BY Ash Chain

Created with Canson Coloured Card 185gsm in Rose Petal and Mepxy Brush Markers

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers to draw. They have so much character and look great in pretty much ANY colour. I desided to try out my mepxys on some of the Canson coloured card, rose petal.

First start off by drawing your design. I use 0.8 and 0.2 art liners.

I start off the colouring with the greens. I don't want to blend the colours in the leafs as I'll be blending the petals a fair bit so want these to stand out. The coloured card takes the colours really well.

Next I use a light pink for the inside of the petals. I use a flicking motion the colour from the base of the inside of the petal out towards the edge. I don't go all the way to the edge as i do like some negative space in the petals. This helps to no make them look flat.

Then I go in with a darker pink for the outside of the petals using the same motion as before. Using the extreme ends of the scale for one particular colour will help create contrast in the drawing.

Finally I go over the edges of the darker pink where the negative space was on the outside of the petals and with a slightly lighter pink to the darker pink. I want to blend these two colours a little bit but not too much.

There you have it folks. Don't be afraid to have negative space in your artwork. Not every inch of the paper has to be covered in ink :) Simplicity is your friend.

Colours used: R32, R35, R24, 00, R20, G28, L24, G07

Easter Card and Challenge ~ Mepxy Markers & Canson with Michelle

  Happy Easter to one and all! :)

 

Are you looking for something for the kids to do this Easter?

What better way to keep them busy than to set them a challenge to design and colour their own eggs and make a card. Heck this is even fun for the adults to do too.

These are super easy to create and so much fun, you can really let the imagination go wild!

I have included a blank egg template that you can print out and create your own designs

as well as the printout I have designed for you and you can also download the coloured version too.

Step 1: To create this fun card and to create your own egg designs all you need to do is draw some egg shapes or download the blank egg template PDF and draw some patterns on them with a black pen.

Download the Blank Egg Template PDF- HERE

Download the Printed Design Template PDF - HERE

Step 2 - Once you have drawn or printed the designs then you can colour them in. I have used the Mepxy Basic Design Markers and the Pastel Brush Markers to colour in these eggs.
The colours I have used on each egg has the codes beside the coloured eggs.

  Step 3 - I have used a white gel pen to add a little more detail to some of the designs.

Download the Coloured PDF - HERE

Step 4 - Now to Create the Card. Cut a piece of the Canson Coloured Card (A4 White 185gsm)

to 7"x8" and then from one end score 2 lines 1" and then 2" and score a line 5" from same end.

Download the Card template PDF - HERE

Step 5 - An easy way to score a straight line is to use the groove in your paper trimmer and a stylus or a retracted pen to run along the groove. Super easy Scored straight line.

Step 6 - Fold the card along the 3 scored lines.

Step 7 - Add the cut out eggs to the front of the first folded peak and also to the back fold. Making sure that the back eggs go up to the top of the card. 

Step 8 - Cut around the bottom and top of the eggs. Making sure some of the top stays attached to the back fold at the top of the eggs.

 

Then you have a fabulous 3D card that stands up and gives the eggs a 3D look.

Now it is your Turn!!!!
We would love to see your fabulous egg creations!!

Make sure you share them with us over at the
Crafty Crusaders Facebook Page!

https://www.facebook.com/craftycrusaders