Wildflower's- An Alice Bonus

I really love Alice in Wonderland, so when a last minute spot opened up for this swap I jumped on it.  Unfortunately the Post Office lost my return set of cards, so I decided to make a bonus Alice card for anybody who would be willing to send me a copy of their card.  

One of the tough things about doing an Alice in Wonderland card is coming up with something fresh and new.  So many of the characters and images have been done by other card makers; therefore, I really wanted to try and pick something that might not have been done before. When I found this quote from the original Disney movie, I knew it would be perfect. 

I am in so many swaps right now and am struggling to pull my cards together, so I needed a relatively easy design for this card. Ranger Alcohol inks are my secret weapon when I am short on time!  They have the ability to make any stamp come alive.  For this card I used four colors of alcohol inks that you might find in nature and I stamped my image on top.  Next, I sprayed a frame layer with Dylusions Ink Spray and glued the layers together with a glue stick.  I really liked the way this card turned out.  I did finish the back; but, due to time constraints I was not able to carve a new Alice stamp for the back.  I recycled one of my stamps from my "What Key" card. 

Delivering Justice

When I saw this image I knew I had to use it for a card, so when I saw the Seven Virtues tracker I knew I had to carve it.  I decided to call the card "Delivering Justice" as Batman is delivering his own brand of Justice to the Joker in a fierce and powerful way. 

I used Tim Holtz Distress markers and a gray Prisma marker to color this card in.  I played around with coloring it quite a bit and settled on two versions that I really liked, so I decided to do both.  The front of the card is a more bold rendition while the back of the card is more streamlined and pared down.  I covered the front of the card in mat Mod Podge which turned out to be a mistake.  Mod Podge is a water based glue and the distress markers are also water based which caused them to bleed a bit.  It did not completely ruin the card; however, it is somewhat noticable.  Lesson learned.

In The Trenches

I created this card for a Mod swap in which you had to use Mod Podge in the construction of the card.  I have always wanted to carve an image with rain, so this was the perfect swap to carve a "rain" image.  

I used water colors to paint this image and added a black mat frame.  A Dymo label maker was used to emboss the word "Valor" on a piece of tape which was then added to the bottom of the card.  Keeping with the rules of the swap I painted the whole card in glossy Mod Podge to add that glistening rain effect to the card.

For the back of the card I layered another piece of paper and stamped the image of a soldier smoking a cigarette to tie the front and back of the card together. 

I'm not the best at watercolors as it is a relatively new technique to me; but, this card provided a great opportunity for me to practice my skills.  If there has been something you have wanted to try or get better at, I want to encourage you to go for it!  The only way to improve is through practice.  You might not be thrilled with your first few attempts; however, if you keep at it you just might master the skill and add another technique to your arsenal to create more fantastic pieces of artwork down the road.