Moo Mania meets the final Altered Playing Cards

I don't really like to combine challenges, but this was just too good to pass up.  I'm trying to finish a few things, and one of them is the

Altered Playing Card Challenge.  This challenge is now completed, and I have moved the above icon from my right sidebar, along with the URL where to find the completed set of APCs, to Previous Collaborations which is located at the top of my home page.

We were asked to decorate our jokers, but

I didn't have any jokers.  So of course, I improvised by going to my huge stash of playing cards.

I definitely didn't want to take the time to gesso these cards, so found a security envelope I thought would fit the bill.  In addition to that, I hoped to use these rollers, a pencil eraser, and a couple of sheets of old dictionary pages I spritzed with my handmade shimmering mists.

The theme this fortnight at Moo Mania and More is flowers. 

And what could be more perfect for my Faux Jokers than flowers.  After all, once the playing cards were covered, who would know, other than you and me, that they were not jokers.

I call this one My Fantasy Garden

and this one Springtime in the Rockies.  Granted, i have no idea what springtime looks like in the Rockies, but I thought these flowers looked like they had grown up in a field at the base of a mountain.

For the APC on the left, I cut dictionary pages into the shape of the flowers.  The centers were two pony beads I melted during April's recycling days.  I used some rick rack gifted me at Christmas by Chris.

For Springtime in the Rockies, I tried to get my rollers to roll lines, but ended up with a bit of a mess.  I dipped a pencil eraser in two colors to make the flowers.

Thanks for joining me at Moo Mania with my Faux Joker flowers and thanks for sticking with me through all these altered playing cards.  For once, I am totally happy with what I created, because these were of my own (and only my own) design.

Altered Playing Cards, Week 27: Embossing and Wrap-up

For this final week with Claudine at Claudine's Art Corner, we were to use embossing powders.  Although I only had about three items Claudine used, I came up with a way to make these cards my own.  I suggest you visit Claudine for the beautiful cards she made, because mine look NOTHING like hers this week.

Before we begin the show and tell portion of this post, I want to let everyone who is interested know that I have nearly finished the sewing, gluing, and adhering part of my friend Kathy's Kings and Queens altered book (AB).  However, I have a TON of pages left over, too many to rip out, so I will need to create a niche, something I said I wouldn't do in this book.    For those of you who took my AB class (those of you new to my blog are free to peruse the lessons that are listed on my right sidebar under the photo of the beautiful Bleubeard), know how I said it was SO MUCH EASIER to create a niche before anything else went in the book.  Since this is the first time I will have created the niche once the book is full, I can assure you, it is already harder than you can possibly imagine once all the other pages are filled.  Even the logistics are different.  Of course, if you don't hear from me for awhile, you know I've glued myself inside that niche and can't get to my computer (grin).

After the niche, I'll be able to decorate and embellish the pages and the covers.   I hope to make and share some of the embellishments beginning April 1, when I start my bEARTHday celebration with 22 days of recycling, reusing, and reducing, leading up to Earth Day.

But I've taken up enough of your time, so let's get to these last two cards.

Here they are, the final two cards in the deck.  All that's left now is the empty container they originally came in.

Claudine told us to use archival ink, but I don't have anything like that.  Instead, I got out an ink pad that has several colors in it.  I also got a dabber I bought several years ago in case I ever used this ink pad with something besides my brayer.  Sad, but true!

Unfortunately, as i was applying the ink, I realized I would have to deal with that wimpy gesso I own.  That's when I

decided to glue on some white printer paper.  Adding paper worked well last week, so why not try it again this week with a different technique.  I never expected the turquoise green to be so dark, and when I tried to remove some of the ink, it didn't help that much.

I chose my embossing powders based on the background colors of the cards, and finally found a pad of VersaMark, which is the only thing I know works with embossing powder.  I'm sure many of you stampers know of other products, but I'm unfamiliar with them.

When I chose the embossing powders, I also grabbed a few rubber stamps I thought I would audition.

I love the messy numbers stamp, first because I LOVE numbers, and second, because you can mis-stamp this one and it still comes out looking good.  I added the last of my red embossing powder that I bought probably eight or so years ago when I was participating in a lot of swaps.

Ironically, I still had lots of the red embossing powder left over to return to the jar.

I decided on a portion of this stamp for my second card, and allowed it to sit on the card while I took a picture.

The nice thing about embossing powder is, once you have added it to the ink, you have plenty of time to apply heat to it.  It's not one of those "gotta be quick as a bunny" events that happen so often when we play with mixed media.  In fact, I put my embossing powder and my stamps away before I heated the powder on these two cards.

I was very happy with these backgrounds.

I'm leaving these two stamps as a surprise, but before you ask where I got them (and I suspect someone would), I got them at a garage sale many years ago for $0.25 (US) for both.  It's also the first time I've ever used them.

I wanted these last two cards to reflect the fact that I found this project to be a challenge from the beginning

to the very end.

The final two cards together: Card on left I added a postage stamp and part of a ticket.  Card on right I added part of the same ticket and three clear acrylic self-stick "bubbles."  I fussy cut both pigs I stamped on colored printer paper.

And now for my wrap-up.  I didn't want to remove these from their "homes," so I decided to show them as they were.

This first set is one side of Weeks One thru Nine.  You can see I tried to show that they are in order from left to right, top to bottom.  I didn't like the white, but couldn't figure out how to remove the writing after I had saved the text.

I decided white was not a good color for showing the week number, so changed it to a color I hoped would be easier to read.  Read these from RIGHT to LEFT, and top to bottom.  They correspond with the same week's card on the reverse side.

Although I named the cards properly when I saved them, I messed up with the numbers when I changed colors.  They should read Week 10, not Week 9.  At least I got Week 18 correct.

I got back on track when I showed the other set of cards for Weeks 10 through 18.  Again, the reverse cards should read right to left, top to bottom.

I got both sides labeled correctly when I scanned and named the last set Weeks 19 through 26.  Read these left to right and top to bottom.

The reverse side with labels showing right to left and top to bottom.  Technically, we gessoed all our cards the first week, but somehow, I didn't bother to count that week.

I guess you can tell I'm keeping these cards in baseball card holders.  These holders also hold ATCs, which is approximately the same size as the playing cards I used.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me through this journey.  Needless to say, I'm glad I participated, but would have liked to have had a few more of the products Claudine had/used, or else had the prompts be a bit more general.  However, I am grateful you visited and joined me on this very, very difficult (for me) APC challenge.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Claudine for all she has done to guide us through these cards, too.  I greatly appreciate her visits and her upbeat posts.   

Thanks for doing this, Claudine.  You put a lot into this project and it shows.  Although it may not have sounded like it at times, I was very glad I participated, because it certainly made me think outside the box, and for that, I'm grateful to you.

Altered Playing Cards, Week 26: Monochromatic

I'm here with Claudine at Claudine's Art Corner for Week 26.  Only one more week after this!  I think I'm going to make it through this challenge.  This week was all about monochromatic,

and for once I will walk you completely through the process of how I made these.  Granted, there were some low spots, and some laughable moments, but in the end, I was really happy with these APCs.

For my first card, I decided to go green.  Not because we had just celebrated St. Patrick's Day, but because I had a lot of green pens I wanted to use.  Supplies include two colors of masking tape, three solvent reinkers, 10 green pens, scissors, a sheet of green printer paper, and my pre-gessoed playing card

I began by placing a single drop of these two solvent inks in a cup.

I added rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl, 91%) and spread the two inks onto the green computer paper.  I then added the third color of solvent ink and more alcohol.  Not sure where all that shimmer came from, but I liked it.

I found the spot I wanted to use from the sheet, glued it to the card, then

cut it out.  I always get perturbed at people who cut up an expensive piece of lovely paper, by using from the center.  I didn't have to worry about this paper, though, since it was not expensive, and I knew I could use the remnants in my scrappy journals.

I drew a line around the card using one of the pens.  Sorry, they have no names on them, and I have no idea where I got them, other than I think they were a gift.

I added a piece of masking tape, then realized I needed to redraw the border.  When I started to take a picture, my camera batteries died.  I would have normally given up, finished the card, then scanned it, and called it good.  Not so this week.  I had more of these rechargeable batteries waiting in the wings (actually the battery charger) and I was on a mission to see these through to the end.

So I was now back on track.

I had only one green ink pad, and it was an old one that was a kid's from Stampin' up.  The ink pad is recessed, so the stamp has be smaller than the pad for it to work properly.  I wondered why they were so cheap when I bought them years ago.  It didn't take me long to find out.   The stamping was a bust, so I put that stamp and ink away and decided I would try

to use one of the green markers.  My friend Krisha of Krisha's Keepsakes told me I could use them if they were water soluble.  So, I crossed my fingers and gave it a try.  Not the best stamping job in the world, but I've never claimed to be a stamper.  And the good news was, the pen worked and didn't damage my stamp.

I had honestly planned to use a bunny on this card, but my brain froze after the stamping fiasco, and I grabbed a gecko stamp instead. I'm not sure how green this looks on your monitor, but it didn't look very green in my craft room.  It sure smelled great, though.

I'm not sure what I thought I could accomplish with this green rub-n-buff, but it didn't work.  Had I not insisted on showing every step along the way, you might never have known I used it.  I was actually trying to cover the mess I made when I stamped the gecko.

I used another of my ink pens to stamp the G.  However, unlike rubber stamps, the foam stamp didn't like the pen ink as well.  Or maybe I didn't huff and puff enough.  Regardless, I had to go over the outline of the G for it to even show up.

To complete the card, I used one of the gelly roll pens I bought last Friday at a deep discount.

For my second card, I decided blue would be my monochromatic color of choice.  Supplies include this lovely blue security envelope, a border punch, blue paint, playing card, pigment ink, and a butterfly stamp.

Glued and cut to size, this playing card was now ready to accept the next step,

which was to run the new ink (I had to remove the protective wrapper, so I knew it was fresh) around the outside of the card.

I painted a portion of the blue paper, and ran it through the border punch.  Sadly, I got it stuck, so it wasn't the best punch job in the world.

I couldn't get the other stamp to show on the paper, so I opted for a different one.  I also stamped the B using the same pigment ink.

This was another of those times I wished I had not stamped on the card.  Nothing showed. 

What to do, what to do?  Clean the stamp and put it away.

That's when I got the original butterfly out again, but this time I stamped it on some of that blue printer paper.  I cut around the butterfly, but can't really call it fussy cutting, since I wasn't too careful with my cut.  For once, I auditioned two pens before I started writing.  I liked the Sharpie better than the Gelly Roll, so used it.

And here is my B stands for blue butterfly card,

along with another look at G stands for green gecko.

Finally, one last look at the two cards together.  All in all, I was quite happy with these monochromatic cards, and loved the challenge prompt this week.

I'm so grateful that so many of you have stuck with me through these last 26 weeks.  It has helped keep me going when I wanted to quit.  But I don't have a whole lot of quit in me, and when I start something, even if I don't have the products or even the wherewithal to make it artsy, I am determined to see it through.  So thanks to all, because next week is the last one!