Fixing Card Mistakes

The theme of today’s blog post wasn’t intentional. I didn’t exactly expect to mess up one of my cards, let alone both. But I did, and then I fixed them, so that seemed like a linking theme to discuss for them.

Card 1 – Tops In My Book

Chair – GG5, LG4, LG2, LG1, GT1

Wood – EB1

Trousers – BGR4, DP3, DP1, HB1

Top – MG3, PP5, AP3, AP1

Skin – DP3, TN9, GB7, EB1, RB1, FS7

Hair – TN9, TN8, TN7, RB2, RB1

Pages – GB2, Blender

Shadow – IG6, IG2

My first card started out as a one layer card. I stamped the large armchair and reading girl image from Three Room Studio’s I Heart Books stamp set. I then masked it off, and added a towering stack of books using some of the other stamps from the set. All my stamping was done with MFT Black Hybrid ink. I also left the focal image stamp in my MISTI so that I would be able to restamp it later.

With everything stamped out I removed my mask and started on the colouring. I worked on my focal image first, starting with the chair. As I always do I laid the shadows in first, then worked from darkest to lightest. I tend to do my shadowing as if the light is coming from the top right of the image. I chose some light greens for the chair, and used a brown for the edging.

Next I worked on colouring using my Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers. I started with her clothes, going for a purple on the trousers and pink for the top. Purples can be quite difficult, but I’m happy with how this combination came out. I think using the blue grey for the darkest shade worked very nicely.

Moving on to her skin, I always start by putting a layer of the lightest colour all over the areas of skin. I then use a purple as an undertone for the initial layering of shadow on the skin. Once that is down I again work from darkest to lightest.

For the hair I first use the darkest shade to add depth to any of the areas that the hair is overlapping itself. Then I start adding in flicks of colour with that darkest shade, working down through to the lightest and with each colour I extend the flicks somewhat. With hair I find that I often need to repeat the process and get a second layer down before I’m happy with it.

I used Caramel to add shading into the pages of the book, blending it out with my blender pen to keep it light. I then used the same colour to add the shading on the pages of the books in the stack that have them visible. For the covers of the books I reused several of the colours that I’d used on over areas of my image, keeping the shades on the lighter side so that the stack of books would appear to be on the background. I spaced the colours of the books irregularly, but made sure to avoid having two of the same next to eachother. Some of the books I left white, just adding a little grey for shading.

If you were wondering where the mistake on this card was, we’ve arrived at it! I placed the card base back into my MISTI to restamp the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink, made sure the card base was pushed into the corner as it should be, and of course despite my efforts it was misaligned and double-stamped. Ugh. I was very annoyed, and very upset, as I’d been working on the card for quite a while with all the colouring. I had to walk away for a while.

When I returned to salvage the card I decided the best option would be to restamp and colour the image on a snippet of X-Press It Blending Card. I then fussy cut it out, added a couple of layers of card behind for dimension, and adhered it over the mis-stamped image on the card base, which thankfully did a very good job of hiding the mistake.

Finally I needed to add a sentiment. The stamp set I’d used doesn’t have any sentiments (though Three Room Studio does have the One More Chapter stamp set which is full of book- and reading-themed sentiments, which I may have to get at some point!) I checked the Color My Life app to try and find something suitable, and settled on one from Lawn Fawn’s Den Sweet Den.

Challenges:

AAA Cards – Along The Edge

Aud Sentiments Challenge – Anything Goes with a Sentiment

CAS Colours and Sketches – Sketch (I flipped it upside down)

Digi Choosday – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

The House That Stamps Built – Anything Goes

Three Room Studios Challenge – Mood Board (I was inspired by the colours)

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Card 2 – Christmas Trees

My second card is a Christmas card. I made my focal panel by pressing an Altenew Evergreen ink pad directly onto my card base, creating an inky oval. The colour didn’t completely fill in, so I also bought in Forest Glades and dragged it across the white areas to fill them out.

The first mistake with this card was trying to heat emboss on the inky panel when I didn’t have time to wait for it to dry. I used my WOW! Dual Speed heat gun to try and dry the card base, put on plenty of powder tool, inked up my stamps (from Simon Says Stamp’s Gnome For The Holidays) with Versamark ink, and when I added the embossing powder it stuck to everything… I brushed it all off with a soft brush and repeated all the steps – drying, anti-static powdering, stamping, adding embossing powder and, yep, still stuck to everything. New plan.

Instead of the Versamark I inked up the stamps with white pigment ink. I had to stamp a couple of times to get the intensity enough for them to stand out against the green background, but it did work. And then I figured I’d do the same with my sentiment. (Mistake two, incoming.)

I lined the first part of the sentiment overlapping the green panel, and stamped with the white ink. I then inked up the areas of the sentiment that were outside the oval with the Forest Glades and stamped again. This gave a sentiment that was green outside the oval, and white inside the oval. It looked pretty good! Not as bright as I would like, but still nice. I did the same with the “Christmas” part of my sentiment, then decided to use some coloured pencils just to help add some definition to the letters, especially where they overlapped the oval. Somehow I lost track of the lines though and the middle of the R ended up a complete mess.

You can see from the picture how I chose to fix this. Adding a strip to cover up the mistake. That’s a great way to fix things. Cover up, and nobody will know. I cut down a strip of white card then inked it up with my Forest Glades to tie it in with the rest of the design. I then stamped the sentiment with Versafine Onyx Black ink. Despite the previous mistake I decided to add more detail to the letters of “Christmas”. I first used a grey and a white pencil to add shadow and highlights on the letters to make them dimensional. I then switched to black and a brighter white to increase the intensity of the shadows and highlights. Once I was happy with it I adhered the strip onto the card base, covering the messed up sentiment.

The final touch on the Christmas card was a trio of Love From Lizi’s enamel dots. I chose green, keeping my card monochromatic.

Challenges:

Build Your Stash Holiday Cardmakers Hop – Christmas In July

Dare 2B Artzy Challenge – Christmas In July

Kat Scrappiness Challenge – Monochromatic

Tuesday Morning Sketches – Sketch

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I am very happy that I was able to save both my cards despite the mistakes I made on them! I think I like the book card best, though I am pleased with both of them. Which is your favourite? Also, how do you fix your card mistakes? I’d love to hear your tips!

Love,

Charlotte E (Lady Joyful) Email thejoyfulsoulcreates@gmail.com

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