Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Altered Playing Card Challenges: Week Two

I am participating in an Altered Playing Card challenge on Facebook. The talented and lovely Claudine Criner is the person who is organizing and setting each week's challenge.

The first week was easy. We were just find a deck of playing cards and prepare them by sanding or applying gesso to one side.

Being me, I found wonky playing cards. I went to the local dollar store emporium and bought a deck of cards, only to discover that they originally were discarded casino decks that had been corner punched so they could no longer be used in a casino.

Also being me, I only prepped ten cards, though I will go back and do more. I decided to use gesso and applied the gesso in a variety of ways, which yielded a bunch of different looks. I sponged some gesso on some, applied it thickly to others, scribbled into the gesso for others, and applied thickly to one card, pressed the face of an other card into the gesso, then pulled it apart. That pair are the ones I'm showing today for Week #2, which you can read about HERE.

Essentially, you were supposed to spray your cards with a few colors of ink or paint, a stamped image, and diecuts. I should note that I don't like using sprays, but I went for it and eventhough my OTT light is now speckled and a Rubbermaid container is stained, it wasn't too ghastly. I might even use those sprays again!

Here are my first pair of altered playing cards.


My first card uses SCACD's Nancy's Mech Seahorse


SCACD's Nancy's Mech Seahorse is a digital stamp, that was resized in PhotoElements, printed onto Neenah cardstock using my laser printed, colored with Copic markers, and fussy-cut. The compass and the rivets were coated with several layers of coated with several layers of  Clear Gelly Roll Glaze pen to add glossy dimension and shine. The Seahorse was set aside while I worked on the playing card.

As stated, I applied DecoArt Media White Gesso very thickly to one card, pressed another card into it, and pulled them apart. The cards dried with wonderful textures and patterns on them. I sprayed one of the cards with Vibrant Turquoise, Calypso Teal, London Blue, and Fresh Lime Dylusions sprays. When I was happy with the coverage, I heat set it. I wanted to bring out the cool sea vegetation-ish texture, so I lightly sponged Cactus Green StazOn ink over the the raised bits, which worked just as I wanted. Gotta love that! Then I used the same ink to edge the card.

I wanted to add a sandy sea floor, so I used my palette knife to apply White Media Texture Sand Paste to the bottom of the card. Some watch parts were pressed into the Sand Paste while it was wet. The Sand Paste absorbed some of the colors from the sprays. The bits that stayed whitish were touched up with an Old Paper Distress marker. The last step was to adhere Nancy's Mech Seahorse to the front of the card.

The second card features Stampotique's Moon Girl

I wanted Stampotique's Moon Girl to look ethereal, so Distress markers were applied directly to the rubber. I huffed on the stamp, then stamped the image onto Neenah cardstock. The image was colored more completely with Copic markers. Clear Wink of Stella Glitter pen was used to add glitter to Moon Girl's wings, then she was fussy-cut and set aside. 

The gessoed card was sprayed with Bubblegum Pink, Vibrant Turquoise, and Pure Sunshine Dylusions Sprays. I also sprayed Heirloom Gold Perfect Mist, but I disliked that, so I wiped it off, and resprayed with the same Dylusions Sprays. Much better. The card was heat set.

White vellum was die-cut using cloud dies by Memory Box/Poppy Stamps. . Black cardstock was die-cut using a house die by Memory Box/Poppy Stamps. These were adhered to the card and then Moon Girl was added.

Thanks for visiting today!

I shall enter this into the following challenges:
Crafty Card Crew Challenges: Urban or Steampunk
Punkyou Girl Challenge #16: What Creeps under the Sea
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenges: Rock The Techniques


11 comments:

  1. These are both absolutely gorgeous, Kathi!

    As you know I love altered playing cards. SO fun!

    Not too fannish about spray inks either (so much mess; and I like messes!) but spraying them into fresh wet gesso is always so pretty.

    Love these.

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  2. Great projects thanks for joining in at Punk You Girl

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  3. Saw these on FB, and thought they were really cool! Love all the texture you got on each of them! The bg for the seahorse is just incredible! Love it! Love both images, your coloring and designs! :^)
    Hugs, Penny

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  4. These are gorgeous. Glad you blogged them cos I don't do facebook. Love that seahorse. Great colours. Great texture on the background. Might re-do a couple of mine with that technique. Hugz

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  5. Love there Kathi, I hope to get mine done today too xx

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  6. These are great, do love the seahorse one...Thank you for joining us at Punk You Girl and hoping to see you again soon. Good luck in draw..Hugs Lozzy x

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  7. I don't know which I enjoyed more: your fabulous cards or your witty write-up! I had to laugh at your rejected Casino card situation, but it didn't stop you from triumphing in the end! I really like how these cards turned out! I've done an altered face card or two, but I've never thought of creating such interesting looks with Gesso. You've given me some great inspiration there and I adore the textures you achieved. I'm also glad that you overcame your dislike of spray inks and gave them a whirl because the effects are gorgeous. A stained Rubbermaid container is a small price to pay for gorgeous art! Thank you so much for sharing your techniques with us here at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog!

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  8. Lovely cards thanks for joining us at CCC xx Jan

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  9. Two really lovely ATCs Kathi!! I especially love the second one!

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  10. Fabulous post! Love the altered cards, the steampunk seahorse is great! Thanks for sharing at PunkyouGirl this month! mo xxx

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  11. Fabulous post! Love the altered cards, the steampunk seahorse is great! Thanks for sharing at PunkyouGirl this month! mo xxx

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