Cards with Faux Metal Flowers

Posted on by

The painting is not going well, the lap top is still temperamental and the weather is changeable – it being spring and all – and I have not posted for ten days!

The desk top is buried under a pile of papers and inks and paints and heavens only knows what and I end up working in that little 10 cm square empty spot in the middle:

Image

Now before continuing with my tale I must just fill you in a little more.   I am an enthusiastic fan of Vivian Keh, whose blog ‘Contadina K’ is peppered with beautiful and inspiring work and who often makes videos to share her talent.  [If you are a card maker and haven’t, you should check her out]

Vivian has been making gorgeous cards [check ’em out here] which kind of inspired me to get out my embossing folders and play around a bit with them – I can’t remember why precisely, but something was kicked off in me and I left her blog and wandered off to the play room and hauled ’em out ……….  I didn’t document the process, but all that work can be seen as the background to what comes next……….

On with the story.

If you are a long time reader of this blog you will know that when things are not going well in the arty-farty part of my life I make flowers.

So, I’ve also been making flowers.

This time I played with water soluble pastels and pastel gliders [which are similar to Faber Castell Gelatos] only with a more affordable price point  🙂   I randomly splotched colours all over some 160gms water colour paper and then spread them about with a very wet paintbrush.

See those chopped up bits of paper lower left of the photo, that’s all that is left of those lovely colourful papers I created.

I die cut as many flower and leaf dies as I could fit onto each piece of paper and got a wildly varied collection of colours and patterns – some look really interesting and pretty:

Image

Others not so much:

Image

Some colour ways just did not sit well with the cards I had already begun to prepare for them – using the embossed backgrounds remember – so I got out the ‘Twinking H20’s’ and started playing around to see what happened.

What happened was that as I layered the different colours I began to get a metallic look.

This was exciting and interesting so I forged ahead and made these:

Image

The card on the right is not finished – it is still waiting to be flowered up, but here you can see one of the embossed backgrounds I’ve been wittering on about.  The other two are already tucked away safely in their cellophane bags, maybe not so very clear, but you get the idea – yes?  And those beautiful backgrounds are really my favourites – more about how they were made a bit later.

Here is the latest card I made, not yet bagged up so let’s have a closer look at it:

Image

I make these cards as durable as I can.  They are made from A4 200gsm card and the inside back is given the same matting format as the front which makes it sturdier and able to support the weight of the card front.  Here is what the inside looks like:

FFCard12

Lots of space to write your message!

Closeups to show the faux metal look:

Image

FFCard11 Metal

I think the above photo shows best the metallic look – the leaves look weighty and see, even the tiny butterfly has a metallic look.

In real life they all  do really and truly look as if they are made from metal  – this morning I actually had a tinge of disappointment when I picked up a metal looking butterfly [made using the smallest Martha Stewart butterfly punch] and it had no weight to it – and I made the darn thing!

Here’s another flower with a copper look to it:

FFCard9

Once the H20’s have dried I run a darker ink around the edges and some raised parts of the flower and leaves, which gives a more finished look to each piece I think.

FFCard10

This card also has my favourite background – remember those first two cards, here is how they were made.  I used two Spellbinders ‘Impressabilities’ – this one called ‘Diamond and Stars’ and the one used at the top of this post called ‘Butterflies’ – as templates and inked through them with three to four different coloured chalk inks.  I think the colours are soft and pretty and they work well –   Yay, successful backgrounds.  🙂

So that’s what I’ve been up to the past week or so – just playing around to see what happens………………

What do you think?

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did 🙂

26 thoughts on “Cards with Faux Metal Flowers”

  1. Those metallic flowers are gorgeous – and I love the butterfly! If only I could turn frustration into something so beautiful!! Big hugs. Xxxx

    Like

  2. It’s remarkable to see how the flowers transform. The metallic effect is quite stunning. I’m not familiar with any of the products or techniques you use and realize I’m really behind the curve. It’s so fun watching you craft. Thanks for sharing the closeups and the details of how you work. I’m enjoying that.

    Beautiful cards!

    Like

  3. You have been busy, I see. They look like metal flowers in these pictures too. My two favorites are the last ones. Great combination of color and patern. Sweet work! 😀

    Like

  4. oh man, your writing style makes me laugh, who new you could create such beauty in a 10 cm spot. I’m always drooling over the die cuts and embossing folders you have. Most, I’ve not seen here yet. Like the embossing folder with the tiny bird on a swirl…who makes that one? I also MUST find the one with written words…now who makes that one? OMGosh, I should just come over and use yours…HA!

    I’m always inspired by the new products you dare to use too. I’ve seen those twinkling H20’s in the shop and had no idea how to use them. That is stunning, what a difference they’ve made. You’re so smart, love the outcome, they totally look like copper and metal. What colours did you use on them? I need to get my butt over to Youtube for some tutorials.

    I also fancy how you’ve finished the insides of your cards, right on, sturdy is better. I dread when you do a bunch of work and then they tip over. I’m totally going to try and swoosh around a bunch of watercolors and die cut too, I’m going to be a copy cat on that one.

    Oh oh, I’m writing a whole flipping novel here, we need to have coffee..HA, oh yet 24+ hour plus plane ride, drat’s !!!! Have a fun weekend hon, see you around xK

    Like

    • I love the sound of that coffee – I think we’d need a whole day and a couple of really good suppliers and a bottle or two of wine ….. drat the long plane ride. Lets keep fingers crossed for the ‘beam me up Scottie’ version of travel 🙂 I love having my daughter come and play with me in my play room – a new play mate would be great too 🙂

      In the meantime don’t get too excited about those embossing folders – the reason I didn’t specifically mention them is that they are ancient and probably no longer available. The faux word one is a cuttlebug folder – from back in the old days when cuttlebug were pretty much the only supplier of dies and folders – well in NZ anyway. The bird one came along a bit later also by cuttlebug I believe.

      I highly recommend the swooshing of all kinds of colour – y type things and then die cutting – it is most satisfying and you get the colour palette you want [mostly] I also purchase old photography books and die cut flowers from their pages which gives a lovely colour mottled effect – glossy pages work a treat….. but you have to get over the ‘nice people don’t rip books up’ moral embargo to do this – once you rip your first page out though you are lost and on your way to book hell. Where you will meet me, surrounded by flowers made from old book pages 🙂 The ‘impressabilities’ by Spellbinders are I believe still available – I purchased mine a year or two ago. I don’t like them for embossing, but they sure make great templates!

      What else – ? Oh yes the twinkly things. I bought mine on the recommendation of my supplier quite a few months back and never really used them until this little venture and have fallen quite in love with them. Mine are in a palette – like water colour paints – there are 12 or 15 colours in the tray and I used three different colours for each metal effect. now that I’m being specific about it – my memory says that I was ordering a couple of Twinking H20’s to try them out and these were recommended instead as being just as good, longer lasting and way cheaper, Omg – they are not H20’s! Blush!

      Ok I’ve just gone and got the palette. It is not branded which is probably why I think of them as H20’s. The bottom of the container has ‘Yasutomu’ etched into it. There are 21 colours in the tray – so I couldn’t even get that right! If you take all this info to your supplier they should be able to help you. I shall probably keep referring to them as H20’s until I find out what they are really called.

      So between us we have written another whole blog post – perhaps titled ‘Craft Supplies and the Vagaries of Memory….’

      Good Night!

      Like

        • LOL, see you in book hell ! You kill me. Maybe Scottie can beam us there…Bahhhahha.

          Ya ya, I see those little paint pots now. Awesome. I like when things are easy to store once opened. OMgosh, I really should finish some of my current ‘Started’ projects b4 buying anything new (LOL). Really, I’m the A.D.D. Queen in the craft room right now. I see so may good ideas and I can’t help wanting to try it too. I’ll keep my eye open for those old folders, they’re having the odd Scrapbook
          garage sale around here. People see their old stuff they’re tired off. You never know.

          Sweet dreams Pauline, I’m finally off to bed as well.

          Like

  6. I love how you make such beautiful flowers out of everyday items. I really like the closeup photo of the copper flower. My lap top is also getting temperamental. I suppose it has nothing to do with the fact that I dropped it 🙂 Annie

    Like

Comments are closed.