Journey Border

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This card was made a year ago. Or a year and a half ago. I really liked this card so I wanted to make a good post about it. Perhaps sell the background digitally. Oh well, i let the dream of a webshop go, as it doesn’t fit my other ideals of less waste and less controbution to waste and posession in this world. I am kind of tired of things revolving around selling things people don’t need, just to make profit to grow bigger and to sell more… I do not want to empower that even more (I know I do by buying things, but hey, I’m trying hard on other areas in my life to be living a sustainable, ecofriendly life!)

Anyway, this wasn’t about the card. Or perhaps it was? In my mind the card was named Journey, as the little dots were making a journey across the card. Like microorganisms travelling. Oh this picture really doesn’t do it justice.

The background was made with the paint and kitchen foil technique, as mentioned here. It didn’t need much more, i didn’t want to cover this background a lot so I just made little dots with perlen pens and marbled those a bit.

The card needed a frame, but not an ordinatry one. It should fit with the journey/stone like feeling. So this was the start:

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Distress ink pumice stone and forest moss through the cell theory stencil of TCW. Then with the marker spritzing / airbrush tool from ranger add the specks to the stones while the mask is still laying down.

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I’m not sure anymore what I did here, but I know it involved clear embossing one layer. Eventually all layers were clear embossed but I can’t remember in which order.

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Which way is up?Daqadoodles140924wo123139

 

Below: After clear embossing the layers, add more distress ink.

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See how the center lights up? I loved this stoney effect of the border! Like an opening in  a strange cave you look into. Or out of.Daqadoodles140924wo124619

I tried this again on another piece of paper.

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Also made a a frame with modeling paste. Looked better on the other ” frame”  card then on the turqoise and violet/purple card.Daqadoodles140924wo121102 Daqadoodles140924wo121110

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So as often is the case, I made a less attention attracting border with distress ink and sponges and distress markers and the airbrush tool.

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Oh the card looks so.. different on the pictures. The dark purple spots look very random (they are), but the focus is on the little microbes and their journey. They change colour while travelling, as they encounter things that change them. Let’s see if I can find a closeup.Daqadoodles141026zo133103CU1

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That doesn’t help either. It’s just one of those cards you have to see in real life. And maybe to you it’s nothing special, to me it was.

Come to think of it… these pictures are taken 24th of September 2014, my niece was still in a coma after a severe accident in June where she suffered a major headinjury. She had had another major surgery two weeks before (a piece of her skull that had been removed in June because of swellings was placed back, so she was ” whole”  again), and I  think I was hoping that her cells were regenerating and filling the gaps. New connections being made. Lost connections being restored or regrown. We still didn’t know wether she would a.) wake up. and b.) if she did, would she be a “vegetbale”? How much of her was still there? My youngest son was 3 months old then, and he was growing. His cells were regenerating, dividing, expanding. I hoped hers  would too.  She did wake up, slowly, and slowly became more conscious of the world around her again. She couldn’t move a thing, could only watch. With extensive training she learned a lot again. Nowadays she’s in an electric wheelchair. The left side of her body still doesn’t function easily, and she hasn’t gotten her speech back yet, but lately she’s making more sound / saying words. We’ve got good hopes that she will speak again without a computer. See here for the Dutch episode of ” Geef om je hersenen”  for the Brainfoundation. From 36:00 there is a story about Vanja, it’s almost the same story as my neece her story, only she has rehabilitated more.

A journey. Through memories and emotions. A journey to healing, full of hope.

 

 

Shelter

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Last entry for the Chocolate Baroque Colour Challenge # 15

 

It started out of that same paper as the previous card.Daqadoodles151019ma223527123

It’s the top left part. At first I had stamped the buddha branches on the top (with 2nd and 3rd generation ink stamping) but it was way to busy, I had added the flowers and white pearldrops then allready too. So what do you do then? Add a coat of gesso on it. I made a bit of a texture in it. First I brushed it straight down, then on the top part of the gesso bit I brushed it like a pointed roof. It reminded me of a shelter. I added some paint which should dry up with a blotty effect, but it was paint on spirits base (not sure how it’s called in english) and takes a long time to dry. It was transparent too, too white. That is when I got out my brushed pewter and silver acryllic paint – added a few drops on the top, some water, and kitchen foil. Let it sit and focus on the other cards.

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The effect when the foil was removed is great. It’s stoney, and the brushstrokes down give it more depth. And guess what, I even added a ribbon! I felt it needed some layering, some softening.

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Oops, messed up the drop of stickles here… was looking for the shiny blingthingies which I never use but had found again and intended to use it for these cards and then when I needed them couldn’t find them…  Not sure if Ill add a sentiment to that card, I don’t think I will.

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I love the contrast on these pictures, especially from the Shelter card, looks like a thunderstorm and rain like this. Love how it turned out.

Now I’ve got some cleaning to do and get to bed (way too late!)

Blue metal sea

A birthday card for an 11 year old boy – what to make? Chocolate Baroque has stamps for that occasion as well, the steampunk sea set is very suitable for boys (of any age).

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A few posts ago I wrote about the technique with kitchen foil, paint and spray, and at that time I made also a blue background with this technique, as you can see here. I didn’t put two pieces of cardstock together for this one though.

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The colours were chosen from the Chocolate Baroque colour challenge #9. This is my first entry for the challenge. (Yup, the ocotopus is going to be another one but that one isn’t ready yet and I might have ruined the scene a bit. I think it looks good the way it is here, not sure if what I did was an improvement. Ah well, not this post.

All colours are incorporated in the background. The fishes are mostly pearly lila colour, together with some watery blue.

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Some more blue in the seahorse, and bundled sage on the letters. Somehow Shaded Lilac and Milled Lavender are difficult for me to recognize, I keep picking the wrong one, they seem to be the same but when I look at the ink lids they are quite different. I think I did use shaded lilac on the letters though. First letter is a steampunk stamp set from Vivalasvegastamps, the other letters and banner are sizzix thinlits dies (tattered banners and some medieval alphabet I think). Daqadoodles001

It’s matted onto white card of which I pianted the edge blue.Daqadoodles150401wo124207014