Making postcards

Oh dear. I do seem to be only posting once a month at the moment. I don't know why because I'm crafting all the time! I started this bog post yesterday but had a struggle to work out how to upload recent photos. Think I've cracked it now. Anyway today's blog post is to show you the stages I went through to create these gorgeous little postcards and tag.  Thankyou for joining me.

I had found a wonderful tutorial on Pinterest by the very talented Birgit Koopsen where she mixed acrylic paint with water to create her own spray paints. I had no idea of the paint to water ratio but plunged straight in. I've watched Leandra Franich do this with Frescos so had a rough idea what to do. I used cheap and cheerful 'Amsterdam' paints and merrily mixed up a variety of paint sprays. This next photo is the first result of spraying merrily, lots of drying in between though to avoid making mud, and spraying through a variety of stencils. Great fun.

I loved every stage of making these masterboards but made myself push on to the next stage! So having dried this off I used a variety of stamps to cover the page in various archival colours. I also drew in some circles with a blue crayon. 

I liked it but I knew it now needed some collage adding to it. This again is a technique Birgit Koopsen uses regularly and I've become addicted to adding collage at various points in an art journal page. It's also a great way to use up the horde of Gelli prints I have. I love making prints but seldom know what to do with them next. Bingo! They all go into collage now! 

Now I needed to make all the different parts one cohesive whole. I've recently started to play with the Brushos that I bought over a year ago! So I mixed 2 or 3 different colours with gel matte medium. A 

tiny shake to a dollop of medium! This made a coloured glaze that I brushed over the page. This 

blends the collaged pieces into the background. A lovely effect. It also acts as a seal to the paints and

stamping underneath, and provides a soft hue over the page.

Finally, I added some more stamping in black archival, and touches of white paint. I didn't want to 

add too much more as I would be able to make final additions once I'd cut them up into postcards. So, that was the next stage. I hate cutting into backgrounds but that is the point of making them! 

Pretty as they are aren't they? But now they need a focal image and some text. Two of the postcards were destined to have some Nancy Baumiller images attached to them. I buy/ download her collage sheets from 'Mischief Circus'. Kate Crane pointed her work out to me. Now I can't get enough of her downloads. These are taken from her 'Hearts Wide Open' series. I then typed out a sentiment for each on an old typewriter. Another idea borrowed from Kate Crane! Thanks Kate! 

In the second pair of postcards, I used a favourite technique that I use over and over again, taught to me by Dina Wakley, although loads of people do it, which is to draw an image (or I used a stencil to draw round designed by Kasia Kyrminska for Crafters Workshop) and paint around it, thus blocking out the majority of the page you've just created. This makes the original background really pop against the dominant colour painted in. It's a brave act though when you've fallen in love with your journal/collage page. But I make myself do it because I love the result even more. Tracy Scott uses several colours which she blends skilfully around the focal image. Leandra does it too. But I'm not terribly good at that yet so I stick to one, dark colour. 

So there you are. Thankyou so much if you stayed with me through the whole, entire post! I love what I've made. I hope you like it too and even better if you use the ideas that I've learned from others to create your own collaged backgrounds. I'd love it if you leave a comment to let me know who 

stopped by!