heArt Card

My heArt cards for Mother Henna's exchange are in the mail! I thought I'd post a peek at what they look like, and how they were created. The actual size is about 2 inches by 5 inches. My name is on the above for internet purposes only. The card set has my business card, signature, and numbering on back side.

I'd been experimenting with stamping. I couldn't find a "make your own stamp" kit at Michaels, so I started working with foam trays... the kind that meat comes on from the grocery store. I couldn't get the hang of writing letters backwards... they always came out looking awkward. Also, the best colorant used was watercolor markers.

At Michael's I did find craft foam sheets that come in all sizes and colors. I bought one, and decided I could make "stamps" from shapes cut out of the foam.

For the backing I used heavy watercolor type paper, and did a layer of gesso over it to better take the media I'd be using. Then I used Golden gel medium to glue dark blue papers to the backing.

Painting both a foam heart shape I made, and a goddess figure, I painted the papers with the "stamps" in gesso.
I got out my india ink brush pen and colored in the hearts.


Then I got out my acrylics, and colored in the goddess figure, adding white accents.

When everything was dry, I started to experiment with the words and how to decorate the figures.

I decided the best look was to "keep it simple". I glued the text on, then did a line of adhesive below the text. When that was dry, I "poofed" gold glitter onto the line.

Painting Golden Gel medium on the dark blue paper, I poofed purple and turquoise glitters onto it. When that was dry, I used adhesive to "paint" over the heart. Then I poofed red and pink glitters over that. After letting the design "sit" for a couple days, I knew I wanted another red heart in the lower right corner. That was Golden and poof glitter. A day later I used a spray fixative over all of them. A day after that I began cutting them out.

The interesting thing was my thought processes while making these. In one way, it was very soothing, like an artistic mantra done over and over. In another way, it was disconcerting when I heard the gremlins in my head disparaging the work in all sorts of ways.

Regardless of what they said, I like the final outcome.