2016 #1 Icy Cards {by Anneke de Clerck}

 2016 Topic 1: Transparent Art

Hi everyone Anneke here.  

I'm happy to be back here tonight with a blog post about transparent art. I have two cards for you on which I used two interesting transparent mediums: Glass Bead Gel by Golden and Mica Flakes by Finnabair. To embellish the cards I've created a few flowers using a wax paper technique.

I love transparent papers and mediums, they are perfect to use on winter themed projects. The moment I heard about the transparent topic I knew I would make some icy cards. To create these shabby chic cards I've chosen a soft color combination: kraft, light blue, white and silver.

Below I will walk you through the making of the first card. I'll show you how I did the background and some of the embellishments. I've added the second card as extra eye candy. There is a description at the bottom of this post.

Let's get started.

To start I've cut a 4 x 6" (10 x 15 cm) panel out of corrugated cardboard. I randomly applied heavy gesso by Liquitex to the panel with a palette knife. 

After drying I applied Glass Bead Gel by Golden the same way. This gel takes a while to dry, I let it dry overnight.

I diluted some PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic Mermaid with water to color the background. The beautiful light blue color enhances the icy look.

Finally I added some 'Frosted' Mica Flakes by Finnabair. I applied gel medium with a brush and sprinkled the flakes on top. I love the transparent effect of the flakes. At that point the background of the first card was done.

I've made a few embellishments for the cards as well. First I've created flowers. I used an old technique, sandwiched wax crayon shavings in between two sheets of wax paper by ironing the sheets. You can easily find more details on this technique on Pinterest.

After ironing the wax paper I stamped spirals on top with a spiral stamp and Mermaid. For this blogpost I could work with the brand new EEG15 stamp set by Emma Godfrey, a very versatile set! 

After cutting out the 'flowers' I ironed them again, to secure the layers.

I decorated white ribbon by stamping on it with a small stamp from the EEG15 set and Mermaid.

I punched a silver heart out of an old button card. I love to use unusual materials on my cards :)

To put the card together I first adhered the stamped ribbon together with some zigzag ribbon and cord. I sewed some beads in the centre of one spiral flower and arranged two flowers on the card together with some gauze. To further decorate the card I looked for a few silver embellishments in my stash: a button and a metal piece.

I finished the card off with two sculpure flowers by Tim Holtz and a paper clay heart.

For the second card I created a background by applying PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics Chalk, Mermaid, Buff, Blue Oyster and Caribbean Sea to a card panel with a plastic card. I added white squares using Snowflake paint and a stencil (Tim Holtz Layering Stencil Tiles). I stamped on top with stamps from the EEG15 set and the same paints. After drying I added flowers using the JOFY PS009 stencil and Glass Bead Gel.

I finished the card off with corrugated cardboard,  frayed gauze, ribbon, a crumpled wax paper flower and silver thread.

I'm fond of working with Glass Bead Gel because it dries beautifully and transparent when applied in a thin film. As you can see on the second card it looks awesome when used 'raw' and uncolored. But I do like the effect of the light blue paint on top of the Glass Bead Gel on the first card too. The perfect medium to use on shabby chic cards!

For the wax paper technique make sure to work with a medium heat iron, don't use steam and put an piece of kraft paper on top to protect the wax paper and your iron.

Because I had no wax crayons in my stash I used oil pastels, not quite the same. The melting of the shavings wasn't wat it had to be but I'm happy with the result though :)

I love the fragile transparent flowers.

I hope I've inspired you to make some cards, an art journal spread or a canvas with an icy look yourself now. Or why not try the wax paper technique? I would love to see what you come up with.

Have fun creating!

Anneke
http://somefiddlingonthekitchentable.blogspot.be

Gorgeous cards Anneke, they look totally wintery and frosty with your clear, blue and kraft layers!! Fabulous how the glass bead gel worked out through that JOFY stencil! Beautiful, thank you for sharing!

We would love to see how you interpret this Transparent Art topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #1: Transparent Art, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas, particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

Links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Transparent Art link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, January 17th. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.