Here's an example of a quick (for me!), last-minute birthday card for one of my kids' friends. I had to make it for a "tween" boy, so I stuck with browns and added no frills like ribbon to it. I really love the little robots in the "Lots of Bots" stamp set... and this one is my favorite of the group. This card took about 20 minutes to complete - faster than finding my shoes, keys, wallet, driving to the store, staring at cards, checking out, and driving home! Tee hee! Honestly, a big tip on saving time with any card is to find 3-5 "go-to" layouts (sketches) that you can fall back on whenever the need arises... these 3 panel layout cards are quick to put together and always look appealing!
I stamped the birthday robot on watercolor paper in black ink (omitting the "happy birthday human" sentiment), and colored him with various shades of brown SU markers. TIP - only color around the stamped lines, and use a slightly wet aquapainter to "move" the color around to create your lighter colored areas in each section. If you've found that you used too much marker color, use this method to remove the color by "cleaning off" your aquapainter by swiping the bristles on a paper towel. Repeat until you've removed your excess color. This does take a small amount of practice, but I'm sure you'd get the technique down quickly. Just remember to use really good quality watercolor paper like SU offers. It resists the water, moves the color more easily, and prevents pilling of your paper (little balls of paper as it breaks down from the water - very frustrating, so don't go there!). :)
The Really Rust patterned paper comes from the Hostess Level 1 Pattern Pack, and a sheet was cut down into 3 rectangular panels and glued to a Whisper White block. The edges of the white block were distressed using the Cutter Kit and then matted with Really Rust cardstock. This was glued to the Creamy Caramel cardbase. After matting the robot panel a couple times, I popped this up with dimensional popdots.
Stamps: Lots of Bots (pg 82 of the Idea Book & Catalog)
Paper: Creamy Caramel, Really Rust, & Whisper White cardstocks, Pattern Pack DSP III (pg 13), watercolor paper (pg 158)
Ink: black, various SU markers for coloring
Accessories: aquapainter (pg192), cutter kit (pg 191), dimensional popdots
I hope that you enjoy today's post - see you again soon!
2 comments:
This is great! And what a neat idea to keep handy - some "go-to" layouts for quick, easy, endless occasion cards!! Thanks, June!!
June, you are so right, this little guy is just adorable. Love this layout and the colors, super cute!
Post a Comment