Altered Playing Cards — Week Three

I am participating in an Altered Playing Card challenge on Facebook. The talented and lovely Claudine Criner is the person who is organizing and setting each week's challenge. 

This week one of the cards was to have a Distress inked background, some die-cuts, and some stenciling. 

Here's mine.

My gessoed background hand some striations that I added using the serrated blade of a plastic knife. Whenever I get plastic cutlery, I end up with most of the knives yet, so I've appropriated a bunch of them to use in the craftroommess. I sponged Concord Grape, Chipped Sapphire, and Salty Ocean Distress inks in stripes across the card with Grape at the top and Salty Ocean at the base. I grabbed a paper towel and rubbed from top to bottom to achieve a gradient look. The I heat set the card, which sadly faded my lovely gradient.

I grabbed my Schoolhouse Layering Stencil and sponged Jet Black StazOn ink over it, then immediately cleaned the stencil with Purell®. As a raging germaphobe, I love Purell® and keep a bottle at the ready, which means I have a bottle in my car, in my handbag, and in most rooms of my house.  I have discovered that Purell® is a great way to clean a craft mat, stencils, acrylic blocks, etc. Plus, if it drips on a project, it can leave a cool result. Just sayin'.

Hmm. I digressed, but at least it was somewhat craft related.

A Post-It note was used to mask the top of the card and Cactus Green and Jet Black StazOn ink was sponged onto the bottom of the card.

Black cardstock was die-cut with the Sitting Cat die by Poppy Stamps and the cat was adhered on the "grass". White cardstock was die-cut with a QuicKutz heart die, sponged with Memento ink, and covered with Clear Wink of Stella Glitter pen. Vellum was die-cut with an old QuicKutz bird die, its wings were removed (didn't hurt it a bit), coated with Clear Wink of Stella Glitter pen, and adhered to the back of the heart. The flying heart was adhered to the background to finish the card.

The second card was to receive an alcohol inked background, some die-cuts, some stenciling, some rub-ons, and some stamping.

Here it is!

Eggplant, Denim, and Purple Twilight Alcohol inks were applied to the felt of a blending tool then pounced over the card. It took a few tries to get the coverage and pattern that I liked, but once again, Purell® came to the rescue, removing the first and second tries! See? It IS handy to keep around!

The next step was to die-cut some images to use on the card. A tombstone from Spellbinders' Graveyard Scenes die set was used to die-cut a scrap of 140 lb. Mixed Media cardstock by Strathmore. Black cardstock was die-cut using A Bunch of Bats die by Memory Box. White cardstock was die-cut using my new Skeleton Man die by Ellentina. I colored the skull with Copic markers, added a few cracks to his skull with a Copic Multiliner, and set most of the die-cuts aside.

Since I had so much fun using the Effects Powders Technique, from page 52 of Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities Challenges, I decided to use this technique again on the tombstone, using Weathered Wood and a bit of Old Paper Distress Powders. I also used my beloved Black Soot Distress ink along with Tea Dye and (oddly) Milled Lavender Distress inks on it. Now that the tombstone looked stoned (pun intended), it was set aside too.

The Lightning stamp from SCACD's Nature's Direction rubber stamp set was inked with white Palette ink and stamped across the top of the card. Green cardstock was torn and Jet Black StazOn ink was sponged over "October" from the Life Months stencil by The Crafter's Workshop.

It was time to put the card together! The skeleton was adhered to the back of the tombstone, then the tombstone was adhered to the card. The grass with "October" was placed over the base of the tombstone, the bats were added, and "Happy Halloween" from the Apothecary Remnant Rubs sheet was added to finish the card!

Thank you for visiting today!

These cards will be entered in the following challenges:
• Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #11, sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium
• Simon Says Monday Challenges: Stamp or Stencil