Quick Christmas Cards

Well, they don’t have to be quick, but if you just make the basic ones, I promise that they won’t take long at all.  What do your need?

Some of these lovely intense colour paints

Some of the lovely undyed conservation tissue which is strong enough to take a fair bit of ‘abuse’!

You will also need some glue, I used a Matte Medium, but PVA will do a similar job if it’s watered down a little.  Just be aware that PVA  will also add a plastic type shine which may not be very attractive.  A couple of suitable brushes (see instructions) will also be needed, and some water in a container  Most importantly – some bubble wrap.

Oh, and you’ll need some kitchen roll too, and any other additions you decide to use after reading through.  You also need to be prepared to get a little messy, or wear gloves!

Prepare a work station.  Make sure everything is covered that needs to be.  Once it is ready lie a piece of bubble wrap on top – bubbles down, have ready another piece and place this bubble side UP on top.

Cut your sheet of conservation tissue into 4 quarters.  Put three on one side and one onto the bubbly piece of bubble wrap.

Paint this sheet with the greens from the Kohinoor set.  Make them quite wet and mix them on the palette as you wish.  You will see that the bubble wrap creates marks and textures as you do this.  If you want them to remain leave it situ until it is dry.  Moving it will create areas of blurred texture which is an equally attractive result.

You can mix and match the texure, the more the merrier, it makes for a very interesting finished surface.

The paint is collecting on the bubble wrap underneath!  Carefully remove your painted paper and leave it on one side to dry.  Take a second piece of tissue and take a print from the bubblewrap.  Look!  Two papers from the work of one!  Put it to dry.

Now paint the bubbles with some other colours.  Blue, Purple, Red – you choose, it’s your card.  Quickly take prints from this onto a third piece of paper

.Lots of colours!  Make the most of it!  Keep going until you get the result you want.  Make it as random as possible

If your palette is too wet – take a few prints from that too, do that on any of your papers.  You can get some surprising marks by doing this

You can splash drops of colour on too.  Choose colours that you don’t like!  The odd bit of that can have an interesting effect!

Colour the fourth quarter with a mix of all techniques.  Leave them to dry while you make yourself a cup of tea or coffee.  Drink and enjoy slowly.  You deserve it!

When the papers are dry tear them into strips.  The more ragged they are the better.  The Conservation Tissue is excellent for this – unlike other papers you can control the tear and make the edges just the way you want.  It’s strong when wet too, so the previous steps are easy, and the next few create a really stable surface that is more difficult to achieve with other papers.

Now for the messy bit!

You need a piece of kitchen roll.  This one has a ‘seasonal’ design on it – and that’s just fine!  Plain white will work just as well.

However, I decided to use a piece that was part of the mop-up process.  I left it to dry, now I have just smoothed it out, nothing more is needed.  The bits of colour will add to the finished effect too.

Using the Matte Medium, paint an area of the kitchen paper, and then place a torn strip of tissue on top.  Add more matte medium to seal the surface.  BE WARNED! The medium is not easy to remove from the brush, so don’t use a special one!

Continue to build up the surface, alternating the strips, and adding tiny bits of fabric for texture.  This isn’t obligatory, just using the paper will make an equally attractive surface.

You can add a little sprinkling of sequins too, and if you think they will rub off – sandwich them between the layers.  They won’t be so glittery, but they will still show through the conservation tissue providing you add medium below and above each piece.

Now’s the time to leave it all to dry again.  Why not have another drink?  I don’t recommend anything alcoholic, though, there’s still some work to get through…..

You will be surprised at how strong it is when it is dry.  You can now add some stitching if you like, by hand or machine.  If using the machine, simple straight stitching or programmed stitches look as good as creative free machining – so just do whatever you feel like doing!

Then cut out some shapes

They can be as simple or as complicated as you like, after all, it’s YOUR card!  You can metallic additions, maybe something like RubOns, or metallic ink pads, but as I’d run out I used a little eye shadow instead!  The effect is very subtle, but it works!

Then, all you have to do is attach them to your card.  Glue can be used, or stitch them on.  Put them onto a coloured background;  I’m sure you’ll come up with some wonderful ideas.  Here are some really simple ones.

Add some with writing

Leave them plain

Use a really simple shape!

Play around and have some fun!

Christmas Greetings to you all.

Send me a picture if you make any, and I’ll put them here on the blog.