Mixed Media Valentines!

Each year when the winter snows fly, I make Valentine's Day cards to give to friends and family.  

 The process always starts with experimentation, ideas, & splashes of brightly colored paint.  I try out a variety of ideas and choose one to make multiple copies of.

This is the final design. The tri-fold card has hearts cut out with an X-acto blade so you can see into each of the interior pages.

Creating Multiples of the Design

Using 12" x 18" pieces of cold pressed watercolor paper, I measured off four-inch strips of the paper and creased it to make it easy to fold the cards after painting.  

I painted the whole paper with the design -- permanent rose watercolor paint and dioxazine purple.  Once the watercolor paint was dry, I added white "snowflakes" in the pink area using white acrylic ink.

Next, I cut each larger sheet of painted paper into three segments (6"X12") and folded each one at the crease marks to make a 4"x 6" card.

I traced & cut a large heart shape from the front page, and a medium heart shape from the middle page.

I painted the final, interior page on all of the cards, beginning with splashes of warm, Azo yellow. I traced a third, smaller heart in the center of that page before painting.

While the yellow paint was still wet, I mixed Alizarin crimson and permanent rose, and filled the rest of the page, letting the colors run together.

I played with splattering paint, too.

Once the paint was dry, I inked in the center heart, and added some finishing touches with a white Posca pen.  I wanted to repeat the white of the snowflakes.

I gave myself the luxury of experimenting with final decorative marks.  I let my intuition lead the way, and discovered that adding wobbly black marks around the purple heart-window set off the white stripes, making them look bolder.

In the center heart, I used an extra-small permanent marker to make playful, vibrant designs.  I loved the result! I discovered that the secret was to slow down and let myself play rather than trying to be perfect.

In fact, I made a mantra of telling myself that wobbly, wonky art is human art.  It's authentic and real, and the antithesis of plastic, AI "creations."  Every time I made a mark in the wrong place, I celebrated my humanness.

I finished up each card by writing the greeting in the inner page, being careful not to let the words show through the heart cut-outs.  

A pencil line traced from a yogurt cup gave me a guide for the words.

I wrote the greeting on the line and set it aside to dry. The last step was erasing the pencil marks.

Now my Valentines are ready to sign & mail!

 Wishing you happy creating and a happy Valentine's Day!

Valentines Postcards

Do you have a stash of interesting papers with colors and images you love?  Would you like to make art with them?  A collage postcard is a quick way to dip your toe into the sea of collage creativity.

Collect a small assortment of papers you like with similar colors.

On a piece of cardstock, begin laying them out, moving the pieces around.

When they start to look interesting -- not perfect!-- glue them down, remembering that you can always paint over, collage over or draw over any parts you like.

Use whatever glue you have on hand --glue sticks, Yes! paste, acrylic matte medium, even Elmer's school glue. An old credit card can help you smooth down bubbly papers after gluing. 

Step back occasionally, and let your intuition (that soft, wee voice within) offer suggestions.

I used Yes! Paste to glue my papers down, then added marks with colored pencils and Posca paint pens.  Use what you have on hand.

If you're concerned about the loose edges of papers getting damaged as they go through the mail system, you can always tuck your creation into an envelope.

Happy Creating!

An Army of Valentines!

This year, I sent out a small fleet of Valentine's cards.  I was inspired by a collection of commercial pop-up cards I saw in the grocery store. I researched how to make box cards, and created a prototype based on the beauty of bare tree limbs branching.

I sketched the first card, and cut out the spaces between branches with an X-Acto knife.

I painted the branches with watercolors.  When the paint had dried, I painted the interior of the card a mix of Permanent Rose, Alizarin Crimson, and Pyrrol Red.

Once I had one card complete, I traced more copies, then cut & painted them as I had done for the first.

Then, I used double-stick tape to close up each box.  You can see the overlap in the photo below on the bottom right of the picture.

The end result was a collection of Valentines, each with their own quirks, but all quite similar.

What would you like to create a series of?

Happy Creating!

Working in a Series: Valentines

I was grocery shopping the other day and spotted a display of beautiful commercial pop-up greeting cards that popped out into a box, like a diorama with layers of art and figures.  They folded shut to fit in an envelope to be mailed easily.  

Inspiration struck!  

At home, I watched YouTube videos on making your own pop up box cards, and I set to work, first sketching out ideas for designs to try.

I chose an envelope size of 5" x 7" and sized the cards so they would fold up and fit in that space.  The front and back of the box =5" x 5"

The sides = 5" x 1.75"

That leaves a tab of 5" x 0.5" to glue down to close the box.

I cut a stack of 5" x 14" pieces of watercolor paper, then measured and creased the folds.

Now I had a pile of paper blanks to try out those ideas from my sketchbook.

I also took walks to generate ideas.  I was struck by the beauty of the bare winter tree limbs against the bold blue sky, and the backdrop of white snow covering the ground.  Those walks inspired this tree & heart design.

As a lover of collage, I rifled through my basket of collage materials, and found artwork from a date calendar to make into a heart-themed diorama.

I found old music sheeting printed with hand-made heart stamps. They fit perfectly with some fluffy feathers of similar colors.

And I put together some of the leftovers to make simpler cards like this one.

Working in a series is a great way to get your creativity flowing.  You can try a variety of ideas, and if one doesn't work, you don't have to keep it. Having many iterations of a theme gives you lots of ways to succeed.

The process of trying out a variety of ideas, color schemes and materials can inspire new ideas.  You may decide to repeat some of your favorite cards.  

I liked the tree limb card so much, I made a bunch of them.

And of course, I had a few cards, not pictured here, that I threw away.

Working in a series can be freeing.  I hope you give it a try!

Happy Creating!