#001

Most recent ink purchase - love the distress oxides.

I haven't been working with cards for very long.  I've spent way too much money on something that was only meant to be a hobby.  But when I started, I had no idea how much fun it would be, and how many very beautiful and creative things were out there to utilize.

I hope someday that I will get to a point where I feel confident in my skills, so I can maybe profit from what I make.  But I worry that my lack of drawing ability may hold me back.   Also, prior to making cards, I hadn't worked with coloring since middle school - and I can tell you that was a long time ago. But I've been following tutorials so I can learn, and sometimes I like how things come out, and sometimes ... it's a mini-horror show.

Iridescent watercolors

I've recently started playing with watercolors, and that has been a lot of fun.  When I first started, I didn't have watercolor paper, just drawing paper, but it was good for trying out something new.  When I was sharing it on my twitter account, another card maker mentioned how you could take the wrinkles out with a iron set on low.  It worked really well, and I was able to use all the pages that were wrinkled for dies or card backgrounds.

As far as watercolors go, I don't have anything expensive.  Not sure I'm ready to spend $5-$7 a tube for something I'm not very good at using yet.  But I did get a small travel size case of high quality dry inks, and then one of all iridescent watercolor paints that were not as high quality, but still produced some very pretty colors.  That's what  the image to the right is.  I really love how they come out when they're dry.  The opalescent coloring in the palette is really pretty.  I like using them for unicorn cards.

Love making b-day cards

One of my favorite kind of cards to make is birthday cards.  This one I made for my best friend's birthday.  I had never really tried coloring in a stamp before, so this was my first time.  I had used colored pencils for it, and really loved out it turned out.  It's really simple and I enjoyed coloring it.

Obviously I'm not perfect - not even close - and I don't know how to shade properly, but I still really loved how it came out.  Blending and coloring will probably be one of the things I work on the most. I'd like be good at it, or at least better than I am now.

Making cards has really been a great creative outlet.  I'm looking forward to sharing what I've made, and talking about the things I use to make them.