Art techniques on cards....blending with graphite pencil

Hi everyone, hope your week is off to a good start.  This week I'll be sharing two posts showing you how to use some art techniques on your cards.  I'll be working with the Mixed Florals Card Kit shown below. 

I'll also be using the fun products from the Mixed Media Kit.  As a special offer, I'm discounting $5 off your order for those who order the Mixed Media Florals Card Kit and the Mixed Media Kit together, while supplies last. 

First off, I'd like to say that I've definitely been doing a lot of experimenting lately.  Trying new things.  I'm sharing the journey with you and hope that you're inspired to maybe try something new too.  I'm not a professional artist by any means, I'm just having fun and sharing my findings along the way.  

First up is a basic card with no artsy techniques in case you just want to make cards using the card kit only.  I just used items from the card kit + some twine, staples, a stamp(old SU!), washi (Freckled Fawn) and enamel dots (My Mind's Eye). I've been using this card layout on lots of my cards lately.  I can layer all the pieces together, stitch at the top and then just adhere to my card front.  The patterned papers in the card kit are from My Mind's Eye.  

Now onto the art techniques.  Today I'll using the Derwent Graphitone water soluble pencil (from the Mixed Media Kit) on two separate projects.  First up I wanted to show how you can draw simple, straight lines to add some interest to projects.  I used a ruler and just two lines across my strip of patterned paper, see top sample.  The bottom strip of paper shows the results when I wet a paint brush with water and gently colored over the lines.  The graphite in the pencil softens out when mixed with water.  You can see the same effect on the tag below.  I've always been a fan of pencil lines so I just love that I found these blendable pencils.  There is no color per say in the pencil, just the graphite look.  

Here's the finished card I made. You can see that I used the pencil on the horizontal strip, the dictionary paper, under the sentiment and on the tag.  A very soft look on this card using just simple, drawn lines.  

Next up I'm going to show you how to use some masking, spray mist and scribbled circles using the Derwent pencil.  Please excuse these work in progress photos.  They were taken in my work room at different times of the day and the lighting gets wonky due to the lack of good, natural lighting.  

First up, I took a piece of the floral patterned paper from the card kit.  I punched some card stock circles to use as masks over the paper.  I started out misting with white spray ink but the effect didn't show up much. 

I mixed up some craft acrylic paint and water in a mini mister.  You get 3 of these in the Mixed Media Kit.  I love using the acrylic in the misters because you get more of an opaque look.  You can see the misting in the photo below.  I used my heat tool to speed up the drying process.  

For the next step I scribbled some circles using the Derwent pencil.  This is a pretty cool look in itself so you could stop right here if you wanted and use this piece on a project. 

I wanted to show you what the scribbled circles looked like when blended with water so I did this additional step, shown below.  It reminds me of vintage wallpaper which is a look I love to see on projects.  To brighten up the insides of the circles I even took some Gesso from the Mixed Media Kit and applied it to the circles using my fingertip. 

Here's a comparison of the original piece of patterned paper on the left and the altered piece of patterned paper on the right.  

Here's my finished project using the altered piece of patterned paper.  The effect is very subtle and soft. I created a pocket card just using a half sheet of 8.5 x 11 cardstock then stitching up the sides.  

For an insert to write a message or possibly add more stamping, I adhered an index card to a piece of plain cardstock then stitched.  The pocket style card would be great to add a gift card for Mother's Day or graduations, etc. 

Okay, those are my two techniques for today.  I hope you try them out. My next post will show the Mixed Floral Card Kit combined with Gesso and modeling paste from the Mixed Media Kit.  Thanks for joining me today!