Christmas Theme Cards with Alcohol Markers
Hello dear reader,
I know Christmas is long gone and we are all happy to put 2020 behind, right? But this time, I’m bringing some of the good memories of 2020 back by showing these two cards. Why are they so special to me? Because these are the ones I made for my daughters, and also, because after years of contemplating it, I finally started to work with alcohol markers. Yes, I’m probably 1 of the 3 card makers who hadn’t tried them yet.
I took one short class and watched a few videos, alcohol makers might seem intimidating but it’s actually not that complicated. I mean, you don’t have to master the technique from the beginning to put it into use. For these projects, I chose this stamp set from Crafting Consortium that I got at my local craft store, but you can also get from Simon Says Stamps
I started by stamping the images on a piece of heavy alcohol marker friendly cardstock, I used Neenah Solar White. For these two images, I used 3 shades of the same colour for the larger areas and 2 for the smaller ones, plus the clear blending marker. Creating layers and blending, working from the lightest to the darkest colour. The first layer with the lightest shade, then a slightly thinner layer on top of the first one with the medium, then adding a final layer of the darkest shade on top of the other two, then blending all of them with the clear marker.
The advantage over the watercolour markers, it’s precisely that there is no need for the water and brush but there is still quite a bit of blending required in order to achieve the shading effect.
Once both images were coloured, I created a simple background by masking the images and doing some ink distressing around them. A bright yellow one for the gnome and a sky and grass scene for the deer.
Finally, I added a little ribbon detail to both of them for extra texture. So, I guess this is the beginning of my alcohol markers adventure. I’m planning to share a short video of the colouring process in a few weeks.
Once again, thanks for stopping by.
Bye for now!
“The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists. As the mother can love the unborn child”
