Postcard #1

I'm on night shift tonight so I don't have too much time that I can spend on the internet.  I had tried to get through my e-mails but then I clicked on Facebook and wow! - one hour gone!

I want to show one photo of my first completed postcard for the mixed media postcard swap!  I really enjoyed doing this one because I love the colour orange!  I love its' warmth; I love the fact that it has such warmth without the overpowering nature of its' cousin red.  Indeed, autumn is a favourite season and I never tire of the colours that nature produces when the season begins and ends

I found the image in a piece of mail that my husband receives that was relegated to the recycling bin.  So I grabbed it and cut out the image.  I found a site somewhere on the internet that had a tutorial on "image transfer" using gel medium (it might have been Golden paints actually).  I used that product to smear matte/satin/gloss gel medium on the image.  I applied multiple layers - I think it was a least 6 thin layers or more.  Then I submersed the image in a flat bowel of medium warm water to removed the paper.  Remember you don't want to soften the polymer gel too much.

Once that was done! I painted my postcard and applied the appropriate background image.  I looked around my fabric stash and found the right colour of organza to put over the postcard but under the image transfer.  I squeezed out some glitter glue to ensure that the image was adhered to the card. I finished off the postcard using some scrap-booking foil (I'm not a scrap booker myself but thought it would do the job) that I painted since I don't like the overtly shiny surface.

All of my postcards will have experimental elements to them which may work well and then may not.  The one area that I need to work on with this card is my alignment; the image is slightly crooked and when I realized it, it was too late!   I think that I could have darkened up my tree trunks a bit more too but overall I am happy with the results.

I used:
140 lb watercolour paper (a paper pad I had at home) cut into 4 x 6 cards
recycled magazine imageorganza
gel medium (satin)acrylic paint
acrylic ink
glitter glue
metal foil

So there is my first completed postcard that is finally ready for mailing!!