Birthday Card

Birthday Card - July 2013

Materials:
Plain NOT watercolour paper card
Acrylic paint
White gouache
Rubber stamp
Decorative tissue paper and napkins
Old music sheet
Treasure Gold (Renaissance)
Strip of hand dyed silk

Technique:
Working on the front of the card first, I applied an initial rough wash of acrylic paint and allowed it to dry. I then applied layers of cut outs from tissue paper, napkins and torn pieces from an old music sheet as decoupage using the same acrylic wash but slightly thinner.  Once everything was dry I added a some distress detail using a tiny amount of Treasure Gold here and there, applied with my finger. I then printed onto the card using white gouache applied to a rubber stamp, and wrote the message using a white roller-ball pen.  The same techniques were used to decorate inside the card.  Overnight the card was left under heavy books to flatten.  Finally, I used a ruler and sharp blade to cut down the spine and tidy the edges, punched two holes through both sheets, threaded through a piece of complementary silk and tied in a bow.

Lessons learned:
Use a heavier weight paper to avoid bending when wet - perhaps something like 300gsm
Consider using an acrylic medium gel (matte) to apply decoupage so more paint colours can be used
Could seal final image with acrylic wax for a different finish and protective surface
Metal eyelets could be used to finish off fastening.