Acrylic Paint on an Acrylic Block; Mothers Hold their Children's Hands

Hello!!!  It's Wanda (Art By Wanda) here today with a couple of cards to share including a tutorial for creating the background color.  It's hard to believe it's March already and as quickly as March has come, May will be here in a flash so it's not too early to think about Mother's Day.  My first card uses a stamp just perfect for that occasion.  

For my background I'm using acrylic paint, specifically Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics (colors - coral, orchid).  I put a small puddle of each color on my craft sheet.

I spread the color using my finger, blending where the colors came together, and making sure it was a large enough area for the acrylic block I wanted to use.

Press the acrylic block into the paint.

Lift the block from the paint, press it well onto your paper (I used white cardstock), and lift the block up from the paper.  Isn't that fabulous!!  How much paint on the block and how fluid the paint is will effect the outcome.  It's a lot of fun to play around making prints and getting all kinds of results.

I then made a second print.  I didn't touch the paint, but sprayed it a bit with water - not too much, just a couple of sprays.  I took the acrylic block that still had the left over paint on it from the first print, pressed it into the paint and did a second print.

Again not touching the left over paint, I sprayed more water onto it.  This time about 5-6 sprays of water, pressed the block into the paint/water, and did a third print.  The paint was much wetter since I used more water letting the paint spread more when I pressed the block onto the cardstock but it still leaves a design when you pull the block from the paper.

I forgot to take individual pictures but made two more prints with the paint I started with.  For these two prints I didn't add any more water but I did spread the paint/water on the craft sheet with my finger just like I did for the first print.  I did not add any more paint or water, just spread what was left on my craft sheet.  Pressed the block in and did a print, #4, spread the paint again with my finger and took a print, #5.  So from those 2 puddles of paint I made 5 prints and, by adding more water,  I could have made even more prints allowing the paint to get lighter as I went.

I used the 5th print for my card.  The quote, Mothers Hold Their Children's Hands, was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink.  The panel was trimmed to leave a smaller white border.  The edges were inked with Versamark and embossed with Queen's Gold embossing powder.

Other details on my card.  In the top left corner of the second layer I put Transfer Gel through the Heart Spray Stencil (currently sold out at both Quietfire and Elizabeth Craft Designs but possibly still available at your local store or on Amazon), allowed the gel to dry completely and then foiled (gold foil) the hearts using a hot laminator.  Once foiled I inked the edges with Distress Ink Abandoned Coral.

The calligraphic Heart was die cut (Calligraphic Elements 1 die set) from a Toner Sheet and then foiled with the gold foil using a hot laminator.

I wrapped the main panel with gold fiber, attached the heart as shown, and tied a bow around the left edge of the heart.

I couldn't resist making a second card.  I used the panel from the 4th block printing for this card.  All the stamps are from the Where Flowers Bloom Collection (at Quietfire Design or Elizabeth Craft Designs) and were stamped with Archival Ink Jet Black.  I masked off the bottom of the panel while stamping the various stems.  I stitched around the panel.  I wish I had used a different stitch as the corners just didn't want to come out right but I still like it.  I wrapped the panel with washi tape and then a metallic green fiber using the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to hold the fiber on.  "Moments" (at Quietfire Design or Elizabeth Craft Designs) was die cut from the 3rd block printing.

I hope you've enjoyed today's post!!!  Have a wonderful week!!

Hugs, Wanda