Index Cards with Mixed Media Background and our Collage Fodder

Hi there, Susanne here with a duo of mixed media index card using our fabulous and versatile Sketchy Leaves stamps. For the background I used collage paper combined with softpastels, liquid charcoal, stamps and mark making. You can apply this technique to any kind of mixed media project. It will work perfectly on an art journal page, as a greeting card background and for artist trading cards.

I cut the cards (3.5″ x 5″) from heavy weight watercolor cardboard and glued down some rice papers with a glue stick. To seal everything I covered this with a thin layer of clear gesso. After this was dry I used softpastels combined with water to bring in some color. For some grungyness I used liquid charcoal, too. (If you don’t have any softpastels or the liquid charcoal you can replace these mediums easily with watercolors or pigment powders!) To bring in even more texture I used stamps from our Mix It Up 4 and and Mixed Media Marks 1 sets. I also added some mark making with Neocolors. I inked the edges of the cards with a black stamp pad.

To create the botanical focal images I embossed images from our Sketchy Leaves stamp set to watercolor paper. I colourd them loosely with watercolors and cut them out. I adhered them with wet glue on top of some black thread an a few more paper bits and pieces. The words are from our Mix A Sentiment stamp set.