Mission: Joy

I participated in iHanna's art postcard swap and thought I would share a couple of new techniques I recently learned and now love.

For the swap we were to make 10 cards. My normal way of going about things would be to make 10 different cards, totally stressing over the deadline and struggling at the end to come up with one more idea. Well. This girl is getting a little smarter. I decided to make all ten cards the same basic design and just play with color ... allowing the restrictions to push me to experiment more.

So here are the steps. (And I am also proud of myself for thinking to document the process ... although it isn't complicated at all and the color is pretty sickly in these photos.)

I used masking tape ripped into small pieces to cover the surface of a postcard. I first masked all the edges and then filled in the center.






Using a dry brush, I applied a thick coat of acrylic paint over the masking tape and let it dry.






I then added a second color and used a baby wipe (or paper towel) to smear and blot up the paint to reveal the color beneath.






Here's where it got fun! I had ordered some mehndi stencils online and decided to use the hand one. I followed this video for tips. (I trimmed a cheap kids brush so as to have a flat, thick brush to "tamp" the paint over the stencil.) The brush has to be dry, so I divided my cards up and picked one color to use on 3 or 4 of them, knowing I would have to wait awhile after cleaning my brush and stencil before I could tackle another batch.






Once dry, I used water soluble oil pastels to accent the edges and used stamps dipped in acrylic paint for the letter and small flower in the center of the palms. On the back of each card, I glued information about Joy Warriors, a picture of me and Cowgirl and this website. Now my cards and invitations to join Mission:Joy are traveling to recipients all over the world! Half of my cards went to Europe and Canada.

I think this may become the official Joy Warrior logo (or some version of it) ... what do you
think?






And yes, I am just realizing the theme of hands continues ...