Gesso- stop to feel the music

I love gesso. Almost every card I make has it -  sometimes with texture and other just plain.  I love how the color react to having the gesso behind them.   I had this image for a very long time. I stamped it, cut it down so you only feel the emotion of the eyes.  This card has 3 different gesso techniques.  The back ground is not only a raised texture, but also a tinted gesso. After that layer dried I added another thin layer of white and ghosted it with several mini stamps to catch the resin. Then I used gesso that I thinned down, stained with ink and added some eye shadow to get an underneath shimmer (does not show up in the photo). After everything dried I then used a wide paint brush and coated it with wet perfect pearls to give the streaks that make the card feel light.  I added the music tape and coated it all with an acrylic coat.

Thomas the train tracker

My little guy loves trains, trains of all kinds, however, he really loves Thomas the train. When a wonderful friend sent him a Thomas the train stamp I knew I need to make a card with it.  So the tracker was born.

This stamp was carved by FORAYCH.  Awesome carve. 

This is Hiro and Thomas.

Bertie 

All the cards have been framed and hung on his wall.  

Painted owl

I was invited to join the painted owl tracker. I was excited to hand paint my owl. I used water colors on the tree. (The actual carve has a tree wrapped around the owl.)  I used ink blocks to paint the owl and acrylic paint to give a dimension to the eyes. Since every step had to dry individually, I coated each area with liquitex satin varnish after it was dry. Once complete the entire card was coated with liquitex high gloss varnish.