Photoshop Brushes to Enhance Cards

So you know I've already endorsed using digi-stamps for cards and now I have a similar idea!

I love photoshop and I've found there are free brushes to download all over the internet. If you're familiar with photoshop then you'll know you can take a basic black and white image and colour it however you choose. I thought I could stamp one of my decorative brushes in a new file, colour it, then print it and use it the same as a digi-stamp but it would already be coloured.

 

It turned out beautiful! I matted it on a dark blue paper then covered the front of the card with a patterned paper. I found another phrase I liked and added that as well... then went around the rectangle with the sparkle gel pen.

Websites with free photoshop brush downloads

Pixels & Ice Cream - lots of free brushes, patterns, layouts etc.

Obsidian Dawn - you can choose to download the photoshop brushes or the jpg version

Brusheezy

brushesdownload

Positive & Negative Cricut Cuts

I'm trying to use as much of my paper scraps as I can. When I cut something on the cricut, if the negative image can't be used, I save the scraps for future projects. I have a box I throw all my scraps into, so if I need a small piece of paper for a project I check out the box first.

When I cut out this branch I thought the negative part of the paper could be used as is. I jusr trimmed it to fir the card.

As for the phrases I used on the cards, I googled "friend quotes." I dont have any stamps with phrases so I found a bunch I liked and printed them out myself. Similar to the digital stamps, I like doing the phrases on the computer so I can choose the size and font to better fit with my project.

If a card is more serious, like a sympathy card, you could use a fancier font. For a friendship card (like this one) I like using a font that looks more like it was printed by hand.

Watercolour Paints

There is a little craft store near where I live and they have little projects set out near different products. I saw a stamped image done with watercolour paints and thought it looked neat. I bought a pack of 12 Aquacolor crayons and an aqua painter.

The aqua painter is great because you fill the body/handle with water and squeeze it a bit to push more water to the brush end. I need to get a different type of stamping ink that wont run when painted on. For now I stick to using the paints for backgrounds. I have in the past used the paints on an embossed image and it worked great. The raised edges helped keep the colours from mixing. There is specific watercolour paper you can buy. I've used it before but it is quite expensive. I found that using my regular cardstock works fine. The only downfall of the regular cardstock is that if you use a lot of water the paper will curl or warp. I just wait for the card to dry then place a heavy book on it overnight to flatten.

 

The two cards today have painted backgrounds. I tried to mix the colours to create a sunset in the background on both.

I used a digi-stamp coloured with prismacolor markers.

The heart was coloured pink and then I went over it with my sparkle gell pen.

I cut out the island with my cricut.. and of course I added a small amount of glitter to the sunrise on the yellow and orange areas.

As promised yesterday I have a few stores for you to check out for digi-stamps. Most sites offer a few free stamps so you can try it out and see if you like them.

All That Scraps - I love their stamps!

mygrafico

BeccaKay Designs

First card trial

I notice a lot of regular bloggers have a good concept of card layouts. I've just started with card making so I'm still learning and trying things out. I've noticed that with all the craft supplies I have, I dont have much to accessorize with. I also noticed that I like to focus on the main image and once thats done I dont really know what to do with the rest of the space. So over the next few days I'll post my trials!

I coloured this ladybug girl around the time I got the prismacolor markers.
I used my x-acto knife to cut the image out as the markers bled with the cardstock I used. I then went around the edges with a thin black pen.




Here is an example of having lotsa empty space; but I think it looks cute. The dots on either side of the "thank you" are stick on rhinestones.

I thought the saying was too cute..

thought it would be perfect to give to a

girlfriend as a "just because" card.

I dont have a particular brand of paper that I use. Its mostly from paper pads I've gotten on sale or from the paper I had put away from when I used to scrapbook a few years ago (Creative Memories). You may notice a theme throughout my crafting.. I like to spend as little money as possible lol.

The images I use are mostly digi stamps. I do have and enjoy using regular stamps but I see the digital ones as having more benefits:

- They dont take up any space

- Cost less

- Dont use as much ink (saving $ and space)

- Ability to make them whatever size needed

Tomorrow I will post a few links to online stores with great digi stamps