A Creative Jumpstart - My Homemade Business Cards

Hello my peeps!  Miss me?  No?  Well, do me a favor, humor me & tell me yes, ok?  :-)  

I haven't been very creatively inclined in the last few weeks since I totaled my beloved Outback which, in all honesty, I would have kept for the rest of my life, & had to got through the process of finding a new car.  Now that that's all squared away, I'm trying to get back on track.  As a jump start, I decided that I'd make myself some business cards for next weekend when I travel to The Queen's Ink in Savage, MD to take classes with one of my favorite artists, Finnabair.  I absolutely adore her work - it's so interesting & highly textured, always so much to see.  I cannot wait to absorb everything I can from her.

Now, I could have bought some cards, but first - what am I going to do with 500 cards?  And second - where's the fun in that?  I don't need many & it's a lot more fun & satisfying to make my own.  So, I started with some scraps off of a couple of manila file folders.  

First pass was to stamp the scraps using my Colorbox inks.  I love them for their vibrant & fast drying colors. 

Pretty much a mess right now, right?  Yeah, this is no place to stop & dull, dull, DULL!  Can't be havin' none of that!

Next up - stencils - lots & lots of stencils with lots & lots of paint.  As usual, the only paints I'm using are the Art Alchemy Metallique paints.  I love everything about them - the rich colors, the texture, the sheen.  See how gorgeous they are?

Ok, still not what you'd call a work of art - in fact they pretty much look like a muddled mess.  But a funny think happens when you cut them down.  Take a look...

Far more visually interesting now, right?

That was fun so I thought I'd try again, but started by painting the file folder cut downs with black gesso first.  I actually like these better & I almost didn't want to cut them up.

I think these came out really well.

And for the finale - drum roll, please - TA-DA!

I will grant you that these aren't the most professional looking cards, but I'm happy with them. Each one is unique & making them myself makes them special in a way that having them printed would never have been which means something to me.

So, what do you think?  I'm rather partial to the darker cards, but what about you?