Alyice on February 20th, 2009

How To Create A Floral Postcard

I’ve discovered that I am not a “winter” person. I do not like the cold. I do not like the snow. I do not like the dark, gray skies. I do not like winter. So when the snow finally melted away this past week, I was ecstatic, to say the least. “Spring is coming! Spring is coming!” shouted my soul.

To honor the idea of spring, I created this floral postcard. It’s filled with color: bright red and blue and green and just shouts, “Winter is over!”

Supplies:

8.5 x 11 paper
cardstock
art sand
paint brushes
acrylic paints
Golden GAC 100
computer program (like: Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements)

To create this floral postcard, follow the instructions below:

Grab five basic colors of acrylic paint, some art sand, and an 11 x 8.5 sheet of paper.
Paint the background a nice shade of light brown and let dry.
Sketch three simple flowers onto the paper.
Fill the flowers in with a base coat of color: blue, green, brown, and yellow.
Let dry.
Grab some sand (the kind you buy at the craft store, not the kind you get at the beach) and sprinkle it around the painting.
Take a clean brush and dip it into Golden GAC 100. Lightly brush it over the sand. The brush will pick up some of the sand; just pat back into place.
Let dry.
Go over flowers with another coat of color.
Scan the image into your computer.
Play with the image in Paint Shop Pro until you get the desired effect. (I played with the contrast feature, added a picture frame, and then messed around with the texture effects.)
Resize the image to 5.6 x 4.25—just the perfect size for a postcard —and use the unsharp mask. (In Paint Shop Pro, click on image, then resize. Next, unselect “lock aspect ratio” so that you can manipulate the size correctly. Then under “print size” insert the correct size.)
Print the postcard on cardstock.

Keep Creating.

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AlyiceEdrich.com
I'm a freelance writer, mixed media artist, SMVA, and the owner of The Dabbling Mum.

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