Painting your fabricated UK style Birthday Cards - A Beginners Guidebook

To succeed in fabric painting for your UK birthday cards, it is vital that you commence by getting the obligatory apparatus to complete the job.

Essential Apparatus

Fabric Paint - Are able to be used directly out of the container it is in. Thick colors are more suitable for painting on dark or light fabric, while applying paint to light fabrics, transparent colours must be applied, which in turn may be adhered to any preference of colored blank birthday cards. Colors can be mixed throughout ranges. Test the shimmer colours for exceptionally spectacular effects to your birthday cards or volume, which expands the heat.

Marker Pens for fabric - Are able to be used straight on fabric, they achieve a different outcome to that of paint, which is usually thicker and more intense.
Brush - Brushes, rollers or rubber-stamps can be used in order to apply fabric paint.
Fabric or fabric material
Hand iron
Paint tray
Blank Cards

Method:

There are quite a few practices for painting onto fabric. A few are more prevalent than others, we define them now.

3 Dimensional painting on fabric - Decide on your paint colours, position a sheet of card in between the material layers to stop it dripping through and apply paint directly from the container using it in the form of a pencil. Allow the fabric to dry for about twelve hrs, prior to ironing over the backside of the material on a low setting for 5 minutes. Fabric paints are in general acid free. Therefore any birthday cards are going to be ideal for kids and parents.

Using Light - Soleil packages enable us to employ light for printing on material, they are simple to use along with astonishing results. First, you have got to dampen the textile, then use the foam paint brushes to administer the colors. Rest shapes over the fabric for instance leaves, acetate shapes, peel-offs, coin, netting etc. Before you apply the fabric to the birthday cards, expose the painted section to strong light to make the paint hold lastingly. The stronger the source of light and the hotter the surroundings, the more extreme the image.

Additional practices:

Lightener can be mixed with the paints to achieve lighter shades without weakening the colour. Alternatively, Adding in thickener is able to make the color simpler to use for stencilling or screen-printing.

Colourless masking is usually used for clothing, it can be used to cover up parts of the textile to keep the true appearance of the cloth. The masking comes out after the first wash.

Exclusive fabric glue is normally used when applying the completed fabrics to the birthday cards blanks. Expandable paints are used to design patterns in relief, apply to the fabric and then paint over the top when dry, or blend with the colours for pastel shades. As soon as the expandable paint is dry, you must iron on to the back or make use of a hair dryer so it will get bigger. Silver glitter finishes are extremely prevalent for luxurious UK style birthday cards. These form as a glitter-varnish on material, apply with a large brush by means of smooth, broad strokes.

Fixing and washing - When dry (after about one hr), iron on to the backside using a hot iron on a fabric setting for 5 mins or place in a pre-heated oven at a hundred and fifty degrees for five minutes. After being fixed, the finished fabric must be dry cleaned, hand or machine-washed. The material is now complete and ready to be embellished on to your amazing handmade UK birthday cards.

Soon you are going to be able to discover wonderful fabricated handmade UK birthday cards at http://www.cardly.co.uk.

Glass Painting your Birthday Cards - A Learners Guide

In this guide to glass-painting your birthday cards, you will find out all you need to know to begin in this trendy craft.

Two variations of contrastive glass painting are in existence today - water-based and non-water-based. Both of them have a wide range of colours and are mixable within their classes.

When applying an outline, you can choose one of three different ways whilst crafting glass painted birthday cards:

Outline Stickers - Novices to glass painting should find these perfect and they are best used on flat, level surfaces. Starting in the corner, slowly peel up the sticker, taking care not to stretch or distort it and apply it to the clean glass surface area of your birthday cards.

Glass paint outliner - These are applied by squeezing the outliner from a tube to provide a fine outline. They come in a choice of colours. They are able to be used as an outline for your design before paint is applied or piped over a pre-painted surface as fine detailing.

Leading Tape - Doors and windows usually need this type of outliner.

Technique

Before you commence painting, ensure that there are no specs of dust and grease on the glass area of the birthday cards, to ensure good adherence. Use a solvent, such as white-spirit or methylated spirit.

Because a birthday card has a flat surface, designs are usually traced straight through. It is easier to work on a flat surface, so try to lay the birthday card of a horizontal surface.

To create a straight line with a glass paint outliner touch the nozzle onto a glass surface then applying a gentle steady pressure, lift the nozzle from the surface and stretch out the outliner along in a straight line. Tap the nozzle down on the glass surface at the last part of your line.

Whilst filling in areas in between outlines on the glass section of your birthday cards with a paint brush, apply paint liberally by peddling the paint or using a pipette. This is able to provide a smooth, stained-glass look. To develop a lighter colour of paint, weaken with water for the water-based paints or gloss varnish for the non-water based paints.

Paint should always be poured into a palette as opposed to straight from the jar. This prevents colours turning dirty or diluted. Glass paint can also be applied using a sponge, but birthday cards often have smaller areas, whereas this technique is in general, best for wider areas.

To finish, a coat of varnish can be a used to protect solvent based paints, glass paint varnish comes in either a matt or gloss finish. Gloss finish tends to be most popular for birthday cards, however some people might be looking for something exclusive. Gloss varnish is sometimes also used as a colourless thinner, which will obtain pastel shades, while keeping the colour depth and any transparent effects. The matt varnish offers a finish in the form of frosted glass. To add finishing touches to a project, while the paint is still wet, you can use tweezers to add beads or sequins. The wet paint is a good substitute for glue. Glitter can also be added by sprinkling it on the wet paint to give your birthday cards that special bit of glisten.

Memo: When adopting these methods in conditions other than for your birthday cards, glass paint is supposed to be applied merely for decorative items, the colors usually are not dishwasher proof. It can, nevertheless be shined by using a damp flannel.

Methods to Paint water-colour Birthday Cards

Watercolour painting is one of the most well-liked hobbies in the United Kingdom. This can largely be attributed to the exquisite effects of depth, consistency and brightness, which can be obtained through soft washes. Watercolour is also appealing due to it's portability - all you need is a paint-box, brush and a sheet of card. Often we find that artists will apply their watercolour methods to birthday cards and this commentary provides all the information required to beginning to painting in watercolour.

Getting Going:
To begin painting in watercolour, you require three simple things;
· Some decent beginners' materials
· An object to paint
· A basic technique

Equipment Needed
A beginners paint tray of water colours can consist of the following colours:
· Lemon Yellow Hue
· Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue
· Cadmium Red Hue
· Permanent Rose
· Alizarin Crimson Hue
· Ultramarine
· Intense Blue
· Viridian Hue
· Raw Umber
· Yellow Ochre
· Burnt Sienna
· Chinese White

Supplementary Supplies
· 4 main brushes
· Paper
· Pencil & Eraser
· Board or Hard Surface
· Roll of Masking tape
· Water pot or container
· Flat Plastic Palette/Tray
· Reasonable size board for your Birthday cards

What to paint - Discovering a subject:
Many artists don't find it easy to be stimulated by the regular everyday subjects. Nevertheless, true artists can turn the very ordinary thing into something special by just looking at it innovatively. It may be a landscaping, a building, an interior scene such as a bedroom, or still life like vases or bottles. If you feel really positive you may wish to try a portrait (of the loved one you're giving the birthday card to), botanical painting or maybe even an abstract. Your painting does not have to be precise or perfect, remember art is in the sense of the painter not the critic.

Painting a Watercolour Landscape:
Landscapes are believed to be the easiest for beginners and the following fundamental technique should be applied. 4 general rules are valid while colouring a landscape.
Your View - As an artist you will be looking to create a visual portrayal of your preferred setting, it's not a duplicate but an illusion of what you're painting. Remember, it is how you see it and paint it that makes it a unique piece of art for your birthday cards and even canvas.

Aerial Perspective - Take time to have a look at the landscape you want to paint and 4 different aspects should be evident. Initially the items far away will look smaller. Second, the distant objects won't be as detailed. Third, colours become less vivid the further away they are. Fourthly, as objects diminish their tones become paler and less contrasted.

Composition - Making use of your pencil, lightly sketch the outline of the landscape. Ensure you set out a horizon, middle and foreground within your landscape. Ordinarily, this works as the horizon being the background of the painting with the horizon line being about one 3rd from the bottom of the page. Several novices begin drawing the horizon half way down the page - but our eye line only sees 30-40% of the "surface matter" in any given scene and the remainder is sky.

When you have sketched the necessary out line of your scene, your picture is now ready to have the colour applied.

Picking a paint tray of colours:
The common practice is to retain a broad palette of around 12 colours and add to it for special necessities. For example, you will find that numerous birthday cards are generally bright in colour and therefore you may wish to include some brighter contrasts to your painting.
When you have obtained the initial palette, the subsequent thing is to locate a suitable board.

Which board?
Watercolour board is mould made board and could be acid free giving it an extensive life with no wear and tear. The board is pre-sized allowing the artist to sponge and erase (if necessary) without causing any damage.

Basic Technique:

Squeeze a small amount from your water-colour paint tubes or dab a damp paint brush into your watercolour pan - best to begin with 3 primary colours - a red, blue and yellow.

Use a round brush and start putting some blue on the sky, before dabbing the colour with a wet tissue to make cloud shapes by lifting out the pint.
After that, work onto the distant horizon line using muted colours (i.e. weak blue, grey and yellows mixed with water) then onto the onto the middle ground section using more blues and green ahead of moving onto the forefront using yellowy-greens and more powerful, more vivid colours - not thinned with too much water. Note: In case you are colouring a medium sized birthday card, you may wish to downgrade the size of the outline before commencing to paint.
When you have built these colours you could then develop a sequence of layers to suit your style. If you are extremely adventurous, you might wish to try the wet-into-wet method. This is where the colors merge whilst they are still wet. This makes stunning, subtle tones for your birthday cards and is excellent for moody, atmospheric paintings so as to lighten up the cards for the person having the birthday.

One more technique, is generating a water-colour wash, which offers numerous special effects like, graduation, granulation and flecked. Avoiding being too technical, a wash is in fact where a colour adjusts as a consequence of the water content mixed with the pure colour. Such effect is formed by starting at the top of a dried out sheet of board. Paint a band of dark colour (ultramarine blue), then add additional water to the brushes and create a second band underneath the initial one. Continue doing this until you have a graded wash i.e. the colour goes from dark to pale and in some cases transparent. Whilst painting birthday cards, you don't need to be concerned about adding the greeting 'happy birthday', as the message can be written on the inner side the card with the front showing off your artistic abilities.

Some Closing Suggestions:

DON'T - fiddle around with the painting; once the birthday card is complete, do not add extra touches thinking you will make it better.
DON'T - Let your palette become overly wet.
The colour should be allowed to dry in between stages of application unless you are employing the wet-into-wet technique. Maybe use a hairdryer to improve the drying process.
Consistently refer to the object you are painting and to your piece of art.
Start painting from the topmost of the card.
Always wash your equipment with cleaning soap and water.
Paint loosely; don't get hung up on precision. Remember that it's a painting and not a photocopy.

Mark has experience in producing water colour paintings and enjoys this activity. there are many watercolour birthday cards available at http://www.cardly.co.uk/