Card with raised design

The final assignment for my class was to make a custom card for another person in the group. Card recipients were assigned randomly, and we could ask them a few questions about their preferences.

The person receiving my card said her favorite colors were burgundy and olive, and offered several nice quotes that she would enjoy.

Since her name begins with a N, I decided to use it as the design on the outside of the card, and put the quote on the inside.

I wanted the card to be a little more sophisticated, so instead of writing the N directly on it with a pen, I decided to trace the letter, and fill it with a simple branch pattern. I didn't have any burgundy watercolor (not a favorite of mine), so I went with olive instead.

I used my light pad to transfer the design onto watercolor paper, and then added the branch pattern before filling the background.

You may have noticed that I put the letter in the corner of the page: that is quite intentional. I decided I would cut it out, leaving some white border around, and attach it to the outside of the card with little foam squares, so that it would be raised above the surface.

I added some smaller branches and dots with silver and gold gel pens, so that depending on the light, the letter has a bit of a glitter to it.

I cut the inside parts of the letter with a knife, and used scissors for the outside.

Then, I switched to working on the quote that would go inside of the card. That way, if I messed up the quote, I could always start over, and attach the letter to whatever card was successful.

I did a few quick drafts to get an idea what the text would look like, and how to best break the lines. I wrote these really fast (so the letters are far from perfect), and didn't rule any lines for speed.

I realized that I could not fit the quote this way on a vertical card, so I made it horizontal instead. I did one trial run on a scrap piece of watercolor paper to confirm the line length and positioning on the page:

Then I wrote out the final version (with a smaller line height for for the attribution):

The C is a little crooked (it actually looks worse in the picture than in real life), and in the attribution, I didn't get the spacing between my F and G quite right, and the O's have small defects in them. Apart from that, I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I even added some branches to the C to echo the pattern on the outside of the card.

As soon as the ink was fully dry, I pasted the N with little foam squares:

Now I just need to pack the card carefully, and mail it first thing on Monday, so that it is received before the final class session.