4th Craft of Craftmas - Christmas Card 2013

I've been waiting to share this craft for some time now but I had to wait until everyone had received that cards. This has happened now so I can finally put show you all my photos.

Recently, I have been getting really interested in trying out lino cutting. This has come from seeing so many inspirational prints from local artists in Oxfordshire such as Susan Wheeler. Although I am no where near the stage of trying out such complex prints I wanted to start with a small print that would involve a few layers to allow me to practise with building up colours. So I thought making my own Christmas cards would be a good place to start. 

First of all I came up with my design and sketched out what I had in mind. As I work with socials insect I really wanted to try and make this a different card that people would remember. So I settled on the idea of doing a leaf-cutter ant but instead of carrying the normal tropical foliage it would carry a holly leaf.

I tool three pieces of lino and sketch out the ant, holly leaf and berries onto them. This took me some time to get used to the cutters so I had a spare section of lino which I used to trial out each different blade. It was really good fun and very satisfying to see my image build up as I removed the background. 

The paint I used here was just ordinary acrylic which can be picked up in every good art supply shop. As my image was quite small I dabbed on the paint using a sponge cut up into several pieces. This worked really well and after a few practice ants I discovered that it was best not to water down the paint.

Then the task comes to printing it onto the card. The ant was the easiest as it was the first layer. I would let each ant dry thoroughly before putting on the holly leave. This was the hardest bit to line up, but again after a few rough attempts, I managed to line everything up nicely. Again I let the green pain dry before putting on the berries.

And there you have it, my first ever lino cutting, and first home made science related Christmas cards. On to a winner here I think, the cards turned out so much better than I had hope they would. Fingers crossed people will be as delighted to receive them as I was to make them.