Solar prints turned into cards

Hello there!

I’m over at the Neat & Tangled blog today to share a set of cards that I’ve made using some solar prints I created a few weeks ago, when we had some amazing weather and lots of sunshine!

Solar prints are created using special paper which reacts to the sun. You carefully place objects onto the paper, and expose it in the sun for about 5-10 minutes, depending on how sunny it is. When the exposed areas turn white, you remove the objects and immerse the paper in a water bath to allow the print to ‘set’. Where the objects were laid is where you get the almost ethereal, ghostly images. I decided to experiment with Neat & Tangled stencils, die-cut pieces as well as leaves and flowers.

    

After I’d exposed several sheets of solar paper in the sun, I’d hung them up to dry for around 15 minutes. I then die-cut several rectangle panels out of them, slightly smaller than an A2 card base to use for my cards.

For this first card, I began by stamping a sentiment from No Words in the centre of one of the panels with Versamark Ink. I then stamped supporting images from Friendly Florals in the form of a wreath, again with Versamark Ink. I sprinkled with white embossing powder and heat set. I added a bit of sparkle by colouring some of the open areas in with gold paint.

For my second card, I took huge inspiration from a set of cards that Ruby from A Rare Ruby had created – she mentioned in her post that there was lots of doodling ideas on Pinterest and so I literally doodled onto one of the panels with a white gel pen. I added a sentiment from So Many Sentiments to finish off.

  

For my third and fourth cards, I adhered a panel of the exposed solar paper to a piece of cardstock to make it more sturdy and then run it through my die-cutting machine with the Warm Winter Scene Cover Plate. I was able to use both the positive and negative pieces to create two cards!

  
  

I hope you feel inspired to used your stamps and dies in different ways!

Thanks for stopping by 😉