You are currently viewing Real Brush Pens and a Double Easel Card

Real Brush Pens and a Double Easel Card

Hey everyone! Welcome to your next stop on the “Use It Up or Dig It Out Challenge” hop!

I’ve had these Arteza real brush pens in my possession since last November, that’s awhile for me, I tend to want to use everything I get right away. Water color markers are a medium that I haven’t tried yet so I kept hesitating to pull them out. Finally, just saying to myself, “if it stinks I don’t have to send it to anyone” helped me to dig them out and give them a try. Does anyone else do that?

I used them with a stamp set from Penny Black, which I think is so sweet, called “Songbird Celebrations”, and decided to turn my project into a double easel.

For the card itself, I stamped and heat embossed with copper embossing powder onto some Canson cold press 140 lb watercolor paper. I struggled just a bit with the coloring, I think I colored that bird house like 2-3 times before I decided to use the first one I did. I loved how bright the colors turned out even on that ivory tinted paper and will definitely use them again. I cut the completed images out with my nested oval die set. Then came the mechanics of constructing the double easel:

  • (I made another double easel card using white and blue paper purely for demonstration purposes.) Nesting dies are recommended. I used an oval die set on a sheet of 8 1/2 X 11 card stock that had been folded in half. Making sure the very top of the die peeked over the fold so that it didn’t cut the entirety of the oval.
  • Score one side of the easel base about halfway down.
  • Crease them back over themselves to form the stand/base of the easel.
  • Adhere the base of your card (the white paper) to the easel.
  • Should look like this

  • Then stand them up and adhere the smaller easel onto and in front of the larger easel pretty much where you want it to stop the bigger card so it doesn’t keep sliding flat. You’ll need to adhere something in front of the smaller easel card, a button, flower or a sentiment like I did, this will keep it from closing.

It folds flat to be mailed. The dimensions of my finished project were approximately 4″ X 7″ so I’ll have to make an envelope, I don’t really enjoy making envelopes but now and again is okay. At the very end, with the encouragement of a crafty cohort (Amanda S.!) I decided to add some small glittery feathers around the frame of the card for an extra touch of whimsy.


Now this is the first time that I’ve made an easel card so I’m no expert, I found a lot of helpful tutorials on Pinterest, but if you have any questions just let me know. I hope that this inspires you to make something new today! Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Anne

Your next stop on the #UseItUpOrDigItOutChallenge” hop is the super talented: Tanna LoHouse!

This Post Has 48 Comments

  1. Michele

    That is such an awesome fancy fold card Anne! I’ve never seen anything like it. It turned out beautiful!

    1. Anne

      Oh, you have made my day! Thanks Michele!

  2. Amanda B

    This card is GORGEOUS, Anne! Such vibrant colors. I haven’t played with my Arteza Real Brush markers for a little while. I should probably bring them out too.

    1. Anne

      Awesome, thanks so much Amanda. I don’t have any real good water color palettes. These might do until I get rich enough to buy some proper water colors.

  3. Courtney Kreeber

    Wow!!! What a fabulous card

    1. Anne

      Thank you Courtney!!

    1. Anne

      Thank you Silvia.

  4. Anna Mahtani

    Beautiful easel cards!! You colored them so beautifully! 🙂

    1. Anne

      Oh excellent! Thanks Anna!

  5. Jen Schoolcraft

    Stunning card! Very unique ♥️

    1. Anne

      Thanks so much Jen!!

  6. Luci

    I Love Fancy Fold Cards! This is so awesome!

    1. Anne

      Oh, thanks so much!!

  7. DAWN SPENGLER

    Beautiful cards and nicely detailed!?

    1. Anne

      Thanks so much for coming by Dawn!!

  8. Marla Harris

    Fantastic card, Anne. I have never seen a double easel. Thanks for the inspiration.

    1. Anne

      Hey Marla, most of the easel cards I found on pinterest seemed to be either single or triple easels… I wanted to make a double easel. We’re creative people, that means we can do what we want. Thanks for coming by!

  9. Cindy Marshall

    Love your Easel card. Thanks for doing one to show each step. I have those Arteza real brush watercolor markers on my wish list. I have recently started getting alcohol markers. I didn’t see a place to follow you. Stay safe!
    cindys-greencricut

    1. Anne

      Hi, thanks Cindy! Unfortunately my blog is not currently set up for subscribers. I do have an Instagram account if you wanted to keep abreast of my newest projects, I usually post there first. There is also a link back to my blog from Instagram. Thanks for the interest. I’m so glad you liked the card.

    2. Karen Page

      Cindy Marshall, you can follow Anne on Bloglovin is you use that. Its a blog reader and it will send you one email a day with all the posts that day for the blogs you follow through Bloglovin. I use it for any of the blogs I can’t find an email subscribe for. Hope that helps!

  10. MARIA NYCE

    Love this easel card, so pretty and cheerful!!! Thanks so much for sharing your time & creativity!!! Stay safe & healthy, blessings & hugs!!!

    1. Anne

      Thank you Maria!!

  11. Cindyellen Robinson

    the feathers are a great touch!!! i love making special fold cards for people!! and you did a GREAT job on the arteza markers. I have them as well, used them a bunch and decided they are not my thing. maybe. . . i don’t know. . .

    1. Anne

      I totally understand, and we don’t have to use every medium available to us. But I really wanted brighter watercolors and didn’t have them, I did have these and they will do… for awhile. (I love the feathers too!) Thanks so much Cindyellen!

  12. Valerie A. Powell

    Such a lovely card. You should absolutely use those real brush again!

    1. Anne

      Yay! It turned out better than I thought it might, we shouldn’t be afraid to try new things, you never know. Thanks Valerie!

  13. ALLISON KULKA

    Your cards are amazing!!! Beautiful stamping and coloring!!

    1. Anne

      Oh, that is so kind of you, thank you Allison!!

  14. Diane G

    Wow! Your card is beautiful and the way you colored the images–stunning!

  15. Renee Moran

    This card is so bright and fresh and beautiful Anne! I love it. Thank you for being a bright spot on the hop today. -Renee’

    1. Anne

      Thank you so much!

  16. Anne

    Oh, that’s wonderful! Thanks so much Renee!!

  17. Shirley Desrochers

    The double easel cards are genius!

  18. Karen Page

    Anne, this card is magnificent!!! Like the others who commented, I had never seen a double easel card and I absolutely love it! I’ll be trying that soon! Your coloring looks amazing too! You would never know that this was your first time playing with these markers. But I also have to tell you that this was the best stepped out photo tutorial I have seen in a long time. Well done!

    1. Anne

      Yay!! Thanks so much Karen!! Most of the tutorials that I found on Pinterest were for either single or triple easels (the eye is attracted to odd numbered items) but I really just wanted the two. And thanks for your help with Cindy’s question, I’ll have to check out Bloglovin too. You’re so very kind and I’m so glad you came by and left a comment.

  19. Marie Bingaman

    Wow, Anne, this is beautiful! I have made my fair share of easel cards, but never a double one…thanks for the tutorial! Crafty cohorts are the best, aren’t they? 😉

    1. Anne

      Hey Marie! I consider myself lucky to have a number of crafty cohorts. Thanks so much!!

  20. Teresa

    Love your images! Thank you so much for sharing these!

    1. Anne

      Oh thank you Teresa!

  21. Cathy

    Oh my goodness! I love that you did a shaped easel card! And the photos of how to create it are awesome! Thank you for that! Your coloring is beautiful!

    1. Anne

      Awesome! This was the first time I attempted a step by step tutorial and I wanted it to look fairly easy to make this card. Thanks so much Cathy!

  22. Boryana

    Anne, this card is gorgeous!! I love the bright colors and all the details you added! I’ll try Karen’s suggestion on how to follow your blog. My Instagram is most of the time freezing and not really working. I feel so bad missing awesome project shares.

    1. Anne

      Hey Bory! I’m so glad you came by! (pssst! I didn’t know about blog lovin either) Don’t feel bad about a thing, you’re too kind of a person to carry something unnecessary like that around. You’ll get to it when you get to it. And thank you.

  23. RACH BHARGAV

    So beautiful and colourful. I loved the way you used feathers and floral elements.
    – (Rach’s Sew Crafty)

Leave a Reply to Cathy Cancel reply