Merry Christmas!

Let us share this holiday wish of love and peace to all!

I really enjoyed creating this year's card & except for a few dollars spent at the copy shop & $ store, it's all recycled materials; using 16" strips of card stock compliments of Taylor Printing and a circular Mandala that I'd painted for an ATC exchange.

COVER: I decided to take advantage of my new Score-It-Board by making as many folds as I could (also so the card would stand up)... 80 cards, 6 fold scores each -just a couple hours. The best part? No measuring! After scoring & before folding I placed a tuna tin on each end to cut a circular shape around the edges.
The original mandala? Sketched one "pie", traced it for the remaining sections of the circle, added color with watercolor pencils, watered it in, & outlined letters with black Sharpie marker.

TP color copied the 8" original to produce 20 (2" diameter) up on one page!, then I had a few reduced even more for the pie "peace". Glued the 2" mandala on right hand section of card stock, between the cut circular edge & the fold, leaving 1/4" space. Cut closely around left half of the mandala so the front left cover would slide between the cut parts, which is what holds it in place when standing/closed. Pressed a 1/2" translucent colored raised adhesive-backed circle (?) to the center of the mandala to add a little shine.
Glued smaller pie "peace" to the left side.

INNER MESSAGE:
Expressive, huh? Created using a Pilot Parallel pen,
with the knowledge gained from Denis Brown's Developing Expression in Calligraphy course.
Glued peace piece on. Scanned it, placed 3 up in a Word Doc, printed, cut into 3 strips.The plan was to use our printer to print this directly onto white Unryu paper (kinda filmy, fibrous, looks handmade, also free from Kim Fjordbotten at The Paint Spot, Edmonton).
I even folded the top edge over a plain sheet 1st. Didn't work, so just used plain white copy paper.

THE ATTACHMENT: Placed inner message strip inside card stock, used tiny punch to punch 2 small holes in upper left corner, threaded $ store yarn through all & tied.
Peace out!

Kersals by Francie

KERSALS is an alphabet created and copyrighted by Francie Alberts Bredeson

THE KERSALS COURSE

I teach consists of 12 hours of instruction over a 2 day period in a classroom setting of up to 20 students of all levels, beginners to seasoned calligraphers.

This contemporary adaptation of the centuries old Versals

is a very VERsatile alphabet that adapts well to many different

art mediums.

Students enjoy the fact that they can easily personalize the letters to make it their own; creating from quick gestural almost abstract forms to precise and delicate words and monograms.

At this time I'm not able to offer instruction by email or snail mail, but I do travel out of province to instruct.
A Kersals Alphabet Forest.

2003

Kersals "Savior" Christmas card

OK, I cheated; this is from a previous year's card.
The lettering style used for "Savior" is one of my own creations.
(more later)

Calligraphy computerized

All this by lettering just one word!

After much experimentation,

I inserted the 3 images below to a Microsoft word doc, created transparent edges, layered them, printed a copy, then scanned it to be able to add it to the blog.

I lettered the original SOAR using Walnut Ink in a 3/8" Techniquill pen, then dropped in the green Dr.Martin's Luminescent Acrylic Ink. When dry I used a metallic green gel pen to doodle around the edges.

The following are playing with it on the computer in the Nero Photosnap Image Viewer program.

Right: Emboss,

Solarize,

Find Edges

Above: Invert Colors, Remove red, Water Effect

Below: Invert Colors, Kaleidoscope