Quick and easy - laser toner resist cards

I have been pondering ways of creating quick & easy cards and here is the first technique I worked out - laser toner resist!!  All of these cards use black toner from a laser printer as the resist along with waterbased colouring mediums.  All of the images are from CLKER.  I created the digital files using Corel Draw but any layout or word processing software could be used for laying them out and then printed them on 8.5" x 11" white cardstock.  I cut them into quarter sheets and then added colour!!  These first three have been coloured using SU watercolour pencils.  For the first one I applied the colour to a silicone craft sheet, spritzed it with water and placed my quarter sheet with the image facing down in the wet paint.  Worked out perfectly!  I wanted the words in the pink area.  I did add a bit of watercolour with the crayons to certain areas - outside edges, some greenery and a few flowers and then spread the colour with a wet paintbrush.
For the two butterflies I applied the crayons to the areas I wanted a specific colour and then spread the paint with a wet paintbrush.  I added the blue on the outside edges by colouring on my craft sheet with the crayon and then picking up the colour with a wet foam brush.  It gives a bit of a different look.   Really happy with how these turned out.  The fun is that these can be painted any colour!!  So, next time I print them out I can make cards that look different by choosing different colours and/or colouring mediums.  FUN!!
There is one missing from this set - it was printed in gray and I was not happy with the result of that one so it has been added to the serendipity stash bin.  I like the contrast of black with the colour much better and in some cases, it was beneficial to wipe them a bit after they are dry to remove any colour that remained on the laser printing.  These buckled a bit with the amount of water I had applied so I let them dry and pressed them under weight to flatten them. You could dry them more quickly with a heat gun and then press them.  To make the cards I trimmed the images to 4" x 5.25" and adhered them to a coordinating card front.

 For this set of cards I used one of the grungy CLKER backgrounds and added images and greetings. I did have to use images or fonts filled with white if I did not want the background to show through - for example, the rose and Happy Birthday.  The heart was transparent and the background shows through.

For these ones I used watercolour from a kids set and a foam brush, randomly adding strokes of colour that worked together until I was happy with the look of the piece.  I did add colour to the flower, the heart and the Happy Birthday afterwards with a smaller paintbrush to get them to stand out more.

 For this set I used Distress Ink pads applied directly to my silicone craft sheet, spritzed with water and then laid the cardstock into the puddle of paint with the image facing down.  I kept sopping up paint until I was happy with how it looked.   I really liked this process and it was possible to choose to place certain colours in specific areas.  I really wanted the top of the thank you card to be lighter and it turned out just like I wanted it to!!

UPDATE:  I have made a few more of these cards since this posting and have created a tutorial as well.  You can find the other cards here and here.   The tutorial is here or you can CLICK Tutorials above and scroll the the bottom of the list and click the link.

So this has been a fun experiment!!  I found it was relatively easy to create some artsy cards using white cardstock, some free digital images, my laser printer and some easily available colouring mediums.  The kids sets of watercolours are on sale at this time of the year and will provide colour for hundreds of cards.
I challenge you to give it a try and let me know how it works out for you!!  Leave me a comment with a link to your creations and I will go and check them out!!

Therese