Rene van Wyk - Guest Designer

It's Thursday!!

Time for our new Guest Designer!

This week we have the very talented

Rene van Wyk

with us!

Rene has some fabulous cards to share with us!

 First let's get to know her a little...

I live happily single in Cape Town, South Africa, work full time. My family & friends forms an important part of my life. 
I have dabbled in crafts since I was 4 years old when I cut up my mum’s embroidered tray cloths for designer clothes for my dolls – haven’t stopped making doll’s clothes either. I’ve made cards most of my life, but the way I make them has changed through the years. Rubberstamping revolutionised my ideas, digital stamping is now a firm favourite and I find myself returning to making simple cards with minimum tools.

Michelle’s images were one of the first digital stamps I came across, so I feel quite honoured to be a guest designer using one of her fabulous mermaid images.

My style is eclectic and can suit the occasion. My own preference is simple, minimum elements, but interesting focal point. One can achieve that in different ways, with colour, embellishment, or a very striking image/photo. But then, if the occasion asks for more, I give it more. I don’t like to copy, I try to do my own thing. Other people inspire and influence me, but I hope that I have developed my own style.

Other crafts I do: Needlework & sewing: doll’s clothes, beading, crochet, knitting, quilting, digital scrapping, etc. My latest ‘other’ project was air drying clay and making my own stamps by doing lino-cutting.

I love combining my craft supplies, using beads on my cards, in my sewing or wool as embellishment somewhere.

Something about the cards I made:

The first one was made by cutting a mask and colouring the background with soft pastels, creating an under the sea effect. After removing the mask, I coloured Elisa Queen of the Sea in purples and a touch of orange. I went for a variety of yellows and browns for her hair. The white base card was lightly rubbed with the same aqua pastels. I matted the image and lastly added some glitters to compliment the image.

The second one was inspired by the background paper I used. The pattern reminded me of sea grass, but the fun part is that it is in shades of pink and light purple! I decided on colouring Elisa in very soft shades as if she’s really seen through water, The flowers I coloured in vibrant pinks. I added the sentiment. The edges were rubbed with pink, pearls were added and liquid pearl add shine to her hair. The image was mounted off-centre to the easel card to show more of the background.

It is always fun to work with Michelle’s images, and this time was not different.

Thanks so much Rene!! These are both beautiful.

Don't forget to join our Under the Sea
Challenge this week.

Our ONLY requirement is that you use
a Michelle Perkett Studios image!