Altered Playing Card Swap

I've had these Rook Cards in my stash for years and when the RubberStampChat altered playing card swap came up, it was time to pull these cards out and have some fun.  I am publishing the steps so that my fellow swappers can see how I used the card:

Here is the original card, as it came out of the deck

I sanded off the finish on the card using one of those handy sanding blocks you get at the home improvement store.  This is my 'go to' sanding tool in the craft room.

After the finish is sanded off, color is added.  These Peerless water colors are great!  In the past, I would have used alcohol inks, but, it is hard to control where alcohol inks go when applied to a sanded surface. With these watercolors, you just use a damp brush to pull the color off the booklet page and apply it to the surface - the colors are so vibrant!

Next, I cut a small mask for the rook from an extra card and then stamped over the mask onto the card using Versafine and the mirror script from Tim Holtz.  I like the fact that the script is backwards - it looks like a rune or a spell.

I used Distress Ink on the edges and I heat embossed the edges with Clear powder to make them shiny.

Finally, I embellished with spider web tape overlaid with film strip ribbon.  I colored the staples with a Sharpie to make them look kind of rusty.  I added the text strip in green after edging with ink.  I also splattered the whole thing with distress ink.

Thought I would post what my swap partners made.  Such cool artwork!  It is always interesting to see different artist's takes on a challenge.