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Monday, April 18, 2016

A birthday card for DH!

I always try to make DH cards special!! He loves music and coffee so I try to incorporate those two themes into them if I can. This year, I started with a sheet of music from a choral book which was water damaged.  It was already crinkly so I ripped the page into strips and wove them back together to create my background.  I stamped the weaving with a mosaic background stamp which I created using rubber cut offs (when I mounted stamps).  I stamped in two different brown colours and then washed over them with water to spread the colour a bit.  Very happy with how that worked out.
Next, I decided to use a feather sticker from the above sheet which I bought at DollarTree.  The beautifully detailed stickers are made of some sort of soft foamy material and take colour very well.  I used markers to colour my feather and added a bit of orange using a Sharpie marker!!  I adhered the sticker to a piece of acetate which was printed with "Happy Birthday" and then trimmed around it.  The printing was a bit too prominent so I just scraped through the ones that were visible which sort of distressed them and that was much better.  Next I stitched the feather element to a coffee themed tissue paper leaving "cafe" showing in several places.  I used white thread but once I was finished I thought it would have been better to use darker thread so I just ran a marker over it and that was enough to dye the thread.  I simply wiped the spare ink from acetate with a cloth!!  I ripped off the extra tissue paper to finish off this element.  Once I laid the feather element over the background I realized that I would have to create an over sized card to get all my elements on the card.  I created a dark brown card, stamped the outside front edges using cream craft ink and the same handmade mosaic stamp I used on the back ground and then rubbed in a bit of gold mica powder to create an interesting border for my card.  I glued my background to my card front.  I used a flag ended laser printed greeting over my acetate adhering it with double sided tape.  I layered a burnt orange strip which was also flag ended below the feather element and adhered it to the back using double sided tape below the greeting so it would not show.  I trimmed all the ends and then adhered this whole element over the woven background using double sided tape behind the feather and the orange strip.  I added a brown brad through all the layers to the right of the greeting.  Very happy with how this card worked out.  Just need to add a gift card and it will be ready to go!!

Therese

Foiled background and die cut acetate dragonfly!

We are hosting a Greek Feast this week and I wanted a beautiful card to give to our chef!  She offered her services for this feast to a fundraiser which was hosted earlier this year and we have just scheduled this culinary feast for this week!! She is a great cook so we know we are in for a treat.  We have invited a few friends  - it will be a fun evening!!
I created the pieces I used in this background years ago for an ATC activity.  The aluminum foil tape was adhered to strips of lightweight cardstock, coloured using alcohol inks and embossed with a script embossing folder!!    I cut the strips into pieces and started creating a mosaic by gluing the pieces to a black layer leaving a thin border all the way around.  I really like the look of it with the blues and greens all mixed together.  I chose this die cut "thanks" greeting which I created a while back and rounded the corners.  I was looking for a really nice 3D piece to use as an focal element.  I found this dragonfly die cut (SX) in my butterfly collection.  Its colours worked so well and it was just the right size to work with the greeting as well.  I used double sided tape to glue its body to the embossed background and added two tiny black brads for its eyes.  I added the greeting with double sided tape as well and then glued this large element to the front of a blue card.  I am really loving the 3D effect of this card.  The acetate dragonfly die cut was coloured with transparent acrylic paint which I created for a project a while back. Actually, way back in 2010, for a class I was teaching at the time at a local school!!  Time flies!!

Therese