Congratulations

A distressed Congratulations card :D This card began from an idea that just popped into my head while I was watching telly, which I just jotted down on a piece of paper... it was mainly a layout of a card, and I have changed if from my original idea...

I started with four different designs of patterned paper that coordinated from the Happy Days design stax. I chose one as the backing paper, cut it to size and scuffed the edges using the tonic tool (it's a thread cutter, but you can just use scissors). I then drew a balloon design on a piece of scrap and cut it out to use as a template. The congratulations sentiment is from the free chronology set that was on one of the docrafts magazines, I really love this font cus it's typewriter font :D I really love the idea of making sentiments look like labels on the piece of card, so I thought I'd try and make it match the curve of the balloon (I had to sellotape it to my acrylic block in the end, but it did stay in a curve long enough for me to stamp it). I then made a little bit of bunting to fit with the sketch that I'd drawn (I love that banner shape, and I've been meaning to make some bunting with it... and I finally got round to it lol). I made a mini rosette (as I thought its kinda congratulations) i used a scrap of paper and then scored it every 5mm on my hougie board, and I made a sort of knot of string as the centre to match it in with the tail of the balloon and the bunting. I then finished it off with staples (I've been meaning to try this for ages too lol, but I didn't think gems would suit this card so I thought staples it is then) and then finally I put a few paper curls as streamers... I had originally planned (on my sketch) to have a scroll in the bottom left corner with the rosette on, but it looked too crowded and it looked better as a drawing in the sketch than it did once made out of paper :D

Atlas Congratulations

This started off as a page from an old atlas I got in a charity shop. I used an A6 card blank and the largest labels 20 die to cut out a shaped card blank, I then cut a further shape from the map page, and from the green spot paper from the happy days design stax (I think most of my cards seem to have that on them somewhere lol) I then used my favourite butterfly stamp (from one of the bookprint stamp sets) and I stamped the two 3D butterfly's onto a scrap of the spotty paper. I used the congratulations sentiment from the free chronology stamps that were on the front of a docrafts magazine, and then a Humphrey stamp as the main image (as it was a card for my mums friend who had just become a grandmother for the third time) and then I finished it off with a bow made from some white bias binding that my nan gave me, and I dyed it green with my peeled paint distress stain, and then I added a few tiny round and star gems :D

Mini Book Album

A mini book I made for two of my friends Bet and Jez as a birthday present. I used the Happy Days range and it fits wallet and contact size photos. It was made using photo box dividers :D 

I’d brought a pretty box (which was designed to store photos in) and there were some card dividers inside, which I wasn’t going to use, and didn’t want them to go to waste. So I made them into a mini book, by cutting some into shapes (like the arrow page) and covering them all with papers to give a base layer to work onto. I then pierced holes in the edge of each one (two on one side of each) and fastened them together with string, and I then used another piece of paper and stuck one edge to the front of the book, curved it round the spine where all the pages were fastened and stuck it to the back page. I then decorated it by adding in secret pockets to house hidden journal tags and providing mats for wallet and contact size photos to be placed on top of. I also made a few other embellishments like butterfly’s and a dress with stitching on the lacing on the bodis and I used a few of the notecards as journal pannels and a bottle cap as the fastening on the front. And the font on the front is from the Christmas Boofle Stampers set :D I really enjoyed making this, and I could tell that Bet loved it as her 20th Birthday prezzie :D

Union Jack card

This was an experiment, and started off as a piece of white card. I placed a union jack stencil over the card and taped it in place, I then applied clear ink it up ink through the stencil using a piece of foam, and covered with Papermania clear embossing powder and heat set it. I decided to move away from the traditional red and blue, so used a kind of teal colour, which was mix of broken china and peeled paint distress inks, I also did a bit of water splattering to add more texture too. I then got a baby wipe and wiped any excess ink from the surface of the embossing powder. Then using a cheap generic mica powder I dusted it over the top and heated again so that the mica would sink into the embossing powder (it’s not very obvious in the photo, but there is a slight pearly shimmer). I then finished it off by stamping the ‘congratulations’ sentiment (from the free chronology stamp set on the docrafts magazine) onto a piece of Happy Days paper and cut it into a forked tail banner, and I then attached this in a wiggle so the middle is raised up with foam pads :D