Hello;
I needed a card for a friend and luckily this friend was one who I just knew would truly appreciate a hand-made card. This one might have taken me an hour to make but I did do a bit of fussing and playing.
Here's the card and envelope. The envelope is made on the We R Memory Keepers envelope punch board. If you're a card maker or like to make cute little pockets for your scrapbook pages, you NEED this tool. It's the greatest invention. It's super-easy to use and so, so quick! Retail price is approximately $24.00 (total).
And here's the front of the card. You can click on any of the photos to see them bigger.
The card base is baby blue Bazzill cardstock. I cut a 12"x12" piece in half, then scored at 6" and folded in half. I cut a piece 5-1/2"x5-1/2" for the top.
Here's a closer view.
The first thing I did was add a light coat of gesso medium to the card. It was too opaque so I added a thin layer of white acrylic paint. Rub with your fingers or blend with a paper towel if you like. Then I sprayed a light coat of Heidi Swapp ColorMist spray in chartreuse. Do this over a trash can or in a box. (Watch for a new item coming soon that will help with controlling ink sprays!) I wasn't 100% happy with the colour so I added a bit of Glimmer Mist in heirloom gold. Don't worry too much about what ink sprays you have. I happen to have these bottles but you can also get powders that you mix up yourself. There are even recipes to make your own glimmer mist though I haven't tried it. I don't have a ton of colours. Pick a few you like and stick with that. We sometimes get carried away thinking we need EVERY colour of EVERY item and then accumulate so much stuff, we're overwhelmed and don't use it! Right?
I tore a "friend" definition out of an old dictionary. You can pick these up at yard sales and even library book sales and when they're falling apart, you're not going to hurt it. I like to think of it as giving it new life. Of course, you'll only be able to use each word once so you may have to get creative with your word selection at some point.
You'll note I also sprayed the chartreuse ink onto the dictionary paper. I did this in the trash can too (and just so you're not envisioning food scraps etc., this IS a tiny wire can with a plastic bag and a few papers in it!) and tried to be very gentle so that I didn't overspray. I wanted the words to still show through. If you don't want to wait for these pieces to dry you can lightly dry with a heat gun. Be careful you don't burn the paper. Even a bit too much heat will cause it to curl up a bit. By now, you may find your paper is curling from all the "gunk" on it but you should be able to get it nice and flat when you attach it to the mat.
To attach the dictionary piece, I again pulled out the gesso medium and coated the back of the definition. Then I set it in place and spread a layer of gesso over the top. I didn't like the edges being so defined so I added a bit more of the white paint to the edges to blend them in a bit more.
Once the piece was dry, I matted it onto a square of navy Bazzill (cardstock) cut to 5-3/4"x5-3/4". I didn't attach these pieces to the card base until I was completely done working on it. It doesn't really matter what order you do this. Do what feels right to you.
I love this tiny metal frame. I'm a bit of a pack-rat so I have oodles of these types of things. You can save them from greeting cards and all kinds of things. If you don't have any, you probably have a tool you can make a frame out of, whether it's a Spellbinder die or your Cricut machine. There are so many products on the market to make things look metallic, you can do it with paper! If you need some help and advice finding these products, let me know. I set the frame in position, lightly pencilled the inside edges and then removed it and wrote my greeting with a gel pen (Uni-ball signo UM-153).Then I attached the frame with score-tape which is the best adhesive in the whole world. I keep a ready supply of it so give me a shout if you need it!.
Next up was the piece of cardstock with the flower. Believe it or not, this is another piece of the baby blue paper left over from the base. I first stamped a flower on and coloured it with a mix of watercolour paints and Copic markers, only because I wasn't happy with just the colour from the paint. You can colour it however you like. You could also use a paper flower, a sticker, a die cut–anything goes. I then used those two ink sprays to cover the entire paper. I didn't like the blue showing so I was quite liberal with the spray. I coloured the edges with a bit of ink to get a defined edge. Then I wrapped the gold and cream coloured twine around the piece twice and tied a bow. Finally I attached it with several foam dots to give a 3-D effect.
I thought about stitching (yes, with an actual sewing machine!) around the edges but decided to use up some rub-on borders I've had quite a while. I used them all right. Right into the trash can. As I said, they've been around a while and it was a fight to get the bits around the edge that I did. Once I started I had to keep going and I'm not sweating it because the look is "distressed" anyway.
And finally, I simply went online and found a greeting that I liked for the inside. You could leave it blank or hand-write a greeting if you wanted. Don't be afraid to save greetings from cards you receive to glue in here. In my case, I had some fine paper I'd saved from somewhere so I taped the top to a regular sheet and ran it through the printer. Then I trimmed it to my desired size and inked it VERY gently and lightly. I especially didn't want my words covered in ink. I attached the greeting with some strips of score-tape so that it would lay nicely.
And finally, the envelope…
After I made it, I decided to add just the flower to the top left corner. I did this by only applying ink to the area of the stamp I wanted. I coloured it in the same colours as the first one though I didn't fret about it matching perfectly. I also gave some splashes of spray to both front and back of the envelope. This time I didn't care if it was heavier in some places.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with this card. I think it turned out great and it's a fun way to "muck around" with some of the inks and ephemeras I've collected.
I'm thinking this might be a great little project for a Wednesday night coffee klatsch (definition of klatsch: informal conversation at which coffee is served).
Anyone want to give it a try?