Fan-Tastic Birthday Card

I haven’t blogged for quite a while because I’ve been suffering a bit of a dip health-wise, and was hoping I was finally climbing back out of it, when I got a stomach upset last Friday which laid me low over the weekend. Today, however, I’m feeling a lot better and have been in my ARTHaven for a good long session, and actually completed a project!!!

Next Sunday is my cousin’s birthday, and I always try to make her a card, as she’s been an expert card maker for many years and I try my best to impress!

This year I decided to do the fan card I’ve been wanting to make for ages. Last year I bought a set of fan stamps which I haven’t really used yet. The first step was to fold a piece of black A4 cardstock to an A5 portrait card, and I stamped 3 of the fans on with Versamark, which I then heat-embossed using black embossing powder.

I stamped one more on a separate piece of card, this time using gold embossing powder, and I cut this out and stuck it onto a further piece of black card to strengthen it, trimming it to the fan shape.

I picked out the design using bright pink acrylic paint, and when this was dry, I covered it with Ranger Glossy Accents, and while this was still wet, I added some purple gems, using some larger ones for the fan handle.

When it was all dry, I tied a bow around the handle, using some thin pale gold ribbon. I found a gold cup sequin and a slightly smaller pink cup sequin, and glued these together, placing yet another gem in the centre, and stuck this to the bow, and then covered the whole surface of this little button with more Glossy Accents.

I recently bought a 5-in-1 punch off Ebay, which is very versatile, and can be placed anywhere on the paper or card because it has no hinge, but works with magnets. You can punch corners, borders, squares and rectangles, two sizes of circles and an oval with this punch. They make several different designs but I chose the one called “Honor” which I particularly liked.

These pictures show how the punch pieces engage. The four metal circles surrounding the punch on each part are the magnets.

On this next picture you can see the guides printed on the base piece, which you use to line up the work once you’ve punched the first part. You continue to move the card around after each punch, following the particular guide for the shape you’ve chosen. Each one has small coloured projections which anchor the punched card in place.

It’s an extremely clever design and works very well – it is fairly hard work to punch with as you have to make sure you push down firmly, and absolutely vertically, which means you really have to stand up to do it, but it makes a really satisfying “crrrrunch” as the punch goes through the card!

I used this punch to make the small-sized circle in the centre of the card, punching it from some pink cardstock, which I then distressed with Victorian Velvet distress ink to start with, and then Dusty Concord (this is my latest Distress Ink and I absolutely love it – PURPLE!!! I love purple…) I used my wonderful Inkylicious Ink Dusters – those gorgeous brushes for inking which are so soft and delicate to use – you can do the fancy punched edges of paper or card with them without damaging it.

To finish this circle, I stamped the middle with a script stamp I’ve got, using Victorian Velvet distress ink, and glued it down onto the card with Pinflair photo glue. When this was dry, it was a simple matter to rub away the excess from the edges and from the punched detail.

The whole embellished fan was then stuck down onto the circle using foam pads to give some dimension. To save on my foam pads, I cut an inch square of mounting board to support the middle, as this wouldn’t be seen from the side.

I heat-embossed the Happy Birthday text using gold embossing powder onto more of the black cardstock, and matted and layered this with a small piece of gold mirror card, and then some more of the pink card, distressed as before, and this was also stuck to the card using foam pads.

The final touch on the outside of the card was to decorate the corners with my new 5-in-1 punch.

I made the card insert from white 100 g/sm paper, and printed the sentiment “Have a Fan-Tastic Birthday” inside on the computer, using Edwardian Script font in purple (48-point, as far as I remember) – yes, I know, a bit naff but I couldn’t resist it!! (My hubby groaned…) I distressed the corners of the outside of the insert using the same colours as before, so that the colour would show through the punched corners of the card.

The inside of the card insert was distressed around the edges using the same colours as before, and I then used the fan stamps again, this time using Victorian Velvet distress ink. The card insert was attached to the card with a strip of double-sided tape on the inside of the front of the card, close to the fold, so that when you open the card, the insert opens as well.

On the plain white envelope, I distressed the edges to match, and then stamped a couple more fans, using Victorian Velvet distress ink. The hand-writing on the envelope and inside the card was done with a matching purple gel pen.

Hope she really enjoys her Fan-Tastic Birthday card!

Embellishments…

Making this card, I thought it would be a good idea to make up a collection of embellishments to go in my stash. I’m going to cut a series of circles and ovals, using my new punch, and distress them and maybe stamp a background onto them, and then add a variety of things, such as more stamped shapes cut out, with added embossing, painting, Glossy Accents, gems, etc. etc. to co-ordinate with the colour of the circle or oval. I thought it would also be nice to make some up using paper flowers as well, and maybe some embossed sentiments etc.

A relatively plain card could be made up, maybe with some Cuttlebug embossing and/or distress inks, or maybe some self-coloured stamped embossing as on this fan card, and with the addition of a bit of ribbon, these cards could be made up quite quickly.

My big stash of cards that I made after the last craft show, with inking over an embossed resist, have nearly all gone now, and I need to make up some more! My mum has also asked if I’d make her some more cards to send to people as she’s finished the ones I made her for Christmas in her Stationery Box, so I think this will probably have to be my next project after I’ve finished our nephew’s wedding present, before I start my experimental art work that I haven’t yet had a chance to begin (there’s always something that has to be done, isn’t there!!).

So… watch this space, and we’ll see what we come up with.

I found some real bargains on Ebay last week, including some simply gorgeous brads… Take a look at these!

When I opened the box they looked good enough to eat – like sweets! Good thing I’m on a diet, isn’t it. The seller sent me a lovely message that I so identified with – she said she loves brads and hates to use them up! I know exactly what she means. I’ve got quite a few lovely bits and pieces that I’m reluctant to use because I like looking at them and don’t want to part with them! Silly really… Some of these brads are going to be used for the centre of some flowers I want to make. I’ve been trying to think of a way that I might be able to make my own fancy brads but haven’t come up with anything 100% satisfactory yet; there are one or two ideas on Youtube but nothing that grabbed me particularly.

Hoping I am now going to be well enough for a while to spend lots of time in my ARTHaven. I’ve got some exciting new ideas to try, some of which I’m hoping to incorporate into my current project, our nephew’s wedding present.