Gold Seahorses Birthday Card

Today I made another card from my gold seahorses masterboard.

A fairly simple card – just a matter of a bit of matting and layering and the addition of a sentiment, and some work on the inside.

Here is the original masterboard.

The base of the card was a piece of heavy white cardstock trimmed and folded to 5 1/2 inches square. I inked it lightly with Peacock Feathers distress ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster, and matted and layered the trimmed masterboard piece and a square of gold mirror card to create the card front. The matting and layering was at 1/8 inch intervals.

I had a rummage in my stash and found the stamped sentiment on a piece of smooshed ink background – not sure what project that was originally for, or whether it was perhaps a practice piece – but despite the colour being different, it looked good on the card, so I decided to use it. It needed a bit of trimming, and not wanting to waste any scraps, I saved them for embellishing the inside of the card. I stuck the sentiment piece down with double sided tape and added a few doodled lines with a gold gel pen.

The stamp is a clear sentiment stamp which came from my original collection of stamps when I first started out, and I didn’t keep the packaging so I have no idea what it is. I had used a small pigment ink stamp in dark purple to stamp this sentiment, and I repeated it inside the card, which had also been inked with Peacock Feathers distress ink with an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

I laid out the trimmed pieces until I was happy with the layout, along with a small piece of trimmed masterboard – I did not cut the square for the card from the edge of the masterboard but a little way in, so that I could get the best of the seahorses. I adhered the pieces into the inside of the card using double sided tape, and added a bit of doodling with a gold gel pen, as before.

I made the envelope using my We Are Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board, and stamped a single seahorse on the corner, which I heat-embossed in gold. The envelope was inked with Peacock Feathers distress ink and I used the same turquoise gel pen to address it, that I had used to write inside the card.

I took a small piece of masterboard and lined the envelope flap with this.

This card is made for someone who is an expert card maker. Every year I need to pull the stops out for such a discerning recipient, but this time it is a relatively simple card. I think the masterboard speaks for itself and doesn’t need a lot of embellishment.

Finally, here is a digital montage of the masterboard with the two cards I have so far made from it.

 

 

Today I updated my Gutless Bag Lady blog with a review of all the samples we picked up at the stoma open day last month. Full details on the “Products” page.

Final Two Lavender Sachet Boxes

Warning: LOTS of pictures!

Today I had a lovely morning meeting up with my two friends whom I met while we were all in hospital together. We were all very pleasantly surprised to see how well we each looked! Only one of them is undergoing chemo as I am – the other’s cancer was sufficiently confined for her not to need it. The one who is having chemo has the same oncologist as me, and she has her treatments on the Mondays following my Fridays; we are receiving the same infusion and are at the same stage on our journey, so we can compare notes and support each other along the way. Like me, she has had her dose reduced, and is feeling the benefit of that. We had such a lovely chat and laugh together over a cup of coffee, and I gave them the little gifts I had made for them.

I had two lavender sachets remaining from when I made them for my fellow chemo-ites on the day unit, and decided they would be for my two friends, so I needed to make little boxes for them. I am so pleased to be feeling so much better this week, and yesterday I spent the evening in my ARTHaven working on the two boxes, and managed to complete them in time.

Both are made from watercolour paper which is great when you are likely to be using a lot of water, because it is designed to take this level of punishment without disintegrating. It is also heavy enough to make a nice sturdy little box. For both, I used clear embossing as a resist, and different Distress Inks, with a combination of blending with Inkylicious Ink Dusters, blending pads, and smooshing with water, to give a nice random effect.

The Green One

I smooshed the outside and inside of the box using Evergreen Bough distress ink on my non-stick craft sheet, spritzed with water, and pulling the piece through the ink to get a good random effect, drying in between and repeating until I got the result I wanted.

Then I heat-embossed the pieces, using a stamp from my new Chocolate Baroque set called “Harlequin Fragments” using clear embossing powder. I did not put the stamp on an acrylic block but used it unmounted because I didn’t mind it having a less defined look. I stamped once on each of the four flaps.

To bring out the resist, I inked the piece using Pine Needles distress ink.

For the inside, I repeated the process, but this time used silver embossing powder. I chose a stamp from my Floral Doodle Dallions set by Stamp attack for a motif for the centre of the box.

The final step was to distress the edges of the inside and outside of the box, using Forest Moss distress ink and a blending pad. This added a slightly yellower green to the mix because it was too blue and didn’t match the lavender sachet so well.

The finished green box.

The green sachet.

The Blue One

I began by covering the entire surface of the outside with Tumbled Glass distress ink, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster.

The stamps for this were from the Stampin’ Up Papillon Potpourri set. I chose a larger and a smaller butterfly, and again, stamped with Versamark and clear-embossed the images to create a resist. I chose another stamp from the Floral Doodle Dallions set for the centre.

The next colour of ink to be added, again with the Inkylicious Ink Duster, was Salty Ocean.

The final colour was Faded Jeans.

Once this was done, I wasn’t entirely happy with the result, which looked a little flat and boring, so I decided to have some fun with it, and experiment with coarse sea salt. I spritzed the surface well with water until it was very wet, and sprinkled the coarse grains of salt randomly over the surface and left it to stand for a few minutes.

Then I dried it gently with my heat gun, holding it well back so as not to re-melt the embossing, and so that the piece did not curl up and dislodge all the salt grains. I spritzed it again, and repeated the process. This was the result. A lot more interesting, I think you will agree.

For the inside, I again began with Tumbled Glass distress ink, covering the entire surface but not going for too even an effect.

This was followed by patches of Salty Ocean distress ink.

Finally, Faded Jeans. Again, keeping it fairly blotchy.

I then repeated the process with the sea salt.

You get gorgeous swirls and patterns with it, and darker spots around the place where the salt grain was.

To complete the inside of the box, I added some silver gilding flakes, being careful not to cover up all the patterns from the sea salt.

As a finishing touch, I went around the edges of both the inside and the outside of the box with a silver gel marker.

The finished blue box.

The blue sachet. On both sachets I have used little embellishments recycled from other things. In this case, the two little discs of abalone shell came from a cannibalised necklace I bought once at a village fete.

The Two Boxes, Complete

Both my friends were very thrilled with their little gift! For the one having chemo, I slipped one of my lavender chemo cards inside.

Wedding Anniversary Card

On Sunday it is our 29th wedding anniversary and I was determined to make my hubby a nice card. Again I am so delighted that Mr. Mojo and Mrs. Muse have returned at last from their extended unauthorised break just in time!

As with the birthday card I made for him for yesterday, I used things from my stash, to save extra work and also to make use of some of the stuff I’ve got.

These are the basic materials for the card.

I made a whole lot of flowers a while back, and cut the pieces using Sheba, my Cougar cutting machine, using watercolour paper. I laid the pieces out on some more watercolour paper and sprayed them with Dylusions spray inks, and then flipped them over and moved them elsewhere on the paper and sprayed the backs. This way I ended up with nice coloured pieces to make my flowers, and some great backgrounds to go in my stash for future projects. I found this one and thought it would make a nice bright card. The ribbon was a scrap, and the orange and dark red card are from my stash, as is the heavy-weight white card for the card base.

Here is the card with the envelope. I matted and layered the floral background piece first onto orange, and then onto the dark red card, after attaching the ribbon around the floral piece and securing the ends on the back with double sided tape from my ATG glue gun.

I took some orange-coloured copper wire and made a circular loop in it with my jewellery pliers and slipped on the double heart charm, and than flattened the loop so that the charm would not slide along the wire, and would hang freely. Starting on the back of the piece, I wound the wire three times around the card, cutting off the excess and twisting the ends together on the back, and flattening the twist.

Matting the floral piece onto the orange layer with double sided tape secured the wire in place.

Before assembling the card, I inked the white card base with Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick and Festive Berries distress inks, using an Inkylicious Ink Duster. I inked the envelope in the same way, but didn’t add quite so much colour – this technique was repeated also on the inside of the card.

Here is the completed card. The wire catches the light and adds a different texture to create more interest.

Finally, a detailed shot of the card’s embellishments. Using a purple marker, I hand-wrote the sentiment on a piece of scrap paper with traces of the same inking on it, but paler, and stuck this down with Pritt adhesive, and outlined it with a purple gel pen.

This same sentiment was repeated inside the card, written directly onto the card base.

Health Update

I had my pre-assessment for the insertion of the port-a-cath today, which all went well. A long question-and-answer session with the specialist nurse first (very thorough), then a snack lunch at the cafe and then back for a short appointment with the radiologist who will perform the procedure. I also had to have blood taken, and an ECG, and then home. I shall be going in first thing on Friday for the procedure under general anaesthetic, and then at lunch time my first chemotherapy treatment will begin. This will take four hours, and then they’ll keep me there for half an hour to make sure all is well, before I can come home. The treatments will continue once every three weeks for the next six months, and I do not anticipate feeling too well during that time but my hubby and I are glad that I am having it, in order to mop up any stray cancer cells that might still be wandering around in my body. Please see my Cancer Diary page for full details.

80th Birthday Card–Mixed Media

Warning – long post with lots of photos!

My hubby reminded me the other day that we are invited to an 80th birthday party on Sunday, and would I like to make a nice card? So Shoshi has pulled out all the stops these past few days and come up with something I think she will like!

As you know from my previous posts, I’m about to take part in a flower swap with Judy in Australia. Unfortunately the flowers have had to take a back seat this week while I made this card. From flowers to butterflies! I told a friend on Sunday, “I love butterflies!” She said, “Oh, really? I’d never have guessed.” (She was being ironic. Lol!)

So – the card. I wanted to use my new Dylusions Ink Sprays, and made a background in the same way as I did my flower backgrounds, by putting the cut shapes down on the paper and then spraying, and turning them over and moving them, and spraying again. The large butterfly background isn’t 100% but I may do something with it – my large leaf one was disappointing till I had another go at it.

I cut all the butterflies with Sheba, my Black Cat Cougar cutting machine. Most of the shapes are Penny Duncan’s cut files but I’ve used one of my own (not visible in these pictures).

I was very pleased with how well Sheba cut these out. The only problem was the detailed one with many holes. There was a tendency for the tiny pieces to be lifted up by the blade and carried along with it, preventing further cuts. I’ve experienced this problem before, despite using my brayer very vigorously to stick the card down well onto the mat. This time, I reduced the cutting speed right down to 25, and watched very carefully as it cut – at the first sign of trouble, I hit the pause button and removed the offending loose piece. I had to remove the whole blade holder several times, remove the blade and pick the tiny pieces out of the holder – really boring to have to do this, but worth it in the end as I got a pretty well perfect cut on those particular shapes. I’d set SignCut to cut the smallest pieces first, so once they were done, I checked the blade one more time, and then set the velocity back up to 100 and cut the rest.

Here’s the pierced butterfly with its mat layer (seen in the centre of the above photo). I just laid them out like this to show how the layers work – I was not intending to use them like this because there wasn’t enough contrast. You can see what an excellent job the Black Cat Cougar does with cuts like this.

This is the background that I sprayed onto the base card for this birthday card, using mostly small butterflies to create the pattern.

Here are some other parts that I cut from white card using Sheba:

The large piece will be used inside the card. I designed the sentiment (and everything else) in Inkscape – in this case, text on a path, and created the shape and scalloped mat layer (using the interpolate feature of pattern on a path). In the end, I didn’t use this scalloped piece but cut some more in gold, and used one of those. The text was done with a purple gel pen in Sheba’s pen holder – this is a brilliant accessory which enables you to draw and write in addition to cutting with the machine, and you can use any font on your computer. The frame would be inked and used inside the card.

This shows how the mat layer fits under the text to give the scalloped edge (this is just laid on top, not stuck down).

I filled a whole A4 sheet of gold mirror card with butterflies, frames and text mats so that I’d have some in my stash as well as providing enough for this project. Here is the gold mirror card still on the cutting mat immediately after cutting.

The gold card being removed from the mat – “weeding” the waste card first, leaving the pieces still stuck down on the mat.

The pieces removed.

Here you can see Penny’s double-layered butterfly. The top one has the mat layer in gold with the pierced part on top being one of my inked pieces, and for the lower one, the cut pieces are reversed. I had to decide which I preferred for this card, and chose the second one.

Here is the front of the card with a gold frame adhered around the aperture.

Inking the inside of the card. For this I used an Inkylicious Ink Duster to apply Dusty Concord Distress Ink.

Here is the smaller piece to line the inside of the card, being inked with Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks around the edge, and Picked Raspberry (one of the Summer special seasonal edition inks) for the centre. I wanted a bit of contrast with the base card, but still keeping within the general colour scheme.

A lot of people have been intrigued by my suggestion that I would use all that kitchen paper that I’d used to mop up my ink! It seems that most people think this is bizarre, and they can’t think how it could be used – most people simply throw it away, and I hope I can convince them that this is a waste when you can make beautiful things from it. I had one piece that I’d used scrunched up to mop up some ink, and not on the roll, and it had a gorgeous creased design on it from the two colours, so I cut a rectangle of this to put underneath the window of the card.

Here it is, having Golden regular matt gel medium applied on the back with a palette knife. This made the two layers of the kitchen paper pull apart, so I laid down the one with the gel medium on it, and scrunched it around a bit, but it started to tear, so I took the other layer and placed it on top, sticking it down with a small amount of gel medium around the edges.

The bottom layer became quite firm after the gel medium had dried, and this supported the upper layer very well, so in the end I was pleased with the result. Here it is with the lining piece stuck down to cover the edges, and the other gold frame around the aperture.

The next step was to stick the acetate over the window of the card. I did this from the inside, using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, which has to be my absolute favourite wet glue – it’s awesome! (Thank you Lucy – Lucy introduced me to this glue and it is now known as “Lucy’s Glue” lol!)

The edge of the acetate stuck down inside the card needed to be covered up. This is where the white frame came in. I inked it with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink. (I love this colour!)

Here it is in place. Does that look like kitchen paper in the right-hand aperture? My hubby thought it was fabric! I just couldn’t throw this delicious piece away! This effectively completes the inside of the card, apart from the 3-D flying butterflies. (After taking this photo, I decided it needed something more, and added some water spatters which improved it a lot – photos further down.)

This is how it looked with the sentiment mounted on its gold scalloped mat and adhered to the outside of the card. The white card of the sentiment was lightly inked with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink before being glued down.

I then selected a few of the gold butterflies and painted them with alcohol inks, using a Ranger fillable alcohol ink pen filled with blending solution, and my recently created alcohol inks palette. As you can see, it worked a treat! The larger gold butterfly (top right) has not been painted – what you can see is just reflection. The colours I used were a selection of purply pink, green and blue. I didn’t use all the butterflies – the rest have gone in my stash.

Here they are on the front of the card, together with the double-layered butterfly. The bodies of the butterflies were all stuck down with a small quantity of hot glue, and the wings folded upwards. (The butterflies on the bottom right look darker than this in real life – as usual it’s hard to photograph reflective surfaces.) The only thing still remaining to be done is to add a tiny amount of Pinflair gel glue under the wings of the butterflies to prevent them being flattened.

I have forgotten who pointed me in the direction of the video tutorial for the 3-D flying butterfly card but thank you, whoever you are! I was so taken with this design and decided straight away that I wanted to make it. You take a circle of acetate and lay it on top of a sketch of a spiral done on a piece of scrap paper, and holding the two together, you use the paper as a pattern and cut along the spiral line. The paper can then be discarded.

In the video, she used glue dots to fix this up, but I prefer something a bit stronger, so ensuring that I used laser acetate to make the spiral because this is heat-proof, I used my hot glue gun to stick the centre of the spiral down onto the centre of the inside of the card, and the outer end onto the inside of the card front. When you open the card, the spiral therefore opens up like a spring.

Several butterflies were then stuck onto the spiral, checking through the front aperture to make sure they were placed correctly. When you open the card, it appears that the butterflies are flying in the space! Very effective and certain to gain a “Wow”! Thanks for the great video tutorial, Bernie!

Here is the finished card, closed. You can see the butterflies through the acetate window.

Here is is open:

The final embellishment was the “80” to go in the top right hand corner of the card. I decided to do some more faux porcelain for this, this time making a circular piece, and distressing it with pink ink for a slightly different effect from my first, very grungey effort. Here is the final result, with the medallion adhered to the front of the card with hot glue, and the addition of a short length of ribbon.

This is the inside of the card. As you open it, the acetate spiral, attached to the left-hand side of the inside of the card and in the centre of the right-hand side, is pulled apart like a spring, and the butterflies appear to float between the two halves.

Here’s a detail of the water spatter effect I did on the inside. I think this really lifts the background and improves it a lot.

This is a detail shot of the butterflies on the acetate spiral. They are stuck with hot glue, as are the ends of the spiral.

Finally, the envelope. I lightly inked the edges with more Picked Raspberry Distress Ink, and stamped a butterfly in the corner with the same ink.

I am pleased to have finished this card well ahead of Sunday. That’s a weight off my mind. Back to the flowers again now!