Life is a Journey .. not a Destination. ~ A vintage style handmade card

 

Life is a Journey, not a Destination.

This post is dedicated to Stacey, a fellow blogger on WordPress, who came up with a brilliant idea of promoting other crafting blogs in posts.  Stacey very kindly mentioned my blog (with a link) and other crafters blogs that I hadn’t seen before  – which was enough to tell me that I too should take up her idea and promote crafters blogs on my own blog here. 

So, since Stacey came up with the idea, I am firstly promoting her blog (link below) and dedicating this post  – and this card  –  to Stacey. 

Stacey’s blog can be found here:  http://staceyscorner.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/share-sunday/  ~ go and take a look and maybe even click to follow her.

To Stacey,   a dedicated blog post and card,  for an amazing idea!  ~ from Cobs.

. . . join me on a journey through this card . . .

 

Every few days/weeks  … now and again … I’ll make what I call a ‘labour intensive’ card.  One of those cards which takes more time than the regular cards you’ve so far seen me post here.  This card – ‘Life is a Journey, not a Destination’, is one of those cards.

It’s not that these types of cards are difficult, they just take a little more thinking and working out so that you end up with the ‘feel’ that you started out knowing you wanted.  This particular card was inspired by a piece of wall art which I have hung in my bedroom, facing my bed.  It’s an iron framed rectangle with a piece of calico strung in the centre and printed on the calico are the words Life is a Journey, not a Destination, and that’s what gave me the theme for the card.

I wanted the card to have a vintage style, with a slightly ‘steampunkery’ feel to it – but at the same time I knew I wanted it to carry a message,  and wanted the message to be read as either literal or spiritual, depending on who the card ended up with, and the circumstances they were in within their life, at that time.  And ... I think I’ve managed it.

This card could be for someone who’s:-  moving house;  going on a cruise or going abroad;  it could be a simple regular birthday card (for either a man or a woman);  it could be for someone who’s starting a new job;  or perhaps for a person who needs some encouragement;  maybe some tests soon?;  or … it could be given to someone who is going through some sort of personal challenge or challenging time, and this card would be a gentle, loving way of saying that they’re going to get through this time and move on to a better place or time.

I’ll give you a list of everything I used to make this card at the end of the post, because I don’t want anyone to look at the list and think that they couldn’t make a card like this.  I might have different stash to you, and I might have different cardstock; dies; ink pads; glues etc etc … but I’m pretty sure you will have things in your stash that you could use to pull a card like this or similar together.  Just because the list of stuff I’ve used might look long – please don’t be put off.  If you want to make something like this, go and look at your stash.  You’d be surprised what you can use in order to make your own style of card.

For now .. I’ll just give you different photos of the card so that you can see things closer up….

Up up and away!  . . .

A  (working)  compass  to help you keep you going in the right direction . . .

 

 

Time passes quickly, –  so some gentle encouragement to enjoy the beauty of every moment.

 

 

As followers and readers of my blog know  …  I LOVE to put surprises inside all the cards I make.  I feel that the inside of a card is just so wasted and such a let down when you open a birthday/Christmas or any other time card, and find a big white space with a little bit of writing. 

I like cards to be beautiful inside and out and surprise the receiver when they open their card! . . . 

 

Oooo…  I wonder what the magnifying glass is for?!   ;D 

OOhh .. another surprise!   ..  now we have a lucky wish star and a ticket which gives me ‘entitlement’ to one wish!    But .. what the devil is that magnifying glass for???

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .   It’s so you can read the page from the dictionary/thesaurus!  Ok .. one mystery solved,  . . .   but  … what’s that pink ticket by the end of the handle?

 

 

Ah haaaa!  . . .  mystery number two solved!  (Just call me Sherlock.  lol)

Oh, and by the way  … the postcard inside . . .  is for you to write your message on, for the person you’re sending the card to!  See?  It all makes sense!

And that  . . . (photo above)  . . .   is the just finished card, stood on a glass cutting mat, on my desk …  and that’s all my  mess  important, essential, fabulous, well organised   {cough}  equipment and tools behind the card.  (I’ll clean it up properly at some point, so that I can take a photograph of my craft room and share it.)

 

The Recipe for this card:  I used:

• Sheena Douglass – Little Bit Sketchy – Magnifying glass stamp.
• Papermania Acetate (for the ‘window’ of the magnifying glass)
• Papermania Black Embossing Powder
• Stazon ‘Saddle Brown’ ink pad
•      ”       ‘Jet Black’ ink pad
• Memento Dye Ink Pad in ‘Desert Sand’
•      ”               ”            ”     in ‘Rich Cocoa”
• Xcut Build-a-Scene Dies – Vintage Hot Air Balloon
• Heartfelt Creations 12×12 pad – which I used some of the images from.
• Spellbinders ‘Once upon a Time’ Die
• Tattered Lace ‘Postcards’ Die set
• Heartfelt Creations ‘Time Sentiments’ stamp
•         ”               ”          ‘Journey Sentiments’ stamp
• Pinflair Gentle Blends – in Denim colour
•       ”            ”            ”      –  in Dark Khaki colour
• Graph It Glitter Ink Pen
• Compass – was in a pack of 4 I bought a while ago, from the children’s section of either Asda or Tesco.
• Dictionary page was cut from an old Dictionary/Thesaurus which was no longer used.
• Cardstock used:
• Warm Chocolate Brown 300gsm
• Plain Black 270gsm
• Orange – was scrap from my scrap draw
• White – 270gsm
• Kraft Card – 300gsm
• Extras:
• 2 x short lengths of silver-grey Rayon Seam Binding.
• Grey and white Bakers Twine
• 3 x fuzzy, funky fibre, Eyelash Knitting Yarn/Wool –  1 x length of warm brown.  1 x  length of jet black.  1 x length of a blues and purples mix.
• One tiny metal vintage looking Postcard embellishment.

And that’s all there is to it!  😀

Aw, please don’t be daunted by the apparently long list of ingredients for this recipe.   I’ve named almost everything I used here just to be helpful to anyone who wants to know where I got a particular thing, or the make of the papers or dies etc,  (named everything apart from glue .. but if you need to know:  I used Collall All Purpose, Anita’s Tacky Glue, hot glue, and Double Sided Tape) – but I bet you use tons of stuff when you craft a card and you don’t even notice what you’re using anymore.  It’s just all  … ‘stuff’ … which is treasured and loved,  and there because you use it!

Thank you so much for coming to read.  I hope you like the card!  Oh … and don’t forget to visit Stacey’s blog!

Please have a look around my blog here and check out the different categories.  There’s a list of them all in the column over to the right, – you’ll find the list of categories towards the top of that column.

Have a truly beautiful rest of your day!  ~

 

 

 

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Roses, Lace and ‘Shabby Chic’ . . . a handmade, uplifting card.

A ‘Shabby Chic’ look to a warm, uplifting, loved filled card with a nod to spirituality.

Shabby Chic – anywhere –  can sometimes go too far or in the wrong direction and end up looking a miserable mess of things which don’t have any relation to each other – but this card, I feel, found the right place and it almost made itself.

I started purely with that bit of rambling rose backing paper which I had left over from a scrapbooking project.  I decided that I’d make a card with what was left over.  This pretty, uplifting, warm hug feeling card was the result.  I love this card and actually wish that someone else had made it and sent it to me.

 

For those who wish to read the details of how to make something like this, here’s the ‘recipe’:-

Ingredients  (I used):- 

• Craft Card, cut to the right size, scored and corners rounded off.
• Red/brown ink pad – but any colour you want would be fine
• A little square of creamy white card
• Sheena Douglass  “Your Wings Exist – Fly” unmounted stamp (from the ‘Divine Inspiration’ set)
• A scrap of creamy coloured lace
• A length of rayon seam binding – but any ribbon you choose to tone with your own card
• Creamy white paper rose and paper rose leaves
• One large(ish) pearl for the centre of the rose (and some glitter, to drawn attention to the pearl.)
• A die cut frame (behind the rose, but you don’t necessarily need if you don’t have one)
• Two flat back pearls for either side of the die cut frame

Method

In a large mixing bowl ...  oops,  wrong type of recipe.  Let’s start again  . . . .

1.  The first thing I did was to distress the edges of the paper by scraping down the edges with a scalpel to rough them up and make that lovely ‘furry’ edge which I love. 

2.  I then used a rosy pink ink pad and a cheap make up sponge to further distress the paper but this time by blending in some ink around the outside edges, as I wanted to ‘antique’ them a little, but not using the usual browny shades.  I wanted to really warm the card up and make it blush.

3.  Choose your cardstock:  Although I have tons of white cardstock, I felt that I wanted a more vintage feel so used Craft Card to make the card itself;  Cut it to size; scored it; rounded the corners and then gathered together some Rayon seam binding, a bit of left over lace, a rose and some leaves.

4.  I attached a bit of the lace to the bottom of the card.

5.  Rayon Seam Binding.  It was the right colour but I felt it lacked something – so decided upon using the word stamp saying  ‘Strength’ from the same Divine Inspiration.  Using a reddy brown ink pad, I stamped the word onto the rayon seam binding, and then fixed the ribbon to the backing paper.

6.  I then stitched the background paper (with the attached lace and ribbon)  to the card, using my cheap little £12.99 sewing machine which I think is meant as a childs introduction to sewing machines – which I bought a few years ago specifically for sewing paper and card stock (didn’t want to use my big sewing machine as I a) didn’t want to have to drag it out every five minutes to sew a card, and b) didn’t want to mess up the mechanism of my big machine with paper and card ‘fluff’).  It’s the same as –> this one <– from Hobbycraft – but I bought mine from Aldi (one of their Thursday special offers) about three or four years ago so was cheaper.  Works brilliantly for sewing on cards.

7.  I stamped the Sheena Douglass words stamp saying  “Your Wings Exist, FLY” onto a square of creamy white card and then ‘aged’ the card by using the same reddy brown ink pad that I’d used on the roses backing paper.  using the sewing machine again, I fixed the sentiment to the card front.

8.  Distressed and then, using foam dimensional tape, I mounted the die cut frame to the centre of the card, and added the flat back pearls to each side.

9.  Using the hot glue gun, I fixed the rose into the centre of the frame, and once dry, I added the rose leaves, which I tucked under the lowest petals of the rose.

10.  The PVA came into use next, and I used it to add a large brown pearl to the centre of the rose, then sprinkled a tiny pinch of brown glitter into the glue where it had risen up the sides of the pearl – so that it helped to drawn attention to the pearl.

11.  Finally, I used a glue pen and added a few curves of glue here and there and added a tiny pinch of glitter to the glue, just to make the card catch the light and sparkle.  Added an insert, cord tassel and ‘signed’ the back.

It was a really easy, quick card to make.  Tapping out the steps to making it to share with anyone else who wants to make one the same as or similar to it, makes it look complicated.  But take another look at the photo, and you’ll see that it really wasn’t difficult at all.

I really like this card.

Thanks for coming to visit.  Have a look around the other categories while you’re here – you might like some of my other stuff.

(Menu for the categories can be found over to the right —>, towards the top of the page.)

Have a truly lovely rest of your day!