I don’t venture this far into Mixed Media normally but I needed to break away from the madness of Christmas Card Making (yes, it has begun). There’s nothing like getting almost all your crafty stash out on your desk in order to choose bits and bobs to team together so you can make a bit of Mixed Art, to stop you from becoming stir crazy when trying to produce many greetings cards which are all different, but on the same ‘theme’.
I began with a plain tag. The tag itself is quite a large-sized plain Kraft tag, from a book of Tags made by Craftwork Cards – which I bought quite some time ago, and am just coming to the end of the book.
To begin with I applied Gesso all over the tag, followed by; crackle medium; paint; some gauze; and once dry, I added a variety of doodads, trinkets, baubles, etc, in wood, metal, plastic and added a variety of sizes, shapes, and colours of pearls and glass beads.
I then used Brusho’s Crystal Powders (which I’ve talked about before on the blog here so won’t bore you to death banging on about how brilliant they are) to add colour and give the tag added depth.
The ‘Live Your Dreams’ message looks like a printed bit of paper in the photos, but in fact it’s actually an acrylic cabochon, which has a ‘diamond cut’ effect. I managed to take a close up with the flash on and I think you can see it a little better here….
…. all those white diamond lines are the ‘cuts’ of the cabochon.
I know the finished tag looks like it would be really thick and very weighty, .. but it’s actually not. Take a look …
I don’t often wander into Mixed Media Art, simply because I have no idea what to do with the art after it’s all finished! Although I love to play and make it … it doesn’t really ‘suit’ my wee cottage . . . so I have no idea what I’m going to do with whatever I’ve made, and … there are only so many bits of stuff that I can pass onto family before they begin to groan at the words: “I’ve made this thing … and I wondered . . .”.
So … I have another bit of artwork to add to the box labelled: ‘Pop it in here for Now’.
Anyhoo . . . HAPPY MONDAY! Thank you so much for coming for a visit. 🤗 Monday hugs to you. …. and … a joke: What do you call a tick that lives on the moon? A lunatic. Think about it … think some more … THERE Y’ GO! (I heard the penny drop from here!!)
I hope you have a truly great start to your week. May the rain (if you get any) be soft on your skin. May the sun warm up your world in such a way that it makes your mood bright. And may you find plenty of places to discover joy, love, kindness and gentle words.
Be nice to each other. It makes the world a far happier place to live in.
Hello, good morning and …. Happy Monday! Hope your weekend was good, and a handful of smiles was found among the hours.
I made this card (above) about two and a half weeks ago, but I couldn’t blog about it until it had been received by the recipient – a fellow blogger, who I wanted to send a surprise smile to through the post. Now it’s safely in her hands, I can share it here.
Made on a 6×6″ scored and folded card, I firstly fixed the blue background you see in the photo. After that I distressed and inked up some pretty script card, and added some vintage blue baby bobble trim across the top third (ish).
I then turned my attention to making the flower …. Start with a circle of card, onto which glue some stamens or small flowers, and, if you have it, a little dried gypsophila, just to give it a bit of movement and depth. Then add a piece of frayed muslin or loose weaved fabric. Finally add your flower to top the whole lot off. You can’t see it in the photo but I gave the flower a very light touch of clear glue, just in a few places, then added some chunky clear/ice glitter (not really glitter but I’ll have to call it that) which gave the flower just a bit of dusty looking interest.
I then added the whole of this built up flower to the top of a bright blue, crocheted doiley.
The sentiment on the card was one I stamped, but it began life as one long sentiment, and too long for the little piece of script card I wanted it to go on. So I stamped each word separately, cut the words out, and then placed them onto the cardstock and glued in place. The sentiment is held by a Tim Holtz memo pin, which I poked into the blue doily, but it’s held in place with a little glue.
I fussy cut the birds and butterfly out, but wanted them to have an ‘old’ look, so very loosely coloured them using some water colours, and by holding a water brush to add the colour – but holding the brush at the very end, so that I didn’t apply much pressure, and also couldn’t make them look too ‘painted’. I needed them to look old, so that ‘not quite coloured’ look did the job.
taken with the flash on, but it’s kind of whited it out a little.
And basically …. that was all there was to it! 🙂
I’m sorry about the blurry photos. They are the best of around 12 pictures which were all rubbish. [sigh] … I’ll blame it on my staff. Yes! It was the Butlers fault! lol.
If there’s anything I’ve missed or that you want more information on, please just ask away in a comment, and I promise to answer.
Thank you so much for coming and sharing a coffee with me. I love seeing you … but you know that so I won’t go on. 😀
I wish you a fun Monday. May the birds sing, the sun shine, and … till we meet again, may your God hold you in the palm of His hand.
It was my much adored Grandsons 5th Birthday a few weeks ago. We weren’t able to go to his special Birthday party on the day of his Birthday so we (Grandad and I) decided we would surprise him with ‘Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘ at our home the day after his Birthday. (Why have I never had two Birthday party’s? I obviously just wasn’t cute enough).
The ‘spine’ of the mini album, and the Spiderman tag (made using two Tim Holtz charms (thick, plastic, shaped pieces, much like you find Keyrings made from. I chose 2 rounds from an assortment).
We took tons of party photographs and I decided that I would make a Mini Scrapbook album to put all the photographs in.
I made him an album just before he started big school, all about the things he did with Grammy and Grandad in the summer before his first day at school. He absolutely LOVES the album. He loves to look through the photographs, pull out the tags and gets me to read them to him, and basically enjoy all the moments or occasions, which are pictured in the album, all over again. So it was a no brainer that I would have to make him another mini to house all the photos of his ‘5th Birthday Party 2 – The Return!‘.
The ‘plan’ was that I wanted to make the mini album as if he’d actually been sat there with me as I made it, choosing everything that went inside himself. So this meant that I had to think like a 5-year-old boy. Those of you who are followers or have read my blog posts before, know that I’d have no trouble thinking like a 5 year old. (I admit it. I never really grew up).
The following photographs are of the pages and tags, photo books, magnetic bits, openings, fun stuff … etc… and, I have to warn you, this post is VERY photograph heavy. Because of this I’ll keep the talking to a minimum so that you’re not here all day reading my yammering on!
The name of the Birthday Boy is all jumbled up on the front there …. he really wasn’t christened with a gobbledygook name.
Pages one and twoTags from pages one and twopages 3 and 4Magnetic ‘book’ on page 3, … a hidden tag from page 4, … and a photograph ‘frame’ with a sliding out photo mat and room for notes on the back of it.Close up of page 4 so that you can read everything. One of the ‘presents’ we bought for his Birthday was a Spiderman costume – hence the speech bubble which says: “Like the Suit? It comes with the job”. I’ll pop a photograph of Mr. Birthday Boy wearing his Spiderman Costume into that sliding out photo frame so it will make sense.
The long shiny black bit to the far right of the photographs is where the Birthday Boys name is. I die cut all the letter of his name – twice. Once in blue and once in red (Super Hero colours) and fixed them in place so that his name read ‘down’ that black bit. But for the purposes of sharing this mini album on the internet, I blacked out his name. (I’m a protective Grammy)
pages 5 and 6Tags from the pocket on page 5Tags & photo mats from the pocket on page 6.the other side of the tags from page 6. All the tags and photo-mats in the album are all doubled sided.pages 7 and 8 of the ‘Now We are 5’ mini album.tags and photo-mats from page 7I love to emboss the edges of some of the tags with this ‘deckled’ twinkly style of embossing. It kind of adds a dimension to them.close up of page 8. That ‘POW’ is a magnetic fold out book for photospage 8 with the magnetic book opened.A hidden tag.
The poem written on this tag (above) holds such a special meaning to me. My Grandson has Cerebral Palsy. It affects different children in different ways, and for my Grandson it affects his speech to some degree, educationally to a degree, and his walking. He can walk, but he falls over a lot and has trouble walking very far. He suffers dreadful pain in his legs – and has to have injections into his calf muscles to try to help with this and also to relax the muscles in his legs so that walking is made a little easier. He has some other problems too, because of this condition. This is the reason why this poem means so much to me, and why it catches me in my throat whenever I read it.
the back of the poem tagpages 9 and 10
That big spiders web you can see on page 10, is one I drew on, using an embossing pen. I then embossed it with Tonic Silver embossing powders (because their silver is the best I’ve ever found), and try as I might I couldn’t seem to get a photo to show up how much that spiders web shines!
tags and photo mats from the pockets on page 9page 10 has a magnetic fold out booklet, for photos and journaling.page 10 – the booklet folded out fully.pages 11 and 12. the tags and photo-mats from the pocket on page 11, – and … the finger you see pointing to the Happy Birthday – is to point out that it’s magnetic and will hold a tag or note under it.page 12. The ‘Heroes’ is embossed all around it in Tonic Silver embossing powders. This is a book which folds out to hold photos and bits of journaling.it folds out like this … and it’s double sided, so there are photo mats on the back too!.. and when you look under it, there’s a little message for the young man himself.
If you’ve got this far and are still with me …. keep going .. the end is in sight!
pages 13 and 14
Page 13 holds a poem which says it all ….
I love this poem. There’s a space right next to it waiting for a photo of my little rascal.page 14 which has a deep, deep pocket for special things ...… his official SUPERHERO certificate; a postcard waiting for something special to be put on it. A very colourful tag/photo mat; some spare balloons from his Birthday Party; and there’s other stuff to go into this pocket.
And finally .... the back….
I found a fabulous picture on the net, used by someone else for their child’s birthday party, and I thought it might make a fun picture for my Grandson … only I removed Superman’s features and replaced it with my Grandsons face. (blurred out here because I’m a protective Grammy). It works so well and tickles the heck out of me when I look at it.… the bit down the side reads: you will always be my favourite Super Hero
There actually is a little bit more which I wanted to share with you, not of this album but of something else I made for his ‘Birthday Party’, but I think you’ve suffered enough for one day so I’ll post a little blog post about it another day.
Thank you SO much for coming and taking a look at my Mini Scrapbook Album. I had so much fun making it – although it did take me rather too many days to actually get it finished. I’m such a slow worker! tsk tsk. I know that my little rascal is going to love it. I just have to get all the photos into it now.
If there’s anything you want to know – glues, papers, bits, pieces etc, please just ask away in a comment. I’m more than happy to share information.
Before I sign off, may I just take this opportunity to say a very warm hello to a couple of new followers. Welcome, it’s lovely to have you on-board, please make yourself at home here, and feel free to ask questions, make comments or just grab a coffee and settle down for a bit of a read.
Thank you everyone, for visiting me. I love you coming. I really do. It’s like having a stream of friends popping round for coffee and a chat. Fabulous. Absolutely, totally Fabulous with a capital F.
Have a wonderful day out there, and what ever you’re planning to do today, remember to stop, smile, and make a memory.
In the cottage where Mr. Cobs and I used to live we had a HUGEmongous back garden. A tiny postage stamp sized front garden, but the back garden was fabulous.
We lived in that cottage for around 30 years, and I always said that I’d never leave it. However, what’s that saying about the best laid ‘schemes of mice and men’often going awry? My plan for never leaving the cottage totally changed when our youngest daughter got married and moved to the end of the planet. (Well no, not quite, it was only to the end of the country – but it felt like another planet altogether). She missed us, and the dogs, and the cats …. and … oh, everything! This missing us was making her dreadfully miserable, even though we travelled to see her and she to see us. Eventually we made the big decision that we’d sell up and move to live near her and our new son-in-law.
We’d said many, many years ago (when we were young and full of pie in the sky ideas) that maybe, possibly, perhaps, one day we might like to live by the sea, but we’d long forgotten that, and besides which, we’d grown older and less inclined to ‘up-sticks’. But anyway, … our cottage was sold, and we bought a new place near our daughter and son-in-law and moved lock, stock and … all our animals.
The long distance move was quite an ‘experience’ – but I’ll save that amusing, hair-raising tale for another day.
We’ve made friends with our new neighbours – all of them are just the most lovely folks, and we’re really settling in here in our new home and it’s feeling more like ‘us’.
I happened to admire some bluebells in one of my neighbours gardens, telling her how I missed the bluebells in my old garden. So she did no more than … gave me some of hers! I was beside myself with thanks to her. Mr. Cobs planted them in the rear garden and … the dog thought they were a new place to pee and killed the darn things.
My neighbour gave us some more some weeks ago. This time we planted bundles of them in the garden to the front of our new cottage, and just a few in the rear garden (and are keeping a close eye on the dog!).
The bluebells looked a little limp and very sad. All the leaves were just lying around on the ground like wilted things and I honestly thought we were going to lose them all. But suddenly … a spike appeared. Then another. And another and …. they looked like they were going to flower! AND … joy of joys … … THEY DID! They all began to flower.
I decided that I’d make a ‘Thank You’ card for my neighbour, and would take some photographs of the little bluebells for her, to include in the card.
So this, dear reader, is the story of how this card came to be, and how I went about making it.
Hand painted by Cobs.
I wanted the card to be very personal. Something where the ‘elements’ were a little more personal so that my neighbour would see that this really was a thank you from my heart. I began by painting a little bundle of bluebells – in a very light-hearted, kind of country style / folksy art way. (Country / folk art style painting is so much more friendly and less ‘formal’, don’t you think?).
Then I tried something I’ve never done before …. making felt flowers.
I made some bluebells from felt, wire and florist tape, then set this on one side for later.
I’d chosen to make a 6″x6″ white card as a base, and mat and layer onto the front of the card with something fresh and pretty as a background.
I stitched around the card I’d chosen for matting and layering on the card stock, in zig zag stitching.
Fashionistas always say you shouldn’t mix spots and stripes. I say … ‘do whatever feels good’. So I matched spotty card with gingham! (see above photo – the gingham is down in the left corner).
I stitched around the watercolour card in straight stitch, on the sewing machine.
I cut a slightly larger than the card size piece of green Organza ….
Green Organza, into which I hand sewed a running stitch and then pulled on the ends of he thread to gather the Organza up a little to make it look a bit scrunched and folded, behind the card.Showing you the white base card, with the gingham mounted on top.
Before I layered the spotty card onto the gingham, I distressed the edges and then using a duster brush, to give the card a more vintage feel, using some warm brown ink from a StazOn ink pad.
See the ‘gathered’/folded organza? I added a rough cut piece of muslin behind the painted bluebells, and added some deep blue paper ribbon, which I wrapped around the watercolour card twice and added the bow. I then added some cotton lace to the bottom of the card.
Then it was time for me to build the idea I’d had when I first thought of making this very special thank you card.
I knew I wanted it to have a vintage feel, to almost feel like it came from the 40’s or 50’s. I chose all my flowers, and knew that I had some wooden plant markers in my craft room somewhere … finding them was going to be the tricky part. Would you believe it! I found them in the very first place I looked! (That NEVER happens normally!)
My very most favourite part of card making … adding the ‘decorations’.
I added the little nest with the three bird eggs, by using my hot glue gun. It’s a very light weight decoration, so doesn’t make the card heavy. The flowers are all from my stash and bought from various places.
The little dragonfly is a metal, Tibetan Silver embellishment. The white fuzzy ‘flowers’ you see are a type of Gypsophila, which I’ve only recently discvered and absolutely love them. They make things so pretty, and give so much more depth to a floral ‘arrangement’ on a card.
The wooden plant sticks are blank – but you can change that really simply by either writing on them yourself (if you have a steady hand) or … choose a font on your computer, print the word(s) out that you wish to have on your plant stick and simply glue the word onto it!
Close up of the tiny boots.
The two Wellington boots are metal, Tibetan Silver, and actually do stand up all by themselves! I hung them on some silver chain – leftover from my days of jewellery making, and added the Rayon Seam Binding bow, in a deep blue colour.
I’d made the card so that it was a pocket card(with an easel stand to the back so that it stood up all by itself), and made two tags for inside the pocket. One was to be a bookmark, and the other was for photographs and the dedication (the ‘to’, ‘from’ etc).
Showing one side of the Tags
You can click on any/all of these photographs and they’ll open up to a much bigger photo which you can see a little more easily if you wish.
One side of the bookmark
The bookmark is double-sided. On this side (shown above) I’ve used two stamps from the ‘Floral Sentiments’ Vintage Collection which I stamped in black, and also another stamp called ‘Parchment Script’ made by Image Tree, which I embossed using Gold embossing powder. I also stamped two tiny butterflies from a collection by Cavallini, which I embossed using Copper Kettle embossing powder.
The other side of the tags
On the reverse side of the larger tag I stamp some card with a Postcard stamp (by Urban), which is where I wrote the ‘to ….. from ….’ – and on the reverse side of the bookmark; I computer made the little picture of the bunch of bluebells teamed with part of a poem written by Anne Bronte′.
If you click on this photograph it will open up into a much bigger view, and you’ll be able to read the poem.
Click on the photo ↑ to make it bigger – but don’t forget to click ‘back’ to come back again!
The photographs mounted onto the larger tag
I took a handful of photographs of the bluebells blooming in my garden, chose the best three, then resized them on my computer to make them smaller, and kind of cuter, and added them to the one side of the larger tag. Oh … I forgot to say . . . I stamped that word ‘Photographs’ – using a Tim Holtz stamp.
Close up of the photographs. click on the photo to make it bigger – but remember to click ‘back’ to continue reading
Obviously, a card with a bird’s nest on the front isn’t going to fit into an envelope! I had to make a deep box …..
I didn’t want to make the box in the same colours, but I did want the box and card to ‘speak’ to each other and have things in common . . . so I used dotty card – only this time in deep purple, and stamped all around the outside of the box with bird themed stamps. Bird Nests. Bird Houses, Dove Cotes. Birds on nests in branches …. etc. And just for a bit of fun, I added the little resin birds nest to the lid of the box. I added the little topper of a Garden Shed and made the bunting from scraps of different colours of dotty card, hand stamped with the letters from the alphabet to spell out ‘THANK YOU’.
Do you remember those felt bluebells I made, right at the start? Well … there they are. On that box lid.
A close up of the felt bluebells.
The colours of the bluebells aren’t actually quite as shocking as in the photographs of them. The flash obviously surprised them and make them a little more flamboyant than they really are. lol.
When I took the card over to my neighbour, she was absolutely thrilled with it, but as surprised as surprised could be that I’d made the card myself. She exclaimed …. “You made this??” … then a few moments later … “And you actually made this??” …. then …. “I can’t believe you made this. It’s wonderful!” … … which I didn’t take offence at, I just giggled my head off. (Although I do wonder what I look like I make in my craft room People probably think I make a mess more than I make anything else! LOL … Hmm, actually, looking at my craft room – they’d be right! eek!)
Well that’s it. That’s the story of this card, and how it came to be. OH! I nearly forgot to tell you … my neighbour said: “You couldn’t have brought this on a better day… it’s my Birthday tomorrow!”. Awww, I was filled with fun bubbles when she said this. She would have an extra card on the shelf!
Thank you SO much for coming to visit. I love seeing and chatting with you all via comments. It makes blog land such a wonderful place to be in. I’ve made some really fabulous friends and blogging buddies, and I never guessed that I would when I first began this blog, just over a year ago. So thank you for making this dotty old card makers days even more brilliant!
Sending love, and wishing you all …. a truly blessed rest of your day!
I began making this card over a week ago. I knew the ‘look’ I was aiming for, but at each stage of the making I stopped and kind of ‘fell out’ with the card. Something was nagging at me, telling me I didn’t like it. But I kept going back to it and doing a bit more, and a little more .. until it was finally finished on Saturday, and now it’s made, I LOVE it.
It has a sort of steam-punkery feel to it, but not. A kind of vintage feel – but not. A bit of a fantasy thing – but not. I actually can’t pin down what type of descriptive ‘category’ it fits into. Perhaps you can help me with that one, because I’m stumped!
But … I’ll talk about the making of it:
I forgot to take photo’s of the first couple of stages, so you’ll have to imagine that you saw the paper I layered down on the 6″x 6″ scored and folded Kraft card, (a vintage style paper with a duck egg blue background and roses of various colours and sizes all over it) which I ‘vintaged’ the edges of by blending some warm brown ink from a stamp pad using a bristle blending brush. Onto this I layered a 5×5″ piece of lush green coloured card which I’d embossed using the Crafters Companion ‘Leaf Vein’ Textures Embossing Folder. (LOVE this embossing folder!). I gently ‘scuffed’ the raised leaf vein embossing by dragging the same brown ink pad which I’d used to blend the base paper across the embossed veins, in order to give more importance to the texture and make the veining stand out even more.
I then ‘topped and bottomed’ the card with some of my most favourite lace in my collection, and then added a narrow piece of fresh green organza ribbon over the top of the lace, just to bring the colour out of the card. . . . . . . Now came the fun part.
Adding the paper doily was something I knew I wanted to do in order to draw the eye to what I was going to make as the main part of the front of the card. The flowers were made myself, using a Tim Holtz die (which I’ve had for ages and really don’t use enough – tsk tsk), and some scraps of cardstock in pink, blue and a mustardy yellow, with a scrap of green card for the leaves. I cut the flowers out on my Big Shot machine in my craft room, but then took them all into the living room and spent an hour shaping and putting together while I watched a film on TV. The butterfly was from a small box I keep in my craft room, filled it with any left over die cuts which I don’t use at the time.
I added some WOW glitters to the tips of some of the petals of the flowers, and the wings of the butterfly.
Then came the ‘WISH’ ….
I have a few of these little, lightweight tins with clear lids (sometimes used for Wedding Favours – but I use them in crafting for all sorts of things). I cut a piece of mottled green paper and fixed it to the inside of the tin. I then put some multi coloured Flower Soft just around part of the bottom of the inside and left it on one side to dry. I then worked on the lid.
In my little tin of ‘saved die-cuts’ I had a tiny little stem of blue bells, which was left over from a card that I’d made ages ago, and I knew these bluebells would look perfect on the lid of this little box. So using some glue, I glittered the blue bells to turn them from plain black, into something more magical and pretty, and fixed them to the clear lid of the box.
See the bluebells on the lid?
Then I went back to the little tin box and added some wiggly lines of glitter to the green paper base, and then fixed the crystal glass Fairy Wishing Ball. This was probably the most fiddly bit. Keeping that incy, wincy, tiny, little crystal wishing ball in one place would have tried the patience of an Angel with nothing on her mind!! But, in the end, I won and anchored that baby in the right place, and then added the teeny bottle of Fairy Dust.
All that was left then was to add a very small die cut butterfly, and the little tin box was all finished.
But .. the card wasn’t.The ‘Make a Wish’ sentiment was computer generated (I used a fabulous fancy font), printed out onto some white cardstock, matted onto some black card then cut by hand, and shaped so that it curved out from the card and stood proud, just a little.
I wanted to make this a card of wishes, plural.Not just one wish, but four. So … for the inside of the card I made a tag …
A dandelion wish, and a wish-bone wish!
The tag has two more wishes hidden inside the card … a tiny little resin Wish Bone, and a Dandelion head .. ready to blow!
Of course … the card had to have a box. You couldn’t send this in a regular envelope because of the depth … so I made it a matching box.
The box for the Make a Wish cardclose up of that miniature postcard
Once I’d finished this card I stood back from it and gave it a long look … and loved it. I wish I was a better photographer because in real life this really is such a pretty card, with a kind of magical promise about it. It’s not a card for a child, but for someone older, perhaps a mom, or friend, aunt, cousin, work colleague … someone who believes in the power of a wish. Someone who needs to feel that you’re wishing them good luck … and wants them to wish it for themselves. Someone with a birthday, who no longer has candles on their cake which they can wish upon as they blow the candles out.
Fairy Dust isn’t just for children. Fairy Dust, Fairy Wishing Balls, Wish Bones and Dandelion Wishes are for people who believe in the magic of their dreams.
Go on … Make A Wish!
Thank you SO much for coming to visit today. I very much appreciate your company, and thank you for the time you’ve spent with me here.
Please feel free to leave a comment behind before you leave. I love to keep in contact with folks who read my blog, as it get’s us chatting together and we kind of get to know each other a little bit more. The internet can be an ‘isolation box’ for people, and I just hate that. So let’s get talking to each other!
Another vintage style Christmas card– this time made for my Grandsons Teacher at Nursery School. She’s a fabulous lady who I love dearly, and has such a lovely way with the little folk in her care. I wanted to thank her for just being the lovely person that she is and for the incredible job she does.
I had an idea of what sort of card I wanted to make, but couldn’t find the right image to base the card around … until I found this one on the Graphics Fairy ~
This image had the right vintage feel about it, and it was a little boy in the picture building a snowman – and since my Grandson is obsessed with Olaf (the snowman in the film ‘Frozen’) at the moment, I felt this was the perfect image. I re-sized it, matted and layered it onto some lovely linen finish, plain coloured card stock, in a soft beige and a lovely vintage red, then glittered around the edge to make the image sparkle and draw attention to the image and make it stand out from the card.
I have some little wooden ‘adornments’, and from the assortment I chose a birdcage to gild with gilding flakes – so that I could have it ready to attach when I needed it.
The base on which I ‘built’ this card was a 6 x 6 Kraft card with a high gsm– so that it would be weighty enough to take the adornments which I wanted to attach to the card.
The papers I used to cover the card are all part of a pack of Christmas papers which I obtained free with a magazine a while ago. They’re really lovely papers – but the red coloured, 12 days of Christmas, paper I chose for the front was a little too red, so I knocked the colour back by using some Gesso, just applied roughly across the paper once it was adhered to the front.
I’d found some lovely vintage style lace for sale in a local charity shop a while back – and knew that it would be perfect for this card, so added a length to both the top and bottom front of card.
Before I added the vintage picture, I put a little cheesecloth behind the picture, to give it a soft outline, then added the picture and then draped some rayon seam binding around the front in the curvy way I wanted it to lay – but before I finally attached it I threaded a pendant charm onto it, and placed it on the card in the centre of the leading edge. I then fixed the pendant and ribbon into place.
I added some Christmas white paper roses and leaves, and the gilded birdcage, . . . then came the twinkling part! I chose four glitters and roughly mixed them – a gold, a copper, a silver and a little mix of some teeny tiny glitter gems. They’re not exactly glitter – but they aren’t gems either. I’m not sure how to explain them, and I can’t remember where I bought them from as I remember I had to decant them as the original packet split, so I don’t have anything left which I can check up on the name of this glitter sadly. They make a difference to the glitter mix, as it makes it look more ‘opulent’. Fabulous result, which I just love! In places, I also added some teeny tiny gilding flakes – which gave a different depth to the whole project. (You can see some of those tiny pieces of gilding flakes in the photo above which shows a close up of the gilded birdcage.)
And finally . . .
I pinned a Tim Holtz ‘Keepsake’ pindown in the corner of the card, simply because it kind of fitted the whole feeling which I was trying to ‘build’ into the card itself.
I did make a matching box to this card– but again, because I was in such a hurry to get caught up with myself(after being poorly for weeks on end), I totally forgot to take a picture of the box before I gave the card to the teacher last week.
The inside of the card was lined with pale biscuity coloured paper, and I used ribbons inside, in a lovely shade of pink, and the vintage wine coloured ribbon you see on the front – just to add that final touch which made the inside as pretty as the outside.
Well … I’m still trying to catch up and I’m hoping to craft up a storm in my craft room today – so I’ll hopefully see you later.
Have a truly wonderful Monday, – whatever you’re doing.
I’m a scrapbooker, card maker, Melt Pot Marveller; Polymer Clay player … oh! and all sorts of other things – but I’d never made a mini album before. But … I decided to make one for my lovely parcel delivery lady. She’s the best delivery person I’ve ever had, and I really appreciate her for who she is; her kindness; her concern, and how brilliantly she does her job. She goes that extra mile – and nowadays it’s difficult to find someone who does this in their job! I love her to pieces for being so wonderful. (… and yes, I have told her this, whilst giving her a hug).
She said some weeks ago, that she’d love a card or something I’d made – “just for me. Just for myself”. So I put my thinking cap on and thought about what I could make for her which gave a nod to all the things I knew she liked. I wanted something which would have a theme of travelling – she is my parcel delivery lady after all, and she does a LOT of travelling – both in her job and because her family is spread over many miles. But I wanted an album which could be for all those things plus: Day trips with her family. Holidays. Moments in the car. Things she’s seen while she was out and about, and snapped a photo of with the camera on her phone. The Journey of Life in general. (it could even be about her job if she wanted it to be).
I chose the papers ‘Celebrate the Journey’, which are made by one of my favourite paper crafting & rubber stamp companies: Heartfelt Creations and various other bits and pieces which you’ll see in the following photos.
To begin with – I had to make the pages of the album on which I could work.
Being the recycler that I am, I turned to my re-cycling box to find some stiff card which I could use to form the base for the pages. I knew I wanted them to be firm – almost like thin wood, – but I also wanted them to be able to have a slight ‘bendibility’ to them, which would accommodate embellishments on the pages. And this is how I made those base pages:
A HUUGE box of chocolates which was bought for Christmas last year. I saved the box as I knew that it would come in handy for something at some point. (I was right!) 😀
Took the sides off the lid and base, then cut out the sizes I needed for my pages.Glued some craft card to the re-cycled card, to make it rigid, then trimmed to size.Once made, I scored down each page, to ensure that the pages all had a little ‘bendability’ to them, in order to accommodate any thick embellishments which I might add to the pages
Once the pages had been constructed it was time to decorate.
I’m not going to talk you through how to decorate a page because we all decorate differently, – so I’ll just walk with you through the pages and you can look at the finished book as if I’d handed it to you.
The front of the albumclose up of the handmade maps, the ‘Embrace Life’ ticket, brass postcard etc.another ticket; another map – rolled up and tied with bakers twine; a metal embellishment: a butterfly.
Pages 2 and 3. The little ‘blueish’ tag holder, on the left hand page, actually opens. It has a magnetic catch which keeps it closed. You can open it by gently pulling on the silver dragon fly hanging on the silver chain.The little ‘book’ opens, and the tags are pulled out slightly from the hidden pocket.page 3. — (the tags do slide out of the pocket).pages 4 and 5Page 4. All the tags are removable from the pockets, and you can either write / journal on the back of them, or stick photographs to the tags. You can of course attach photo’s to the book page, and glue notes, or journaling, or even glue a tag to the page! The little framed map is actually a photo frame. You and insert a photograph into the frame from the top. The map is a section I cut from a larger map. It’s a map of somewhere which means something to Mrs. Delivery Lady and her family.Page 5Pages 6 and 7. — Spaces for journaling, or:- glueing tickets; receipts; maps; mementos of a trip or journey – or even a sweet wrapper which brings back a memory!Page 6. I hand stamped the bicycle onto the backing paper and then added the hot air balloon, which I die cut from an X-cut die and added the swing tag, which reads: ‘Life – The Great Adventure’.Page 7. A pocket full of tags, and a photograph frame (the heart) – which has a journaling tag which you pull out and write details about the photo.… page 7 … what’s behind the tags? …. now you can see for yourself!
It was at this point that I wanted to put a little fun . . . my delivery lady has a huge sense of fun and she and her daughter love anything to do with fairies – so naturally … it had to be Fairy inspired! . . . .
Pages 8 and 9 …. and . . . . AND . . . ‘The Pocket of Secrets!’
In order to enter the realm of the fae, … one must come with the right key! Can you pick out the right key?The Pocket of Secrets. . . . can you guess what’s inside?. . . . a key, . . . . and . . . . captured and sealed behind resin and attached to a metal charm, a KEY! … and there beside it is …. a the tiniest vial of Fairy Dust!page 9. What’s behind the Fairy Doors? . . . .A tiny peep behind the Fairy Doors!There’s a BIG tag behind the doors …. ‘Believe’ – well do you? …. Do you see the tiny wish Bone? (it’s not a paper cut out, nor is it made from card or such like!) … ah, but you can only make a wish if you truly believe, otherwise … how is your wish supposed to come true?Pages 10 and 11 ~ Somewhere to add notes, mementos, and somewhere to add photographs and memories.page 10 – “A photograph is like a recipe. It’s a memory of the finished dish.” — This is a removable photo book within the mini album! The whole of this smaller photo book can actually be removed from the album, and even, if need be, every page can be individually removed, to be written on or something glued to it etc. It’s a clever little detail which I loved!Pages of the smaller photo book. Each page has a section where the story of the photograph which will be attached below it, can be written.The little photo book is completely removable.Hidden tags.
And that brings us to the back of the mini album….
I thoroughly enjoyed making this mini album – although it took me a handful of weeks to complete due to poor health. I’ve been suffering with a chronic sinus infection which has, most days, totally wiped me off my feet. My delivery lady knew that I was making something for her, and was so patient. She never asked once about it. I finally got to give the album to her last weekend, and I know that she’s been waiting for me to post photographs of the album on my blog here, so that she could tell her friends to come and take a peep at it.
So a big ‘HELLOoooo’ to all new readers and fabulous friends of my delivery lady!
I know that my delivery lady will see that some of the photographs here might be missing tiny little details which are actually on the album in real life. This was because I added little touches to the album after I’d taken these photo’s.
For those who might like to make something similar, or may be wondering about something I’ve used in the making of the mini, I add a list of the items and products used:
Heartfelt Creations 12×12 Celebrate the Journey papers.
” ” Timeless Clock stamp
” ” Celebrate the Journey Sentiments stamps
” ” Time Sentiments stamps
” ” World Map stamp
” ” Bike Stamp
Spellbinders (for Heartfelt Creations) Once Upon a Time Die
Pinflair Gentle Blends in various colours (Denim, Teal,
Ranger Melting Pot
Dovecraft Ric Rac in Black
seam binding / glitter ribbon / string / silk ribbon / Bakers Twine – used for ties, tags, bows and decorations etc.
Kraft/craft card
Black ‘Linen effect’ card
Tim Holtz Idealology metal keyhole
Ranger Stickles in various colours
Spellbinders Die D-lites ~ Birds Scroll.
Sheena Douglass embossing folder
Assorted tags – both bought and hand cut, but all decorated and adorned by me.
Resin birds in flight.
…… and various other bits and pieces which I’ve probably forgotten to add to this list.
If there’s anything you can see in the photo’s which I haven’t mentioned in the above list, but you want to know about it, please just ask in a comment. I’m more than happy to help. If there’s a certain something in the photographs which you’ve spotted and need to know how I did something etc etc … again, please feel free to ask. I’m not one of those people who won’t share things. I’m more than happy to help fellow crafters – just leave a question in the comment section and I promise to reply.
Thank you SO much for stopping by and taking the time to read and have a look at the photographs.
Finally … a message to my lovely delivery lady… I’m sorry it’s taken me a week to get these photo’s onto my blog. I’m being invaded by germs! eeeeeeeek! But I got there in the end. 😉
Have a truly lovely weekend everyone. Me? I’m too blessed to be stressed about being so poorly, so I’ll carry on carrying on! 😀
I’m going to attempt to say as little as possible in this post(because I’m WAY too ‘wordy’), and instead just add ‘points’ to tell the story of what went into the making of this card, in case you’d like to make one like it.
↑ ↑ ↑
White 8 x 8″ scored & folded card on which to build the finished card + 2 x sheets of Kraft (craft) card + 1 sheet of Black card.
Measure, cut and attach the black card to the front of the white base card.
↑ ↑ ↑
Embossed one sheet of craft card in a ‘hessian’ effect embossing folder
↑ ↑ ↑
Cut into the edge of the ‘hessian’ card to make it looked like frayed hessian. Then lightly dragged some ink in three colours over the hessian effect so that it looked grungy. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t blended properly – most of it isn’t going to be seen – but it’s more important for it to have that ‘old and battered’ look.
Attach the ‘hessian’ to the black card which is fixed glued to the front of the card.
↑ ↑ ↑
Embossed another sheet of card (cut to size) – but this time the Kraft card is a warmer shade than the ‘hessian’ effect card.
↑ ↑ ↑
Die cut a bike and fill the ‘basket’ on the front of the bike with an assortment of flowers. Add brads to the centre of the wheels, then attach the bike to the card.
↑
Stamp up a tag with the sentiment.
(The wiggly border on the tag is hand drawn with a fine tipped pen).
Die cut a fob watch shape, added a metal clock face, pointer – and a ‘dis-armed’ large brad cap. (there’s a smaller, hidden brad which holds the pointer in place and because of that the pointer actually does spin round!) Attach the fob watch to the front of the card – over the ‘hole’ in the tag, so that it looks like the tag and watch are ‘paired’
Add a brown ribbon bow.
Ta dah! Finished.
Thank you for coming and taking a look at one of my card makes.
I really like this card. Do you like it too? Please – let me know!
The Art of Cobwebs 