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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The Armour of God – ‘Shield of Faith’ Pendant

The Armour of God – Shield of Faith Pendant. handmade by Cobwebs at The Cobweborium Emporium https://thecobweboriumemporium.wordpress.com/

The Shield of Faith

I made this pendant for a young relative who is religious and who has always like this type of steampunk style jewellery.  She’s always been the one who stands out from the crowd, so I thought this combination of everything which speaks of her faith, combined with her love of the ‘alternative’ style of jewellery might just hit the spot.

 

tucked into the presentation box was this little book style leaflet which I put together, and which quotes the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6:10-18.  For those of you who may have just glazed over …  (lol) ..  if you want to understand what I’m going on about then perhaps check out Wikipedia, and in its search bar just put  ‘Armour of God’.  It will take you where you need to be in order to read. 

I didn’t want to start quoting biblical passages here as this isn’t a religious blog, it’s simply a post in my Craft blog, about an item of jewellery I’ve made, but it just happens to have a religious theme to the pendant.  (But if you’re not in the least bit religious – it’s just a great Steampunk pendant!)

I have to admit that I’m fairly new to my Ranger Melting Pot  (which I’ve christened  The Cauldron).  I bought it and then sat looking at it for several weeks, terrified of it.  It seemed so ‘major’.  Such a professional looking item which required someone with way more skill than I had.  But … eventually I talked myself into getting the darn thing out on my desk and plugging it in.  From that moment I was hooked.  AND HOW!!

If you’ve never used one, then I highly recommend it.  It’s the most fascinating, amazing, awe-inspiring bit of kit and you honestly don’t have to be a brain surgeon to get it working for you in the way you want it to work.  I’ll be making a post about this machine in the ‘Products I Recommend‘ category on my blog, very soon.  So if you are interested in possibly purchasing this bit of kit then check back and I’ll put together as comprehensive post about it as I can muster and get it up and ‘live’ by the end of this current week.

But .. back to the pendant:  The necklace which it hangs from is made from a length of velvet ribbon in a rich warm green (it had a posh name for the colour, but my memory is rubbish so that name has gone by the by).  I turned this length of ribbon into the necklace you see in the photograph by the addition of some jewellery ribbon ends – which are like little clamps with teeth which grip the ends of the ribbon so that it’s held firmly.  I added some jump rings and then two lobster claw clasps.  Voila – one necklace ready and waiting for a pendant.

  The pendant:  I did a rough sketch of what I had in mind and then set about making it.  I chose the hobnailed bezel you see in the photograph and then searched through my stash for a cross which was the right shape and size to fit into that bezel.  Once I’d found it, I then wanted to make it ‘glow’ in such a way that it showed clearly through the poured liquid which was to complete the pendant.  So I used some Cosmic Shimmer glitter and flake Glue which I dabbed all over the cross, waited just a moment or two for it to get to a tacky stage and then covered the cross in a mix of silver, rose gold and yellow gold gilding flakes, so that it had a multi toned effect – but you couldn’t really see where one colour finished and the other began.

Then it was time to turn on the Melt Pot.  (hears the notes to The Twilight Zone in the background)….   Into the Cauldron Melt Pot I poured some clear Cosmic Shimmer Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals – not too much, but enough to make what I guessed was enough to fill up the bezel and then a little more, just to be on the safe side.

I added some inks – Cosmic Shimmer Melt Inks,  … don’t use any other inks in your melt pot because other inks aren’t meant for the Ranger Melting Pot and if you get the wrong inks then the whole molten liquid can explode – you have been warned, –  which, because I used CLEAR Ultra thick crystals, the inks simply coloured the clear [now] liquid in the melt pot.  The colour remained transparent but the more ink you use, the deeper the colour gets.  I then added a little pearl shimmer ultra thick crystals, which gave the liquid a look as if some sort of magic was happening somewhere in that mix.

I poured a small amount of the hot molten liquid into the triangle bezel and quick as I could, I then ‘set’ the cross into that tiny bit of liquid while it was still in its ‘un-set’ state.  I needed to do this so that the cross was held in the place where I wanted it to be, so that it didn’t float around the bezel when I poured more liquid on the top.  I gave it a moment or two to cool off and then I sprinkled some tiny specks of gold gilding flakes over the inside of the bezel and then carefully poured more of the molten liquid over the cross and carefully filled up the bezel to just the right level so that it was domed a little, but not so that it was close to over-flowing.  All I had to do then was wait.  Not long.  Just wait a little while for the whole thing to cool down – which honestly doesn’t take long at all.  Maximum ten/15 minutes for it to be totally cold.

And there you have it.  One Steampunk pendant … or pendant with a religious theme (depending upon which way you want to look at it).

There is a little more to the Cauldron  Ranger Melting Pot which you need to know if you’re going to invest in one.  Either click to ‘follow’ me (that way you’ll get an email when I post something new on here) so that you won’t miss out on the post in ‘Products I Recommend’ which will be about the Melt Pot, or remember to keep popping back and checking my blog out so that you don’t miss it.

Have a great day all  ~