Behind the Yart - Oh, THERE'S the Rooster!

It was months ago I got a message from Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft that they needed a single Fathers Day card - it needed to have the words "Happy Father's Day" on it, but apart from that, go nuts.

Well, it's just appeared in print, so it's time for me to take you ... behind the yart!

I took out some favourite materials and started tinkering. A page torn from a dictionary (such a favourite background of mine!), glued onto some base card, then covered in gesso. When that was dry, I brushed on some Golden paints, kind of dry brushed. I started with Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold (let's call that "gold") and Naphthol Red Medium (let's call that "red"). I punched a rooster (That's a Carl punch, but not one I've seen very often - I pounced on it when I saw it) out of the painted card, and admired it for a while.

Then I went back to the painted dictionary page, and stamped a square frame (from My Stamps- I used Frame Set 2, which you can get from Cathy at a very reasonable $20.50!), and then stamped OVER that with some pretty swirls (from Eclectic Images). When you cut out the frame it looks like it all went together from the start. The photo shows you a little bit of frame.

From there I just went mad with adding bits (and taking bits away when it went too silly). That orange ink is Pumpkin Pie from Stampin' Up! (available at a very reasonable $11.95 pp from - me!).

I decided I needed some kind of border around the rooster - I tried adding a little black pen, which some people do so beautifully, but it looked rotten when I did it. So instead I punched the same shape from black gloss card, and mounted them just off center. Very nice little shadow effect.

The gauzy fabric is old bandage - 'old' meaning from an old, unused roll I got from Reverse Art Truck, not, umm, old. You know. The eyelets came from a garage sale (there's always something recycled on my cards!).

The alphabet set was a cheapie from Studio G, which I think is an offshoot of Hampton Arts. At about $3, you get a lot of stamp for your money, but if you are serious about alphabets, I'd look at better quality stamps. Even here, I managed to get a few dots of extra ink onto the page, from not-very-well-trimmed stamps. Didn't notice it until the card was in print, natch!

The cute thing about this project was that the leftover scraps on the table got me making all kinds of OTHER stuff - see The Rooster Chronicles!

And in case you are wondering WHY the asked me to make something; it's because I've been sending in projects pretty regularly. They don't accept them all - generally for good reason. But a magazine office has to have a list of "regulars", and the only way to get on it is to do the work.

Have a look at Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft, volume 15 number 1 - it's the one for sale right now. It's most unusual in layout - each 'article' is an occasion for cardmaking, and each contributor has just made one card. So it's pretty packed with variety!