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!
Got too much bandwidth? Need to use it up before the end of the month? Why not waste some on Cute Things Falling Asleep? Which is exactly what it sounds like.
... when things were really big, you know? Giant woolly mammoths roamed the plains, enormous wombats plundered all kinds of vegetation (that's actually true, look it up), and punches were made so big a small child could get lost inside one. Here's the evidence. I've used a Lego minifig to show scale.
In case that's not totally convincing, here's that same punch, from EK Success, sitting next to a "Whale of a Punch" from the same company ; the previous biggest punch in the range. The whale looks positively krill-like, doesn't it?
Or from the Cartoon Cretaceous period, anyway.
So I had to make a card with it quick smart. Here you go, dinosaurs at night. The "stars" are stamped in Stampin' Up white ink (the whitest white I've ever found, and no hassle to use), with a Lucy's stamps "Aging block" as the dot pattern. The alphabet is a retired Stampin' Up one - I love all alphabet stamps, so there's no such thing as retired at my place!
I ran a Trivia night for the school. It all came together on Saturday night, when over 100 people came to laugh and play.
Elke and Anne-Maree hung 99 balloons from an umbrella, each with a lucky number inside. Each balloon won a prize, and we happily popped all 99 of them. Elke was delighted with the number of balloons - 'neun und neunzig Luftballons'. But for some reason she wasn't keen to sing that into the microphone.
There's the crowd - see how happy they look? See how much they want to open their wallets and hand over most of the cash, if only someone can make it worth their while!
Earning bonus points - gentlemen dressing up as ladies... awwww.
The goals in life for a person who contributes projects to craft magazines are :
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.
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.
... what a 48 page exercise book would look like if you cut the pages into 4.5 cm squares? Thought you had! Here's what it would look like.
Altered what? Well, penguin, of course. That's him over there.
I haven't posted a creepy toy for a few days ... so here's one to keep you going.
Everyone asked me why I threw them away...
Then you cook the puree up with a mix of garlic, chillies, ginger and other good things, until its thick and rich. Jar it up in sterilised jars, and get your clever daughter to label them.
