Behind the Yart - punch style!

Who wants to go Behind The Yart? I had a project published in "Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft" volume 15 no 2 (the one you'll see on the newsstands now, I think). And this particular one, I really love! That's not always the case - sometimes I make a project and sent it off, and get a horrified surprise months later when I see it in print. What? I'm THAT messy? Do I know NOTHING about colours? But not this time - I liked it when I sent it, and I like it still.

My title for the project was "Swirly Punching" - the editors changed that to "Marvellous Metallics" - fair enough too.

I had bought the two punches that inspired this project back in October last year, and I even blogged about them. That was a big day for me, 'cos I was still recovering from heart troubles. I drove in, and had lots of rests during the day (yay for STC swapping, such a great excuse to sit down).

When I got home I started playing with the punches, and stuck some of the scraps into my journal. I had some scraps of metallic paper on my desk, and used that.











So that lead to an ATC similar to this one (but not very well laid out - the bird was in the wrong spot). I showed it to Chris, and she agreed. I used this Canson metallic card as my base, because we had scored a whole ream of it at Reverse Art Truck when we went there together once! So no shortage of that particular colour round here! All the other metallic card was quality offcuts from Pedigree Papers. Yes, I'm stingy with materials, so I'll try to be generous with ideas!

The ATC was a real favourite of mine, not least because I got to use the "postage stamp" punch again; but it didn't look finished. Chris showed me her new scallop edge punch, a Stampin' Up product that was coming in a mini catalogue just a few days away. THAT WAS WHAT I NEEDED! As soon as I could make the order I did, and it arrived just a few days after that. So that's why the project is scallops-a-go-go (I don't regret it one bit!).

So, the ATC got edged and mounted onto card, but there was still something... I plundered the ribbon container, and found some wide vintage lace. Real vintage, probably from an op shop. That was nice. So that was how the "Spry" card was made. You'll see I got in another scrap from the dictionary, and a cut out word.

From there it was all variations of the colour scheme - I tried hard to keep the pieces looking like a family, but all nice and different from each other - also like a family!

Very happy with punches that work equally well as positives or negatives, like the cool McGills bird punch. Yes, I did wiggle it around to get good words showing through the holes. You've got to do the extra like that when it's for a magazine! Once I made an art doll with scraps of dictionary on it; turned out the word "dysentry" was fairly prominent. Luckily it was a RAK for a nurse-stamper with a sense of humour.

Didn't waste the punched out bits either. Those tiny flowers were the perfect accent. I was using ordinary PVA glue in a little bottle that I keep refilling - it has a fine nozzle. Yes, it does get jammed from time to time; I have a couple of them. Yes, I get PVA on my work sometimes; I have to discard the pieces I can't make presentable. Once again, little flowers are very good for hiding little flaws!


And here's a final one - the big square card called "Rose Leaf". That ribbon embellishment at the bottom was fun - again, a scrap of interesting op shop ribbon, but I threaded it through a punched circle-with-a-hole-in-the-middle punch by EK Success (it's a nice one). And it looks really nifty!

So that's it for Behind The Yart. I don't think there's any articles in the works for me right now, so it's high time to make another one... good think I have about 100 ideas!