What:
This card started off with the idea of having the amigos hanging their signs out of windows and developed from there. I had a long think about what to use to fill the shaker windows — as the card was still quite masculine at this point, I didn’t want to add pretty sequins or tiny beads, but obviously something had to go in there. When the idea of using the crumpled paper stamp came to me I hesitated. I liked the idea, but knew it would mean having to fussy cut a lot of small pieces. I did think about getting the matching die set, but that would leave a white border around the paper balls, so I just went for it and, in fact, it didn’t really take that long to do.
This is one of those cards where all the ideas seemed to work pretty much as I’d hoped and I was really happy with the end result. But it’s always nice to have other people appreciate your work, so when I posted this on Instagram and it was reposted by the guys running the Mama Elephant account I was dead chuffed.
How:
I had a piece of watercolour card handy so I used that for the brick wall; it holds the Distress ink well and adds a little bit of texture to the finished effect. The main brick colour came from rusty hinge, with fired brick being added in places to give a bit of variety. Once I’d finished with the stencil, I blended a little more rusty hinge over the edges just to give them a bit of definition. Then I die cut the windows and carefully sponged a little more ink over those edges as well.
The amigos were stamped in Memento tuxedo black ink and coloured with Copics. I then took a scalpel and carefully cut around the bottom third of their signs so they could be hung over the window edges. A small dab of glue (Tombow mono multi) on their feet and on the back of the signs held them in position.
Before fixing the acetate in place, I remembered to mark the position of the windows on the card base so I could glue the window background papers in the right place. I also added a layer of vellum over the backgrounds, just to tone down the pattern so it didn’t distract from the cute critters.
When the crumpled paper balls had all been stamped, coloured and fussy cut, the only thing left was to assemble the card. This involved large amounts of foam tape around the back of the windows and the edges of the stencilled panel (I never skimp on foam tape), piling the shaker contents on the middle of the window backgrounds, and carefully lining up the panel over them.
Now all I have to do is figure out who deserves to get this for their birthday 🙂
Lessons Learned:
Cardstock may be thin, but it can still wedge together when used as the content for a shaker.
Supplies:
- stamps:
Mama Elephant – three amigos - dies:
Lawn Fawn – small stitched squares - stencils:
My Favourite Things – small brick wall - colour:
Distress – ink pad – rusty hinge, fired brick - Copic markers:
Fox – YR23, YR34, YR27, YR30, E39
Fox hat – N7, N9, 100
Raccoon – W1, W3, W5, W7, W9
Signs – G000, G0000
Crumpled paper – variety of pale Copics - paper and card:
Bo Bunny – paper pad – autumn song collection
Dovecraft – premium vellum
Hunkydory Crafts – heavyweight acetate
Crafter’s Companion – watercolour card
Crafty Rat 