The "Hush Hush" Commission for Dave's Birthday

G'day, how are you today?
Today is July 11th and the day I can show you the card that has been hush hush until now. You may recall that the brief was for a Red and Black card. I can now tell you why.

The story starts in December 2011 when I received my first commission from Gail (Dave's Wife) to make him a Christmas card; and more critically that this would be a key component of her gift to him.

OK no pressure!
I thought about what I would do for a while. Then I happened to be in the Reject Shop in Coffs Harbour and they had some Fabulous Gift boxes on sale - - - and I found the perfect box.

It inspired the card. Let me show you . . . .

It was a BIG box about 12" tall and 9" wide and about 3" deep. I placed it on our Lounge floor to photograph the lid and the base together.

In the bottom of the box wrapped in red tissue paper would be Chocolates, Sweets, Christmas Cookies etc. the card would sit on top as shown here.

My next pictures show this in more detail
. . . . Take a look . . .

Here is a close up view of Dave's Christmas card.

So, the reason for his Birthday card being Red and Black was because "THE BOX" was to make its appearance again.
My card would need to be another large one, if it wasn't to look lost in the box. The finished card size of his Birthday card is 81/2" x 9". 


Here it is:

How did I construct it?
I began by creating the card base by matting and layering DCWV Black card-stock, on top a red card-stock layer (from my stash bought at Office Works).

Then on my computer I used the small (and FREE) program that you may have come across called Wordle - word clouds.
By entering a whole heap of words you generate a word cloud.

This is a reiterative process until you are happy with the look. You can change the orientation and font (to some extent).

Once I got the layout I liked, I printed off Two copies. I intended to do some colouring and decoupage.




I adhered one of the printed sheets onto the top of the card ensuring I cut it out with a white border. On the bottom of the card I added a black piece of card stock. I used a piece of diagonal striped black and white ribbon from my stash and covered the join.

Next I coloured the second printed sheet using my red Copics: R29, R27, R24. Then I cut some of the words out and decoupaged them onto the card in the appropriate place. I used Spica Clear and Red pens to add a bit of shine to the words I had coloured.

It's amazing where you get your inspiration from isn't it? I saw a card made by one of the Blogsters I follow and she had used the New Wild Rose Studio - DIY Legend A7 Clear Stamp Set and I knew it would be a stamp that I would use, so got myself one. NOW was when it was exactly what I needed. I coloured it with a variety of "N" and "C" type Copic pens. As it was a bit like a James Bond image and I thought I would add 0054 not 007. (Can you guess why???).

I looked on Google and came across a copyright free Drill Bit image. Then I made some quick pennants by hand, using red card-stock and added the numbers using gold peel-offs. The white lines were made with a Motolow paint pen. I placed these pennants over red and white bakers twine and attached them to the Drill bit image I had printed off.

To finish off the card I added a couple of Antique Silver Franchecille metal charm embellishments. Then used Xmas Red and Crystal Stickles to add a bit of glitter.

For inside the card I used Word Art on my computer and played around with colours and layouts to make the image you see here. I printed out the words and fussy cut them out; sticking them onto red card-stock which created the matted layer on the inside of the card.













Here are the details of most of the ingredients I used to make this card:

DCVW Bright Mat Stack Pad 12 x 12	Scor-Pal Tool	New Wild Rose Studio - DIY Legend	At You Spica Pens - set B	COPIC Sketch Markers
Google searched Image - Drill Bit	Stickles - Crystal	Stickles - Xmas Red	Really Reasonable Ribbon - Bakers Twine	Francheville metal charm embellishments: Antique Silver
Molotow White Paint Marker 127HS

InLinkz.com

Thanks very much for stopping by to read about the "Hush Hush" card. I certainly enjoyed making it - once I knew what the main concept would be! Hope your day is going well.

A card for Jo

Hello again. I do hope you are having a Great day.

I am married to a very loving and patient (on many occasions) man called Frits. With a name like that it wouldn't be a hard guess to think he might be a Dutchman. Well you' be right (he's an Australian Citizen too!). He has brothers and sisters who live in Holland and Germany. It is the German side of the family I was celebrating with my card today.

Marlies is one of my lovely sisters-in-law and it was her Husband Jo's birthday on June 30th.
Here is the card I made for him.

Jo has fantastic manual dexterity and can do anything practical that he sets his mind too. So I thought a few tools made of shrink plastic would do the trick. This is another shaker card. I think I have improved the recipe a little.

You will recognise these from a previous post (and the freebie Template attached there).
You can see it here: http://sazz303.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/fathers-day-shaker-card-rrr48-challenge.html

The sentiment in German means "Heartfelt greetings/wishes on your birthday". I cut a matting layer for this using Spellbinders Romantic Rectangles S5-090 on Dark Brown card stock from DCWV Neutral Mat Stack 12 x 12 pad (which I also used as the main layer to mat the whole card).
I used my Crafters Block paper pad for the two background papers,  and a WISHmade 3D sticker "On your special day" was added on the bottom left. 

The lace is actually a 3D Gel Border by PORTACraft (I bought these at Catchy Crafts in Hornsby  http://www.catchycrafts.com.au/catalog/default.php)  I popped a few Chocolate Kaiser Craft Pearls at intervals on top of the border. The Wooden Time piece was a purchase at the Brisbane Expo in June (Kaiser Craft).

So a quick post today. I may do another this evening. We are shortly off to watch the latest Spider Man movie (we have a special invite to this premier showing as we are REALLY keen movie watchers). I'll tell you about it when I next write.

Ingredients I used for Jo's card:

Thanks for stopping by today, I really appreciate you popping in to see what I have been up to!

Father's Day Shaker Card (RRR48 Challenge)

G'day. How are things in your neck of the woods today? It's been a little hectic in the last few days work wise and flexibility required us to be up in Brisbane for a work project at almost the eleventh hour.

The GREAT thing is I discovered that there is a Scrapbooking and Papercraft Expo on at the Brisbane Conference and Exhibition centre between June 9th - 11th. So I have bought some class tickets and we are making a weekend of it.

Frits my (very patient and lovely) husband is going with me, not to attend the Expo, he has decided to spend the day Whale watching including a cruise past all the homes of the wealthy and famous! So we'll both be kept busy doing something we love or will enjoy!

My card today is another experiment and a second entry to the Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge #48.

I have made my first "Shaker" card!
The photo isn't all it could be, you can at least get an idea. The Shaker box has tools made of shrink plastic inside. 

The plastic shaker shell was part of some packaging from some brads I bought. (We crafters never throw anything away!!!)

How is the card Constructed.

I used some mustard yellow cardstock (my usual DCWV Matchmakers Neutral) and cut a piece of card 7.25" x 7". Then I scored .5" from the top of the 7.25" to make a fold (so the finished card is 6.75" x 7").

I then cut a piece of white card stock 6.75" x 7". This would become the back piece of the card at a later stage.


I then cut a piece of MME Design paper 6" x 6.5" and adhered this to the front of my mustard yellow card front. Use a glue not DST as it may hinder the die cutting, which is the next step.

Using my Spellbinders Classic Circles LG (S4 - 114) I then found the size of die that would slip over my plastic shaker shell. Using the chosen die I cut a circle from the card front with the design paper already glued to it.

The next step was to add DST (Double Sided Tape) 1/8" all round the flat edge on the shaker shell on the edge facing upwards. By slipping the card over the shaker box the card front now sticks to the shaker box. So far so good!

Using Spellbinders Blossom, Tags and Accents Die I cut and embossed a piece of matching card stock with the largest die, then again using the Spellbinders Classic Circles LG (S4 - 114) cut out the centre, so this too would sit over the shaker box and provide a nice finish.

Using a Black piece of the RRR May Subscription ribbon I used 1/2" DST to stick this around the sides of the shaker box and on top of this a piece of the RRR Black and White Bakers Twine and tied a little bow.




Now for the content of the shaker box!

I made a drawing of some typical tools found in most Toolboxes. First of all I drew them in pencil on a sheet of paper.
In my stash I have some opaque Shrink plastic, and using a Permanent thin marker and my drawings as a template, created what would be the contents of the shaker box. You could add more items if you wanted to.
I used a couple of COPIC sketch pens to shade the pieces. Then using my heat Gun had fun watching them shrink and harden.








Here is a link to a free download page of my pencil drawing if you'd like to use it. (BTW not for re-sale or commercial use, my copyright applies - thanks for your understanding).





I added the tools to the shaker box and used the circle (cut from the centre of the Blossom, Tags and Accents card stock) to make the initial backing so the pieces didn't fall out.

This picture shows the inside of the card. The top shows the design paper I used to cover the back of the shaker card.

Having now got my shaker in place I folded the 1/2" score mark made earlier (on top of my front card piece of the mustard yellow cardstock) and used this flap to stick (with DST) the white card stock to the card front so that it would now become the back of the card. You can see this clearly in the picture.

I covered the inside with a piece of Crafters Choice, Pastel basics 120 Paper pack on the top and on the bottom a similarly coloured plain mustard yellow design paper. The sentiment reads: "I'm as lucky as can be for the world's best dad belongs to me". I typed this into my PC, printed it on white cardstock and cut it out using Spellbinders Beaded Ovals (S4 - 294) .

Then on the card front I used a Hero Arts Stamp (F2459 Special Things You Do) with Memento Tuxedo Blank ink on a piece of the Mustard yellow cardstock, cut and embossing it with a Spellbinders Labels 25 (S5 - 077) die. Then I drew around the edge of the same die and fussy cut a piece of Green cardstock as a layer piece. I used foam pads to stick the message on the green layer then used DST to add the medallion to the card.

Using the sentiment from the elements on my earlier Fathers Day card  I cut out and layered the sentiment on the same green card stock as the medallion. Two "Francheville" (Spotlight) black gingham button brads finished off the card.

Voila! I certainly surprised myself at how it all came together without so much as a hitch.

Thanks for stopping by and having a read of my blog. I had a lot of fun making this card. I had forgotten the fun that using shrink plastic gives you - it's a bit like that moment when you heat emboss and see the powder melt. Goes to show there's still an inner child in all of us eh? Maybe we need to let it out more?????

RRR Challenge #48 - Father's Day/Masculine with Ribbon or Trim

Hi, how are you and how are things where you are? This post is another exciting milestone for me as it is my first response to a themed challenge. This particular one is from one of my favourite stores - Really Reasonable Ribbon. The theme of the  challenge is: A Father's Day or Masculine card, layout, multi media piece, tag, ATC, hair bow, you name it. So long as  ribbon or lace is used somewhere on the project.

This is a Father's Day Card.

How was the card constructed?

The card base was cut from a 12" x 12" piece of white card stock, the finished size of the card once folded is 6.5" x 6".
I created the black polka dot paper on my computer as well as the sentiments for the card. Having printed the polka dot paper I cut it to size and layered it on some red card stock.
The red and black card stock are from a pack of DCWV matchmakers Bright card stock.

The medallion for the card  was made using Spellbinders Lacy Ovals Die (S4 - 314) and red card stock, then Spellbinders Ovals Large die (S4 - 110) with black card stock.
The image is a Digi stamp from La La Land stamps and coloured with Prisma Color pencils and blended using the Gamsol Technique.

The button was made using my computer generated sentiment which was cut and embossed using Spellbinders Classic Circles  Large (S4 - 114). The red layer was cut with Spellbinders Large Classic Inverted Scallop Circles (S4 - 194).

These two layers of circles were adhered together with Foam pads with two pieces of ribbon taped between these layers.
The red ribbon came from RRR January 2012 ribbon subscription club pack and the Black came from the RRR May 2012  ribbon subscription club pack.


I finished the card with a sentiment across the base of the card printed onto white card stock and pinned to the polka dot layer with two small red brads (from my stash).









Here are the main ingredients that I used to make this card:

Click Me

New Update: For the Free Download page which includes paper and sentiments click on PDF Image










Thanks for looking at my post today. It was fun being challenged to make a card with a specific theme. I might try another one soon. Father's day is celebrated in many countries on the third Sunday of June. Here in Australia it is celebrated on Sunday, 2nd September 2012.