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Card by Louise Crosbie
Hello everyone.
Today I am sharing a simple card with you. This blog post has two inspirations.
The first was the purpose for the card itself. One of my friends, who lives alone, has been struggling with lockdown after dark. Something about the sun going down is making her feel even more trapped than she would through the day. We talked about it online a few times and she became tearful saying how silly she felt becoming afraid of the dark at her age. It could happen to any of us and is quite understandable but as I can not really visit or be in her house I wasn’t sure how to help. I decided to take a pair of my powerful binoculars to her. (I handed them over much like one might imagine doing a hostage exchange during the Cold War lol) and we made a point of going to our own gardens and discussing the night sky. Finding tips online as to what to look out for on specific dates. And she tells me it has really helped as she now looks out most nights to check if it is a clear sky or not.
Anyway... this card is for her. It seemed appropriate.
The second inspiration is another friend who is quite new to crafting. She saw some of my scrapbook pages and asked if I could share the process of making them look so “old and manky”. After exploring what old and manky meant for her I discovered she meant distressed and vintage lol.
I am aware I do not say a lot about my process in my blog posts. Mostly because I don’t think I have one. I start and “hope for the best”. Often it goes wrong so I keep “fixing it” till I finally have something I like. But also because I think a lot of what I have done, to make a project, is self explanatory. But on retrospect I realise not everyone is a seasoned crafter and people who are new to crafting like to get some tips. So this is my attempt at describing a little of my process. It is not the scrapbook layout my friend asked about but it has similar steps to follow.
I used my stamperia Cosmos paper pad and started by selecting and cutting out some images and embellishments I wanted to use. I may not use them all or may need others but these were my starting point. The quote about the stars needing darkness to shine being the main inspiration.
You might spot the owl has no tail. That is because it was not taken from an actual page. It was part of the front cover. But why waste it? I will try and blend it in somehow.
So I have my background and some bits cut out. Very clean and neat and so very ‘not’ me.
I wanted to bring out more of the colour on the background paper I was using. It has some hints of an Aqua /tealish colour, purple, and fawn in it.
I decided to use distress oxides or distress inks. I didn’t have anything in the teal (must get some) so I substituted a blue. In the end I used a mix of oxides and distress inks. I did each colour separately and dried with a heat gun before doing the next. Here is how it ended up.
Now , for the benefit of my friend who asked about the layout, this is how I get that old peeling away wallpaper or poster effect ...
I cut some triangular notches out firstly. I usually do three. Artistically speaking, odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye. You can make the notches as small or as big as you like. Depending on how much of the underlying layer you want to show through. I don’t have an interesting under layer for this. Just the blank card. So small notches.
For the next bit you can use a paper distresser or the edge of blunt scissors, your nails, whatever. I have the option of a paper distresser but I always end up using my nails lol. Gently rough up the paper along all the edges. Get into the notches too. And then using some vintage photo distress ink, a blending tool (or bit foam or cosmetic sponge )and some water in a spray mister, lightly stain all the roughed up edges.
Now the embellishments or features I cut out to use will need the same treatment on the edges as they would now look very out of place if they were all neat straight clean lines.
I also used an ancient sizzix die to cut out stars from some Kraft paper in appropriate colours and went over them with sandpaper to distress them.
It is the only star die I own but it wasn’t really quite right for this card. But we work with what we have.
I put it all together with dimensional double sided foam tape then added some finishing touches of sparkle using blue and purple glitter glue.
There you have it. A card.
Seems like a huge post for just one card.
Here are some other photos of it to show the dimensional aspect of it.
I put it all together with dimensional double sided foam tape then added some finishing touches of sparkle using blue and purple glitter glue.
There you have it. A card.
Seems like a huge post for just one card.
Here are some other photos of it to show the dimensional aspect of it.
Supply List:
Blank card and envelope from Pack of 6 cards.
Stamperia: Cosmos 12x12 paper pad
Finnabair Glitter/Abloom (mixed with a little glue).
Dimensional double sided foam tape.
Distress oxide: Faded Jeans (but I wish I had had Cracked Pistachio.)
Distress ink: Vintage photo and Dusty Concord.
blending tool
Water mister spray.
Paper distresser
Distress oxide: Faded Jeans (but I wish I had had Cracked Pistachio.)
Distress ink: Vintage photo and Dusty Concord.
blending tool
Water mister spray.
Paper distresser
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