Sunday 13 January 2013

Maps

If my husband is anything to go by, a lot of men love maps and it's often the first thing I reach for when making a man's card. Years ago, my grandmother gave me a fabulous old book that belonged to my Great, Great Uncle and it's full of old maps on pull-out parchment sheets. Being very old, the book is out of copyright. I scanned all the maps and often use one as background paper, as in this card. I love the way the tears and creases in the paper come through on the scan, and add to the aged look by inking with distress inks.

"Maps"

The map is layered onto blue card and wrapped around three times with silver thread, securing at the back with ds tape. A couple of lengths of ribbon are added to the front with little notches cut out of the ends so they look like pennants. Then the whole thing is matted onto black card, hiding all the sticky bits on the back.

Thanks to the lovely people at Justrite for the fabulous stamp set I won just before Christmas. This new stamp makes the perfect focal point. Stamped in black archival ink and heat-embossed in clear, the stamp is diecut with the matching die and the edges inked with distress inks. Two more diecuts are cut from blue and black card, and these cut in half horizontally then stuck behind the main image to make shadow frames. The layered piece is stuck onto the finished card with foam tape for extra dimension.

"Elephant"

The card layout follows the sketch in this fortnight's Justrite Challenge, but I couldn't resist adding this flying elephant in place of a bow. The hot air balloon is shaped with an embossing tool and has a tiny eyelet set into it's basket. The elephant charm is tied to the eyelet with more of that silver thread, so that it hangs beneath the hot air balloon, and the balloon is fixed to the card with a dab of Pinflair.

Ingredients:
Justrite stamp set - Going Places Vintage Labels
Spellbinders Justrite Custom Die - JB-03730 Vintage Label & Banner Dies
Distress ink pads: Pumice Stone, Stormy Sky, Antique Linen
Clear embossing powder
Hot Air Balloon
Elephant charm
1/16" eyelet
ribbon
silver thread
adhesives: foam tape, ds tape, PVA, Pinflair

Entered for the following challenges:
Justrite Friday Challenge  088 - Sketch
Simon Says Stamp and Show...Embrace the Old

11 comments:

  1. What an innovative idea to create your background Maddy and I really like the layout you used your card which highlights the pages beautifully.

    B x

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  2. What a fabulous card. Love the backing paper - wonderful idea.

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  3. This is a super idea to a man. I often feel it can be difficult to get ideas to a card for a man.

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  4. Fabulous card, Maddy! I love the background too

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  5. Hello Maddy
    Your card is wonderful. I LOVE the background created with the scanned map. The image is fabulous and the touches of blue are gorgeous.
    Hugs Sue

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  6. A wonderful card, love the flying elephant.

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  7. Beautiful card! What a great treasure that old book with the maps is! And the flying elephant is so funny! Thank you so much for joining us at Simon Says Stamp and Show. Hugs, Sandra

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  8. love the colours on this one and super image, just fabulous
    Hugs Kate xx

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  9. Beautiful. My hubby is a big fan of dies. I love that you scanned the book and the book age shows up perfectly.

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  10. Very cute elephant! Nice masculine card! Thanks for joining us at JustRite Inspiration ;-)

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Thanks for leaving a comment, it's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself :)