The Bat Cave

Alizabethy left a comment on my Horrible Hallowe'en card that gave me the inspiration for this card. She called it a "bat cave" and I thought, "that gives me an idea..." :)

"The Bat Cave - front of card"

The front of the card features a free Graphics Fairy image with some orange glitter on the moon for extra sparkle, and a little purple glitter around the edges of the silhouette to help it stand out from the background (pearlescent black card).  The lettering uses the Vintage Market Sizzix alphabet strip, with my usual two sets of letters cut (this time in silver and orange) to add dimension.

Enter if you dare...

"The Bat Cave"

This card has the concertina-type tunnel card construction with apertures cut using Spellbinders label dies and liberal sprinklings of Graphics Fairy bats of all shapes and sizes, including two bat ladies!

"The Bat Cave - top of card showing construction"

Sleep well :)

Entered for the following challenges:
Clear it Out
Everybody Art
Scrap Creations
My Time to Craft
Shopping Our Stash
Craft Spot By Kimberly
Stamps & Fun = Creativity
Victorine Stamps

Not too scary - another Hallowe'en tunnel card

Just a quickie this evening. I made this "not too scary" Hallowe'en card for my m-i-l. The cat looks so like our little one, I just love it! The image is from the Graphics Fairy, and the other embellishments are from a pack of stickers I bought in a Supermarket last year. mil wants me to add a nose :)

"Not too scary Hallowe'en tunnel card"



Sleep well and I'll upload a scary one tomorrow :)

Happy Birthday Rose - 100 today!

A friend asked me to make a card for a lady she goes to visit in a Nursing home who is 100 years old today! This card was such a joy to make. Every minute I was making it I kept thinking about what it would have been like to have been born 100 years ago, when Lloyd George was Prime Minister and there were hardly any cars on the roads.

"Box for Rose's card"

I thought I'd start by showing you the finished box. It is made from cream card decorated in shabby chic style with resist roses, distress inks and Perfect Pearls and finished off with lots of organza ribbon.

"Box for Rose's card with ribbon removed"

Just to add a little suspense, here's the box without the ribbon. The central bunch of roses is stamped in barndoor distress ink and coloured with promarkers.

"Box detail showing stamped roses"

Here's a detail from the box lid showing the resist roses and coloured roses - the stamps are from an old Papermania set. OK, time to open the box...

"Rose's 100th birthday card - front"

It's funny, but I had the design all worked out and the card half-made before I found out Rose's name. Serendipity!

"Rose's 100th birthday card - inside"

Well, there had to be a big "100" in there somewhere.

Happy 100th birthday Rose! What changes you have seen in your lifetime. I wonder what the world will be like in another 100 years.

Metamorphosis

A sea of cogs and gears metamorphose into colourful butterflies.

"Metamorphosis"

The butterflies are cut from either blue foil card or a sheet of silver mirror card decorated with Adirondack alcohol inks. Some were embossed with silver cogs from a Creative Expressions stamp set.

"Metamorphosis"

The background is a sea of cogs and gears die-cut in silver mirri card using the Spellbinders' "Sprightly Sprocket" and Tim Holtz' "Gadget Gears" sets.

"Metamorphosis rhs view"

The lettering is die cut from offcuts of the same coloured card as the butterflies.

"Metamorphosis lhs view"

The acetate tunnel-card construction aids the 3-dimensional illusion of butterflies emerging from the middle and flying off the edge of the card.

Thumbelina frame cards

This vintage image of thumbelina riding a lily pad and being pulled by a butterfly is from an old childrens book and posted by the Graphics Fairy on her blog. These frame cards use the thumbelina image. In both cases, the image was printed twice, and Thumbelina & the butterfly cut out and decoupaged onto the original image to provide some depth, although it is hard to see in the scans.

"Thumbelina with seashell frame"

Glitter was added to the image of the water using a quickie glue pen to give some added sparkle. As usual, acetate was added beneath the frame. In this case, it has the added advantage of stopping that glitter from annoying the recipient of the card!

"Thumbelina with stamped frame"

The frame for the second card was made from white card with a die-cut aperture, then the frame was distress-inked and stamped with the same colour ink, and a few gems adhered for a little extra sparkle.

It's all relative - an Alice Project

Lewis Carroll was a wonderful mathematician and "Alice in Wonderland" is full of Maths if you know where to look. This project is all about "Relative" versus "Absolute".

"It's all relative - an Alice project"

It's all a matter of perspective. If you look at things from Alice's perspective she gets bigger...

"Did Alice Grow?"

The front and inside are both frames with lettering from a Tim Holtz' alphabet strip die, and a vintage Alice picture behind.. (Notice the 3d effect on the lettering from using two sets of letters in gold and black). The images today are all free and from the Magic Moonlight blog. The front image is pre-coloured, and the inside one is hand-coloured to match with promarkers.

"Or the Room Shrink?"

It's all a matter of perspective. Looked at from outside the room, the same effect can be achieved by shrinking the room. Until the rabbit turns up again! Has he shrunk too??

"Bottle detail showing shrink plastic butterflies"

I couldn't resist altering a bottle to match this project. The outside is coloured with Adirondack alcohol inks, then covered with some mesh. The butterflies are from shrink plastic, embossed with Cosmic Shimmer gold embossing powder, and decorated with tiny gems.

"Bottle detail showing bottle top"

The cap was decorated with matching gems. It's supposed to resemble a crown, but I'm not sure how successful this is!

"Drink Me Tag"

Finally, the tag was kraft cardstock (thanks Lee!), decorated with resist technique stamped clocks and coloured with distress inks, lace and more of the die cut Tim Holtz lettering.

So there you have it. Alice grows relative to the room (or the room shrinks relative to Alice). Who knows the truth? Only the outside observer...except does observing change the truth? But that's another story...

Horrible Hallowe'en - a tunnel card in pictures

It's October, so it must be time for a Hallowe'en card! First up in our perfectly putrid plethora of horrible Hallowe'en h h h... oh, I give up - this illiteration is harder than it looks! Anyway, here's a card:

"Hallowe'en Tunnel Card"

This card is made up from two pieces of black card and one piece of acetate, cut as described in my blog "Tunnel Cards 1".

"Two pieces of card, one piece of acetate"

It's hard to see the acetate, but it's there on the right hand side if you look closely! Next, make the image for the back of the tunnel:

"Image for back of card showing decoupaged layers"

The vintage castle image from the Graphics Fairy's blog was printed five times and cut into layers, then decoupaged using Pinflair glue gel to give a 3-dimensional look.

"Image glued into place in back of card"

The decoupaged castle image is glued into the back of the card using PVA.

"Card with acetate layer added"

The acetate layer is then glued with the acetate edges facing downwards within the edges of the back card.

Just the edges are glued using PVA, which dries clear.

"Card with acetate layer showing embellishments"

It's easier to add embellishments to the acetate layer before gluing the top card layer in place. The images were all free and taken from the Magic Moonlight blog and the Graphics Fairy blog.  The smaller bat on the bottom layer helps with the depth illusion.

"Card with top layer added"

The top layer of card with the aperture is added, with the edges glued around the card of the bottom layer, holding everything in place.

"Top of card showing the three layers glued in place"

Finally, embellishments are added to the top layer. I've gone completely over the top with bats, skeletons and a bat lady, and the finished version even has some cobwebs drawn on with a white gel pen.

"Finished card showing left hand side"

Even the sides have been decorated.

"Finished card showing right hand side"

Well, you couldn't have Hallowe'en without a black cat...

Scary, huh?

Entered for the following challenge:

http://samueltaylors.blogspot.com/2011/09/october-challenge.html (prize is a fab Tim Holtz configurations box!)