A Happy Birthday Challenge

This week Sue Carrington has been crafting some stunning creations over at Paper Artsy click here to see; at Country View Crafts  the new challenge is to use die cuts in an inventive way and I needed to make a card for my great aunt, Violet who will be ninety-six soon! Could I combine two challenges and a very special birthday card?
Well, Sue's first two projects had a sewing theme and Aunty Violet trained as a tailor many years ago in the East End of London. She sewed beautiful clothes for herself and all her family for many years so the sewing theme seemed really appropriate for her card. I have the Tim Holtz die of the dress-form so it just remained to get creative with Sue's and Country View Crafts' inspiration and my die cuts!
I was inspired by Sue's 'Sewing Room' idea so I made an A4 gatefold card from heavy white card as my base, before cutting out and painting some panels to attach to it in beautiful blue Fresco shades similar to those used on Sue's sewing box.

I die cut a Spell-binder die of a label and a keyhole within to create a fancy lock and a spell-binder frame in card and painted them with Little Black Dress and put them aside to allow them to dry so I could crackle glaze them.

With a die-cutter you can cut several sheets at once so I die cut the Tim Holtz dress-form in both card, which I painted with Beach Hut Fresco, and Graphic 45 paper which had a shabby chic look to it. I finally stuck these together with a little of the BH showing around the edge to give dimension. I also used a Tim Holtz 'On the Edge' die of scissors and spools. Here it is in the first stage of my painting it with Frescos and Metallic Glaze for the Blades. I later added a strip of blue, chiffon ribbon and some Treasure Gold for a vintage, shabby chic effect.

I also used a Tim Holtz bookplate from his tag die to make the name plate on my door. I didn't have a stamp with the words 'Sewing Room' printed on it, so I wrote my own with a Sharpie black pen. I painted my keyhole with Fresco Vintage Lace when the thin layer of crackle was completely dry.

So here is the outside of my card. I attached my panels, decorating them with Treasure Gold through a stencil. Sue had used a ruler stencil, but I used a Crafters' Workshop flower stencil. I hope this looks a little like gold lace. Tim Holtz's dress-form comes with dies of a cotton reel and a button and I cut many layers of card so I could have a supply of button and reel embellishments, which I embossed with Verdi-gris and black sparkle embossing powder, using a Paper Artsy 'Ink and the Dog' stamp of tiny buttons so as to create a big button with a design of lots of sparkly, tiny buttons on it! I also stamped 'thimble' from this same plate on one of the cotton reels coloured with Peacock Feathers distressing ink. If you look you can see other die-cut buttons and reels made from Graphic 45 and Bo Bunny papers. To see more clearly, please just click on the photo. The one on the left has a design of dress-forms on it. I edged the outside of the card with Treasure Gold and a strip of Dresden foil trim. The finishing touch to my 'double doors' is a blue chiffon ribbon tie from my favourite market stall, Dennis' haberdashery!

Here is the card opened out. To create a more interesting background I used one of the Tim Holtz buttons as a mask and stamped over my Fresco painty background, using Peacock Feathers DI to create a kind of shadow stamped effect of buttons. I coloured some seam binder with Broken China and Peacock Feathers and attached the ribbons to two of the card buttons painted with Bora Bora Fresco.

Here is a closer look at the embossing, a touch of Treasure Gold and crackle around the mirror and the effect of the Beach Hut just showing behind the top dress-form.

I was really pleased with the way the crackle turned out on my lock; I adore Paper Artsy Crackle Glaze. I dabbed a little, diluted translucent South Pacific around the edges and just a touch of Treasure Gold.

So Happy Birthday, Auntie Violet! I should like to enter this card for Paper Artsy Draw and for the Country View Crafts Challenge. Thank you so much for having a look inside Magpie Heaven today and welcome to my new follower, Lucy.