Friday 19 July 2013

Asian Acetate

Over at Paper Artsy, Carol Quance has been using some beautiful Paper Artsy stamps in really imaginative projects one of which included acetate. Now, this may seem unconnected, but today my Magpie Mate went in to work as a Maths teacher for the last time - he's taking early retirement! He's a true Magpie too and he's had twenty-two years to hoard all kinds of things at work: oh, dear most of them have found their way into the nest over the last week as he empties his desk! But one really useful acquisition has been a big box of acetate sheets. Here is what I made with some...
I loved Carol's stunning pink and orange image, but I wanted to create an Asian themed card. I love all things Asian and on Tuesday all my birthdays and Christmas came at once when I received an amazing piece of Happy Mail from a very generous crafting friend, Dianne, aka Magpie Cousin! I used some of her lovely hand-coloured paper for my card and some of the beautiful, Chinese paper she sent me. I decided to make a middle section to my card with acetate butterflies stamped  from a Paper Artsy 'Wings' plate and little antennae made from what I think are meant to be flower centres for handmade flowers - my mum found them in a charity shop and gave them to me. This was quite a challenge and  was it difficult to photograph! I took the picture is taken in our conservatory. The painting on the door my daughter's first 'commission' when she was about eleven and I love the cheery colours and shapes so much I've never wanted to paint over them!
I love playing with Shrink plastic, but I didn't have any of the jewellery 'bits and pieces' needed for Carol's gorgeous bracelet design, so I compromised and added an embellishment to the card made from a piece of Shrink Plastic dye cut in an oval shape with a dye-cut Shrink Plastic frame. I stamped the same Lynne Perrella lady on my Shrink Plastic as the image inside the card and edged the card with Graphic 45 paper of an Asian design.
The reflections on the acetate made photographing it difficult. Hopefully if you click on the images you can see in a bit more detail. This paper had a lovely water-colour texture and the layer above it was gold leaf and terra-cotta. Unfortunately, it's hard to see the glitter of the gold under the image in a photo, but it does gleam irl! I edged down one side with some braid, which is probably more Indian than anything else, but it seems to blend in with the mood of the card, I think. I added two little motifs from the LP plate over on the right.
As Carol pointed out, acetate cards are a challenge because you can see the back of everything! I covered the back of my image with another piece of the beautiful water-colour paper. The Graphic 45 paper is double-sided so there is a design whichever way you look at it, and I created a little dye-cut frame from double-sided Prima paper too to place at the corner. This shows through the card like a looking-glass in the background, I think. I had no dye-cut of flowers so I adapted a snow-flake dye, which I coloured with alcohol inks with a pearl at the centre. I fixed on the butterflies and flower with glue dots. I was really pleased with the effect of the layers of acetate, but unfortunately it was difficult to capture the full effect.

I have decided to make this a card to wish my DH a happy retirement! Here it stands  with a nice cup waiting for some China Tea to be poured. We'll get out the Champagne later! Thank you, Carol for such inspiring and beautiful projects this week.


14 comments:

  1. Oooh great card Julie

    Acetate is hard to photograph at the best of time, but much harder when it's the basis of the actual card - well done though

    Sam xxx

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  2. Wow, Julie Ann, this looks great - I love your reflection in it as you're taking the picture, lol!! May try and have a go at this tomorrow, if (ha ha) it's not too hot!

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  3. ooh you put a lot of work into this Julie Ann. looks gorgeous - I especially love your die cut SP frame.

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  4. Well first off, big congrats to Mr Magpie for his retiring. now he can stay in the nest, how lovely and a box of acetate yippee that's going to be fun...
    I knew you would create something wonderful with the things I sent,this is one of them, loooooove the acetate card, it lets your art shine through, l love how you framed the card, gorgeous butterflies, love how you made the image facing both ways, the frame for the on is gorgeous, the one in the center i gorgeous, I don't know how you did it but it is just gorgeous. I have never tried to stamp on acetate,I'll have to give it a go. Thanks so much for sharing your creativity Miss Julie, the parliament of magpies are applauding you for both your asian creations... Have a wonderful weekend..

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  5. This looks fantastic, the shrink plastic piece is superb, love its frame too. So much work involved in an acetate card because of the many sides. Well done for doing it!

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  6. Wow absolutely gorgeous amazing acetate card. I love the theme you used and the papers you were sent are beautiful. Sorry I haven't been around, healing this time took its time and mojo disappeared. On top of that we had no Internet for almost a week, ok 4 days but it's been horrible. Actually it's quite scary how we all rely on the Internet, and also because I had been really ill the week before I had almost used my mobile mb so I had to wait until when the next bill came to start using my phone. I ended up going over as seriously I had to pay everyone's wages over my mobile it took ages. It did the kids good though as I never realised how much they used. The first day they were getting so mad and depressed, I did get them doing other things though but it made me realise in today's society kids don't get the chance to do other things as they are hooked on the Internet, so now we have limited them. It's great to catch up, it may take a few days but I'm determined to catch up on all the posts I have missed. I'm hoping my art mojo will come back as well lol. Thanks for bearing with me Julie, I would hate to loose you as a mate, I just needed time to heal health and mentally. Lots of hugs xxxxxxx Kezzy

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  7. Your card is stunning Julie Ann! I love all the wonderful details...you really made this project your own! I bet your DH loved it!
    Alison xx

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  8. You are so clever! This is great. I'm afraid my relationship with acetate is like a lot of people's relationship with shrink plastic! Hope Mr Magpie enjoys his retirement,

    Lucy x

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  9. you can see you've put alot of work into this project as the end result is brilliant. I dont think I could handle SP and acetate in one week ! xx

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  10. Lovely card. Using double sided card is a great idea to overcome the see thru problem. Love the Asian theme

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  11. Glorious working of the acetate inspiration! And yes, you're right: Ellen Terry's beetle dress is what you're thinking of!
    Alison x

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  12. WOW Julie Ann this is beautiful! Acetate is such a pain to photograph though I do think it looks fabulous on cards. What a great idea to use double sided card too. Good Luck to Mr Magpie on his retirement xx

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  13. This is such a fabulous card! Julie Ann. The beautiful Asian themed image looks awesome on the acetate. All the details are just wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing. :)

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  14. This is very beautiful. Love the Asian elegance and the gorgeous little details.

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