Birthday Cards

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven, where I've been making birthday cards for a couple of friends. I won't give their names just in case they see this blog and the surprise is spoiled! I often read on other blogs that crafters begin by making cards before they spread their wings and take flight into a world of canvases, altering and home decor pieces. That's definitely my history too! Before discovering the thrill of making exploding boxes back in April 2013, I made cards from time to time. I never thought too much about how I put them together or what techniques I might use on them. Now I find that confronted with a sheet of white A4 card I often feel uninspired or downright bewildered as to how I'm going to create something special - especially if it's going to have to fit into an envelope. With these cards I had a plan! I decided to play some more with the idea of creating a Master-board. Trisha's idea for Mail Art (see here) could perhaps be adapted to a slightly larger project than ATCs and Moos! This is what I came up with! I really hope they work and that the recipients will like them!

I had to work super-fast to get them done; as I'm late for both these birthdays - eek! There was no time to take step by step pictures. I have taken some detail shots to show you the effects in places, though.

Once again, I couldn't resist getting painty and only the tiniest areas of my original paper strips showed through! One of these days I'll have less coverage - well, I'll try to! This time I turned the Master-board so that instead of horizontal strips, I had vertical ones and I liked the 'Shabby Chic' look this gave - reminiscent of wooden panels. I had to use my new Tim Holtz trellis die! With those 'wood panels', I think this card looks a little bit like a flower growing through a trellis on a garden shed. My magpie brain is now planning all sorts of uses for these strips - maybe a canvas with paper strips and Grunge Paste to create the garden shed texture even more?

I used my trusty plastic lid to encircle areas of stencilling. The Peterloo flower was painted with Frescos in Lake Wanaka, Mermaid and Inky Pool and accented with a little Sapphire Treasure Gold. The sentiment is from Lin Brown's Eclectica flower sentiments for PaperArtsy.

I had enough Master-board left to create a second card. I wanted to see if I could create a completely different effect with this one. I think we go indoors with this one and step inside the little cottage, leaving the shed and the garden to enjoy a nice cool glass of lemonade.  As you can see I used lots of bits and bobs of lace from my stash. The bottles are from a Hot Picks plate and a Lynne Perrella one and I stamped them onto painted white wrapping tissue using first Cornflower Blue, Wendy Vecchi Archival Ink then over stamping with Potting Soil to give depth on the one in the foreground. The resin rose peeping over the Lynne Perrella lady's shoulder was painted with Lake Wanaka.

I stamped this Hot Picks iris straight onto the Master-board and coloured it with Fresco washes in Yellow Submarine and Hey Pesto to give a water-colour effect. The butterflies on both cards are die-cut from waxy paper and they have cocktail stick bodies.

As I stamped the Lynne Perrella lady onto card several times in order to 'stack up' the image and give it dimension, I pondered over the details in the image. This pretty lady is a mysterious character with her rather Steam-punk clock-hat and her elegant military jacket with its epaulettes. I could imagine her as a china ornament bought in the 'Swinging Sixties' when I loved to wander along the Kings Road in Chelsea, looking at the little curio shops. My girlhood dream was to open an antique shop with my best friend Sue! I even saved my pocket money and bought a tea caddy with a union jack and a picture of Lord Kitchener on it! What happened to it I don't know, but I've never lost that love of collecting curiosities! Well, thank you for looking at my cards today. I do hope my friends like them!