Liesbeth's Ladies of Letters Leporella!

Hello and a warm welcome to Magpieheaven, where after a stormy start we've had a sunny day. The evening sunshine is really streaming into the room as I write this! Last week was a hectic time for me, as my students approached the day of their 'A' level exam on Friday. Over on the PaperArtsy blog the Designers were providing some amazing inspiration and I was worried that I just would not have the time to play, especially as I'd also had my friend's daughter to stay from Brussels. Liesbeth's Leporella book really appealed to me! The covers were gorgeous and the images inside so eye-catching; but I knew I would not have the time to create something so detailed. I did need to make a birthday card, though, so in between tuition sessions I got out my Smoothy card and my Distress inks and created an accordion card. If you would like to see how Liesbeth made her delightful little book over at PaperArtsy take a look here. This is my interpretation of Liesbeth's lovely project. it was an ideal project because I do tend to put off making cards, but this was more like creating a quickie book!

 I decided to keep things simple, as this was going to have to fit into an envelope. Liesbeth's covers are really gorgeous and I intend to re-visit her technique for these some time in the future, but I decided to fold a sheet of A4 card accordion style and use Lynne Perrella images throughout. I took for my theme the topic of corresponding so I mixed and matched my Lynne Perrella stamps from different sets, but they all shared a 'letter writing' theme - these are what I call 'Lynne's Ladies of Letters'. Because I was snatching time between tutorials, I have not posted step by step pictures, but I used Liesbeth's technique of misting Distress Inks and then swiping panels of card through them. I also lightened areas by dropping water from a brush onto them. I would love to have used Liesbeth's technique with bleach, but I don't have any Stazon ink and I didn't want to ruin my images stamped in Versafine Onyx Black. I improvised by using Posca white pen to lighten areas.  I made masks for my stamped images and I used a Prima Flourish stencil for my background.

I experimented with different colour combos and chose those which I thought worked best. For my cover Vintage Photo, Shabby Shutters and Evergreen Bough with Bundled Sage ink refill scribbled at the edge of the craft mat worked the best.

Inside my card I used a blend of Fired Brick, Broken China, Peacock Feathers and Shabby Shutters and some Chipped Sapphire ink refill.

I was not pleased with all my experiments, some had sections of the panel that worked and others that were a bit splodgy and not conducive to really clean stamped images. I didn't want to waste these, so I punched little Martha Stewart butterflies from them and used some as embellishments. I believe the friend I have created this card for is especially fond of this Blake quote. It's written in such a beautiful script that I think it fits perfectly with these 'Ladies of Letters'! I used a Rebekah Meir doily stencil and some script from LP028 in the background. I really loved the effect of the blended inks on the butterfly wings.

I ran some seam-binding through the misted inks on my craft sheet and used this to tie the card like a little book.

I used some Chatsworth paper, which carries through the writing theme for my backing.

I left a couple of panels blank to write my birthday message and aged the book by distressing the edges with a Prima tool and then sponging with Walnut Stain distress and Soot. Thank you so much for dropping by Magpieheaven today and thank you, Liesbeth for such inspiration. I should like to link my card to PaperArtsy's Challenge this week. Thinking about ladies who write reminded me of Virginia Woolf. In 'A Room of One's Own' she says:
“So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. ” 
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
I think that could be extended to creating generally. Whatever you create in the coming weeks I hope it will give you pleasure and make you happy, and that it will be something you created because you wished to - no more and no less!