Card Designer of the Year 2008

The results are in & verified - ooh sorry sounds a bit like Strictly - from Simply Card & Papercraft Card Designer of the Year competition and what do you know, I came a close second (along with 9 others LOL:) ) Issue 53 has all the details and is in the shops now. I bought my copy on Saturday just to be sure before I put it on my blog. My prize arrived on Thursday and it was fun imagining what I might be able to do with all the goodies! I was especially happy with the Maya Road elements as most of them came in a tin! Don't know which I liked the best the contents or the tin!!!!! What a great Birthday/Christmas present and to cap it all Tim Holtz replied by e-mail (re: my win on 12 tags of Christmas) and actually took the time to say Happy Birthday it does not get much better than that.
I thought I would post details on how I made the card "Heartfelt Christmas Wishes" that is in the issue (and I am sorry to complain but I have to say the colour in the mag makes it look very washed out!), half the job is already done anyway as you had to send in written techniques.

Material list:

• K & Co Scrapad to Go Hannah papers red stripe & green tapestry
• Bazzill deep red cardstock
• PDA Crafts stardream, silver mirror, hammered white & countryside recycled chaff cardstock, also smooth ivory paper for insert
• Paperartsy Xmas Plate 1 & 3 “Christmas plum pudding” & “Holly border” stamps
• Adirondack Dye Inks – Bottle, Lettuce & Cranberry
• Papermania mini black sparkle brads
• All My Memories Expressions Accent Charms
• Cream embossed & green mottled cardstock
• Stazon black ink pad
• Plaid All Night Media Chalk
• Create and Craft Adhesive cabochon pearls
• Toilet tissue - Yes you hear right!
• Papercast mould
  

I designed the church and made a template for all the pieces in my Serif graphics programme then printed these onto the reverse of either hammered white card or deep red which were then cut out with a ruler & craft scalpel knife. I embossed a line on the outer edges of the red elements for a touch of definition before using the decorative scissors to cut the facsia boards, balcony and roof then add tiny pearl cabochons to the circular parts. I stamped the "Christmas plum pudding" word stamp onto the stardream card (it has a lovely shimmer to it) with black Stazon and cut out the arches for the windows and door. I think you can see it quite well here. I marked all the edges with black permanent marker for definition and assemble all the layers with 3D foam pads and silicon glue as necessary. A star punched out of cream embossed card was added to the spire.
I cut out an oblong of watercolour paper and used Fiskars corner rounder scissors to cut out inverted corners on the top edge. I stamped the holly border using Adirondack bottle ink on the outer edges & lettuce in the centre. After leaving to dry for a short time I then spritzed the whole area with water and used a brush to lift some bottle ink straight from the ink pad lid and added this around the edges of the paper, heavy in places and lighter in others (the colours merge for a mottled affect as long as the whole area is wet). I left to dry off a little and added a touch of the cranberry on the holly berries before leaving to dry completely. I then rubbed the bottle ink pad directly around the edges for some darker definition. I layered the watercolour background firstly onto stardream card (I love PDA Crafts I think it is essential to have a good supply of basic card & paper in lots of different colours to give a professional look to your work and whats more their customer service is excellent!) then silver mirror card, then red stripe paper and lastly green mottled card all of which had the top corners invertly cut with the Fiskars corner rounder scissors. Finally I attached the layered church embellishment and the metal heart.

I folded a piece of A4 chaff cardstock in half to make an A5 portrait card and creased with a bone folder for a crisp edge - actually it is a piece of wood with curved smooth edges, had for years, don't know what it was originally designed for! Perhaps I will take a photo and post it here and someone might be able to tell me? I cut a piece of mottled green card 21cm x 14cm and attached centrally to front of the chaff base card with double sided tape and cut a piece of green tapestry paper 19.7cm x 13.5cm to layer on top of the green.

The sentiment was printed on stardream card again (font Gigi) and a paper pricked border added along the top and bottom edge using a metal ruler & pricking tool spacing the holes every 2cm. (I only found out the other day that Tim Holtz has a ruler out that has holes already spaced out for this technique. Oh! How I wish I had had one of those!!) This was matted onto a piece of mottled green card and attached to the bottom of the base card with 3D foam pads. The decoration on the sentiment is a paper cast moulding which I made by laying toilet tissue, YES toilet tissue!, into a papercast mould wetting each thin layer well with water (about 20) and using a fairly stiff brush to push the tissue into the design, it was then left to dry thoroughly overnight. I bought the mould in Switzerland a good few years ago on a Christmas market trip and have been looking for more ever since. I knew I should have bought more but they were quite expensive! As long as the paper is really dry it will easily come out of the mould. Then all you have to do is trim off the rough edges and chalks were dusted over the design to catch the high spots. I cut two squares of red stripe paper and one of green tapestry each slightly smaller in size and used the corner punch all round. I layered these and added the papercast decoration on top before attaching to the sentiment strip with silicon glue.

I printed out the insert using my Serif graphics programme (font Gigi) it says "May your Heart and Home be filled with Christmas Cheer"and punched decorative corners before attaching to the inside with double sided tape.

Voila! My finished card.

Hope your week ahead is full of arty luck just as mine has been.