Orange County Choppers Card

OCC or Orange County Choppers is a TV series about Custom Motorcycle builders. My friend Mart, watches it regularly so I used OCC as the theme. So just to prove a point, you CAN put loads of flowers on a mans card!

I spent alot of time on the flowers, curling up the petals as tight as I could, and have just discovered shimmer sprays. For the flowers on the envelope I've used Copper shimmer on patterned and stamped paper.
I wanted a Grunge feel to this card, hope I have pulled it off?

I have added loads of techniques that I haven't tried yet: Using a sewing machine, lace up which is not the main element of the design, and the ripped side showing something else underneath.

Went a bit mad with the eyelets too, being as I found an eyelet setter in the garage tool box, a lucky find.
This card does not need to go through the postal system, so I was able to go mad on the envelope too, which of course is made from wallpaper.

Just to deviate from OCC a little and to hint at our generation of bikers ,I placed a Photo of Dennis Hopper (R.I.P.) in the corner looking down at Paul Tuttle who is OCC's owner. Of course Dennis Hopper starred in the classic bikers film 'Easy Rider' from the 60's. That's also why I put a small picture of Peter Fonda in the opposite corner. Both pictures taken from the movie.

Please click on the photos to see them more clearly.

Above and below, the inside of the Card

I did alot of work in Photoshop, as above I used one of OCC's logo's and changed the wording.

Below, I had great fun creating my 'Made by Jan' label in photoshop on the back of the card. I put 'Green Department Cards' as a spoof on the 'Orange County Choppers'  picture (on the envelope), because here in France the 'counties' are called departments and here where I live it is exceptionally green and lush.

THE ENVELOPE: Not sure which I like best, the actual card or the envelope!

I found a use for those ancient old stamps I found all of which were letter 'M's
I have close up shots of various elements, which I will upload to the Mens Cards page as it will be too many for a post I think.

Dartboard Cabinet Card. Gatefold

I think this has to be the simplest card I have made to date, it certainly seemed easy to do.
My friend is big fan of Darts, won a few trophies himself. Therefore as it is his birthday this week I thought I'd make a Dartboard cabinet card.
The cabinet itself is covered, both sides, in wallpaper. The hinges are flourishes which I got cheap from Maya road (eBay), cut them down, inked them in gold and walnut stain. The 'handles' are metal buttons which I filed off the shanks at the backs with my handy Dremel tool. After that, just a case of sticking padded tape into the backs.

I made the dartboard in photoshop, changed all the wire numbers so it reads 'Happy Birthday Symon 44' (that's his age), added his birth-date at the top to match the 'Champion' lettering.
To get the angle of the darts, which happen to be: 1 in where 19 should be, and 2 in the number 6 = 1966...smart eh? I wonder if he will suss that?
So I took a photograph of an actual dartboard with the darts in those places, printed them off and cut them out onto chipboard. The flights have a bit of foam behind them to give some dimension, whilst the tips are glued straight onto the board..

Chalk boards made from matt black paper, written on with a white oil pastel crayon.
And that as they say is that.
By the way, the front of the envelope is a photo of Phil Taylor, THE top English Darts player in PDC, I know Symon is a huge fan of his. I distorted the banner he is holding in Photoshop, then glued it into Phils Hands.

Scrap-hat

Not a card, although I am in the middle of making a 'dartboard' card.
The sun has been so hot I wear this hat, but it was plain, it just had a ribbon on it, that was all. So, yes I decided to embellish it with my new found scrapbooking skills. My French neighbour says it looks very 'English Garden Party' which I guess it does.

Leather corset gatefold card

G'day Bloggerettes, thanks for popping in to see my latest card which is a sexy one! Ever since I started making cards back in Dec 09, I knew I wanted to make this card for my Male friend whose Birthday it is next week. He is one of those chaps who just loves dressing up, any excuse, fancy dress, whatever. I do know though that he likes clothes bordering on 'fetish' so what a great opportunity to create something like this Corset card, and it was such fun to make.

Leather, Lace, studs, net and ribbon, all the cliché bits and pieces. The back of the card is glossy card stock, a bit difficult to photograph. I made an envelope with a collage of cut out pictures stuck on the outside and the inside. Anyway, I hope you like it too.


When he gets this card he is going to have to undo the lace at the front to get to the inside, just like for real really :o)

I have designed the envelope so that his address will be inserted into the leather clad Gloved hand as if the hand is holding an address card.

There's loads of photos of this card, so if you want to see the others, I have uploaded them onto the 'Mens' card page.

Above is the inside of the envelope, and yes he is into snakes too (take all sorts eh?), theres another snake on the back of the envelope too.