Wedding card for bikers

I confess to seeing this style of card on another blog, and thought it would be perfect for my biker friends wedding card. A card in white, pinks and ivory just would not of been suitable for them, they are far too 'alternative'.

Its an easel card with an acetate window. I did not have any inks that would stick so I ended up drawing the swirls by hand on the acetate with a dip pen in Alcohol ink, as I don't know how to apply bottled ink to a stamp. I think the result is a bit 'naff' but I knew of no alternative. As it was I waited until the 'nth hour, as I'd ordered some stayzon ink pads which never arrived in time.

I made the little cherub from polymer clay in a mould and painted it silvery black. Again I have embellished with studs round the edge. The 'congrats' stamp is the only one I have, not much choice there then! I used removable body tattoo's on the acetate...the barbed wire. I sprayed everywhere with shimmer.

With this card, this was my first use of fabric flowers (see previous post). I've used quite alot of silver stickers, which is something I do not normally do. The envelope was made from good old wallpaper and for a change I decorated the back of the envelope instead of the 'front'

If anyone can tell me how to glue items to inked paper can they tell me, because I had terrible trouble, I had to scrape off the ink down to the paper to get the embellishments to stick.
To be honest, I think I like the envelope better!

FFF.....Fabric Flowers Fest

I am sure you've all seen how to curl up organza circles to make flowers. I decided to have an experiment with all types of oddments of fabrics I have. How satisfying to be able to almost burn something and end up with pretty flowers. Some did not work, wrong type of fabric, they just caught fire, they refused to melt. These fabrics will not be wasted though as there are plenty of other ways of making fabric flowers, sadly not involving flames!
The first lot I did were a bit large, so I scaled the next lot down a little.
Its quite a fussy operation cutting out all those circles, but worth it. For this experiment I used the same fabric on each flower, but now I know how they react, I will mix and match the various colours and fabrics.

The price of stencils: DIY

Bonjour all,
You may be aware that I've only been making cards since Dec 09. Now, I don't know about you, but the prices of some of the things for sale I think are outrageous. Take stencils as a perfect example, be they for embossing/cuttting, whatever. Now I've worked in a few factories in my life, producing various products in a range of materials. However, stencils, be they plastic or brass must and can cost only pennies to produce, if that, especially as they are probably made by some 8 year old abused child worker in China, Taiwan or wherever labour is cheapest. Yet look at the prices of them. Someone, somewhere, is making a huge profit from us. Plus, stencils, never seem to be the right size (cuttlebug folders are a prime example of size and cost, in my opinion)
    What I am leading to is that, in the photo below, which I spotted in a French Card making magazine, really appealed to me. Not the center bit, but the patterned paper stencil round the outside. The magazine was printed in 2006, so a bit out of date. Nevertheless, I scoured the internet worldwide for this particular stencil and found only one outlet......10.99 euros plus the P&P. Forget it! Not only that, as much as I like the design, I wanted one with a circle in the centre, plus one about twice the size because I make BIG cards compared to most folk.
  Now having got the bit between my teeth I thought, it does not look too complicated, I will make my own. I intend to use Acetate for the actual stencil. Yes its going to be a right royal pain cutting it out, but once its done then I'll  have it for good, and made with clear acetate, its going to be real simple to position perfectly. And if I dont want it clear, I can always spray paint it.
So far I have only got as far as producing the drawing for it. The next few days I hope to get the actual stencil ready. If the acetate tears or does not work I may butcher up a cheap plastic document file, we'll see. I am hoping that I can modify the stencil for using with a square or any shaped center really. Also, I will be able to use sections of it for embossing.
No apologies go to the companies who are getting wealthy on our craft needs.
  Have a great day, and thanks so much for visiting.
Au bientot