#character constructions

I’ve been really busy the past few months, trying to actually use some of my stash. Years ago, I was on a kick of collecting all the cigar boxes to use to fill with 3-D mixed media scenes. At the time, I did make a few Christmas scenes, but I quickly turned my attention to something else.

I’ve had the boxes kicking around forever, so I took some of my Character Creation Rubber Stamps by Catherine…

I tend to make cards in batches, mostly because of time and resources. Especially if I am rubber stamping or using inks, I really don’t want to keep inking up, then cleaning, then inking again, and clean…as this is a big downer for me (I hate cleaning my rubber stamps and area) and it is a big time suck. Right now I am still trying to figure out how I can clean my stamps faster after I stamp, so that I am not losing creative momentum (and avoid super stained stamps). I guess this is the age old question in rubber stamping.

Anywho, this card was made with a lot of the same papers and basics as my Valentine’s Day post did.  I cut out two sized hearts from Graphic45 papers, used Character Construction paper dolls, and embellished using more Graphic45 scraps.  There were a few little doodads I added, like the jewel on the hat (I altered the hat stamp I had in one of the Character Construction packs).  Hand colored the stamped images with watercolor pens.  One of the big differences was I used a pipe cleaner to wrap around the edge of the middle, smaller heart.  I used hot glue to hold that down to the paper.  That part was a little tricky for me, so I am going to see for the next cards if there is a better way to attach pipe cleaners to paper.

There are a number of levels on this card as I did a number of cut outs, so some cases I used two or three stacked layers of foam double-sided tape.  The pipe cleaner actually lifted the smaller layer up as well naturally since I glued to the outside edge.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone and welcome to my Valentine’s Day post!  I’m actually participating in a Blog hop today, so check out the links below after you read my post for more cool papercrafting and crafty websites.

Valentine’s Day is great, but mostly for the card making and really, all the candy available.  Do you think that this might be why I’m single?  Meh, who cares!  ‘Tis the season for frills, candy and romantic imagery!  It’s mostly an excuse for me to do floofy cards… and what better stamps and paper products for such an exposition of femininity than Character Constructions and Graphic45?  I love both of these brands and over the years I have amassed quite a collection of their items.  And Valentine’s Day is the perfect venue to showcase them!

For this particular card, I used the dress, cupid, and bird from the Bird & Bee Collection from Catherine Moore #6.  The Moon and face was from her Cirque collection # 3 and #6. Bird with letter is from Mad Team Party #10.  Doodle medium heart is from Blank Page Muse.  Note: over the years, I have collected a lot of Graphic45 pages, many of which are now unfortunately discontinued.  I believe I used their 2012 February page, but I don’t have the paper name anymore.  The great thing about this project is that you can use whatever floral papers you happen to have, as long as the colors match.  The papers I used were all in the pink-red range of colors. In order to bring in more pink, I took some tissue paper, dyed it using Tim Holtz Distress Ink Festive Berry, then sandwiched the custom dyed tissue paper between the cut out layers.

Creating the heart patterns and hand cutting them out.

Made the center heart by folding a piece of white scrap paper, then trimming to size and shape desired.

The heart itself is actually an extra heary card I had laying around that I previously used as a pattern for another project.  It was easy enough to create another, smaller heart (made a pattern out of scrap paper) with a different patterned paper.  The tissue paper was only about 1 centimeter smaller than the base heart, then the middle heart was about a centimeter smaller than that one.  Three hearts, stacked on top of each other.

Fussy cut out the stamp border. I found a piece of vintage lace I had that framed the border perfectly.

Since I wanted more color, I used water and Distress Ink to dye the white lace. Rubber the ink directly on the fibers, then sprayed water. Took a few applications of ink and water before the ink completely covered the piece.

Lace dyed and dried.

Finished product.

The paper had a few romantic borders with interesting Valentine type images. I picked a cherub border, some lace I had on hand, and some brown cardboard to add dimension as well as texture. Lace was hand dyed using Distress Inks (Festive Berry), and those were layered behind the doll.

The dress and face were stamped separately, colored and fussy cut out. The message that she’s holding was from one of the Graphic 45 papers. Extra pieces were also stamped out (cupid, moon, bird and heart), colored and cut out. I glued everything down in layers using double-sided foam tape.

Cardboard trimmed down and everything is layered, glued down.

Close up of the smaller stamps and the border.

Other side of the card close up.

Stickers were added for “Sweet” from a random sticker set I had.

All the colors and layers really complement the center figure well. This card, overall, relies mostly on the patterns, layers and colors for its success. I really loved how it came out and hope you do too!

Did you find me as part of the blog hop? Are you looking for more cool blogs to check out? Check out these links!

PolymerCreations4U: A Journey into Craftiness It’s Oddly Appealing Matter of Crafts Kelly Parker Designs Psychotic Ramblings of a Serial Scrapper The Joyful Soul Creates Paper Mache Patch Scrappy Squirrel’s Nest Whimsy Chic Paper Crafts Etc Inky Pinky Boo ekgorman designs Life in a Snapshot Juli Loves Paper  The Crafty Moussekateer  Savvy Handmade Cards The Crafty Robin Whimsical Creations CMP Designs