Just For You

Wow this card took awhile to make; perhaps those 396 leaves on that tree had something to do with it...

...but I digress. I shall start at the beginning.

I wanted to do a card using my new Magnolia Tilda Picking Lilacs stamp using Flower Soft, so I drove over to the local scrapbooking store to pick up my very first jars so I could begin.

That was last Monday.

Then came my brilliant idea (since I now had all this Flower Soft!) to make a lilac tree for Tilda to pick her flowers from... yeah. Tres smart. Instead of simply DRAWING a tree, I realized my new Martha Stewart punch had just the right sized leaves (the same one used on the inside of this easel card). So I foolishly punched 22 times in four different shades of green cardstock. I then had to gather only the leaf shapes (not the flower petals, centers or swirly bits), piling them safely out of the reach of my cat Tawnee, who had plopped herself right in the middle of the table, unable to resist playing with all the pretty confetti I was producing.

I drew the branches and base of the tree with Copics, added glue and attached the leaves and Flower Soft piece by piece, using tweezers and toothpicks. Then I added some leaf details with my Copic Multiliner and glued some Sage Ultra Fine Flower Soft for grass at the base of the tree.

Cutting out that sucker took all of last night. (Click on all the images for zoomified versions)

I added some pearls, ribbon and a silver charm, as well as a layer of mulberry paper with silver threads running through it.

Well, at least I finished it... hopefully next time I'll think twice before trying to recreate Mother Nature down to a single leaf.

Here are the details:

Martha Stewart deep edge punch "Floral Vine"
Bazzil cardstock
Beary Patch 2004 Classic Holly Winter's Day paper
Recollections Self-adhesive pearls
Michael's Celebrate It Holiday ribbon
Floral / pearl charm
White and silver mulberry paper
Stampendous! "Just For You" Friendly Messages stamp
Delphinium Blue and Ultra Fine Sage Flower Soft

Copics:

Face - E00, E11, R20
Hair - E25, E49, E51, E59
Shirt and shoes - N0, N3
Highlights on shoes - Bic Wite Out
Jumper and socks - Y00, Y11, Y15, BG10, BG72
Leaves and grass shadows - G82, G85
Branches - E13, E15
Basket - E55, E57, E59

Pop Up Pirates

As soon as I heard Tilda and Edwin were being made into pirates, I just knew I had to make them their very own pirate ship. So for the past two days, I have been working on this, my very first pop-up card. Of course I had to add Jolly Roger Tilda, who has made landfall to hunt for buried treasure.

Obviously, I didn't bother with the front of the card much; after all, the card is all about the inside...

Here is proof that it all does fold, well, perhaps not "flat", but it would be closed if I wrapped a ribbon around it. But I prefer to display it open anyway.

It sure took a lot of experimentation; I made a model from regular paper first to get the positioning, elements and general format down. Then I made the real thing out of cardstock; the card measures 6" by 6". The main object - the ship, has its base attached to the card. Then small tabs hold the sides of the ship in place when open. The mast, which is two pieces and extendable, is attached to the base and folds flat. It also supports the bench in which Pirate Edwin and Pirate Tilda sit.

At the front of the ship I made an anchor, and attached it with string through one of two grommets I inserted at the bow.

I hand drew all the elements except for Tildas and Edwin; the sun, cloud and seagull in the background are all attached with dimensionals to pop them out too. The parrot, fish, waves and Jolly Roger Tilda are attached with tabs.

Copics were used to colour everything except the gold trim on the ship and the whitecaps on the waves. For those, I used acrylic paint. Here are the many Copics used on this project:

Jolly Roger Tilda
Skin: E00, E11, R20
Hair: Y21, E97, E99
Suit, boots, scarf and flag: N0, N3, N6
Skirt: R29, R89
Scroll: E51, E57

Pirate Tilda
Skin: E00, E11, R20
Hair: YE51, E55, E57
Shirt, pants, boots and hat: N0, N3, N6, R29, R89, Y28

Pirate Edwin
Skin: E00, E11, R20
Hair: N3, N6, N9
Suit, boots and hat: E51, E55, E57, E59, E79

The rest
Pirate ship: E29, E74, E79
Sail: W1, W3
Anchor: C2, C5
Fish: YR00, YR21, YR23, YR24
Parrot: YR04, YR09, R46, R89, B16, B18, Y38, W1
Sun: Y11, Y15, Y19
Gull: W1, W3, W5, W7
Cloud: W1
Beach: E33, E35
Grass: G99

If I were to give this as a card, I would attach a little sign in the "beach" that finishes the front saying of "X Marks the spot" with "to discover a treasure chest of fun!"

But I think this one is a keeper just for me.