the sandpiper makes his greeting card debut!

(before we get going, lemme just warn you: i am inordinately...some might say OBNOXIOUSLY...pleased with this card, as the following post makes all too clear. if you're not in the mood for braggy, self-satisfied, card-making-derring-do...my blog is NOT the place for you today. of course, in the time it took me to write this disclaimer, i *could* have just toned down the post, couldn't i? and yet i did not. go figure.) :)

you may remember that a week or so ago i received an awesome sandpiper stamp hand-carved by the lovely gina of tyggereye art. i don't think i mentioned at the time that one of the reasons i had to have this particular stamp is that, as soon as i saw it, it reminded me very strongly of some pics i took in florida a couple of years ago at a beach LHJ & i visited near the home of my late maternal grandparents. when i saw the stamp, the memory of that particularly happy evening came rushing back to me, and i knew right away i wanted to make a card which combined gina's beautiful drawing with one of my photos, and some fun vintagey bits. i don't always have a perfectly clear destination in mind when i start making a card, but this time i did, and somehow i was confident that i would also be able to translate what was in my head onto the page.

and i was *RIGHT*!!!
wanna see?

(hand-carved sandpiper stamp: tyggereye art; beach photo: lauren (printed on kodak premium gloss paper & then distressed); vintage bits: text from a russian book, sheet music, copper metallic ribbon, shells from a rummage sale necklace; patterned paper: graphic 45, paper company, current; cardstock: staples; inks: ranger & colorbox; coloring of bird: copic markers, prismacolor pencils, staz-on (white) & bazzill (dark grey around edges) ink pads, uniball white pen for eye; adhesives: xyron, uhu gluestick, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tapehot glue gun; other: sewing machine, edge distresser, clear glitter glue)

one of the things of which i am most proud on this card is my coloring. i've confessed this before...and you'll have noticed yourself...i am generally *not* a great colorer, when it comes to shading, and putting in highlights and blending and so forth. but this time i wanted to be as realistic as possible*--and actually, gina has carved so much detail into the feathers and around his little eye, that it wasn't at all difficult to see exactly WHERE i should put which color. also, i happened to have one of my bird books out for something else, and being able to look at a real sandpiper gave me the rest of the info i needed.

photo of actual sandpiper...check
(tacky) necklace made of (cool) tiny shells...yes, please!

here's a close up of the sandpiper (mounted on foam tape for extra dimension) which also features the ribbon, shells & stitching:

after printing my 4 x 6" pic on glossy photo paper, i sanded and distressed the edges before tacking it with tiny dots of adhesive to a torn mat of vintage sheet music and a neatly trimmed piece of patterned paper. then i machine stitched as close to the photo's edge as possible to secure the layers. in retrospect, i realize that sub-consciously i used laura's sketch 38 again when i stitched a vertical panel to the spine edge of the card before applying the finished panel (but then, it's absolutely NEVER a bad idea to emulate ANYONE from 2S4Y, is it??!) and after i hand-cranked the sewing machine to attach my scrunched up length of vintage metallic ribbon, i hot glued the tiny shells in place.

of course the only possible destination for such a card would be the stamp artist herself, so i immediately sent this baby off to gina, who, i am happy to report, has received him safely and given him a very good home! i still have a few additional sand-piper-based ideas...which i will probably not get to until after xmas...but somehow i think this one will always have a special place in my he{art}!!! ♥

*by which i mean, "as realistic as possible given that i have stamped him on a page from a beautifully yellowed old russian-language machinists' manual." obviously. :)