Friday, March 5, 2010

making this card involved scrubbing an entire wall of my kitchen

eta sunday morning: WOW!!! i am honored and completely flabbergasted to be in the FAB FIVE!!! having said that, i feel like this card came out of the blue & had hardly anything to do with me...i am just proud to have gotten it out of my head and onto paper! thank you ever so much kazan & 2S4Y!!! ♥♥♥ (ps: you guys--you HAVE TO go & see the rest of the cards...seriously...WOW!)


the one just over the sink...in order to remove the paint splatter...from the (unsuccessful) watercolor background essperiment. it was a bit non-triumphant, actually, and i was somewhat disheartened. but then i remembered the FLOWERS!

i'd seen them earlier in the day, in this post on iris babao uy's blog. she was showing off the new prima "innoscence" flowers (yes, it is spelled that way; no i don't know why) which come only in white so they can be sprayed, inked, painted, misted or...whatever...to get a custom look. and i said to myself, "hey lauren! you could probably dip/splatter/smear watercolor paint onto any light colored fabric or paper flowers!" and seeing as how my sink was already full of smears, blobs and puddles of watercolor paint in various shades of blue, it seemed like the perfect time to test this hypothesis.

so i did.

in retrospect i realize it would've been a good idea to photo the flowers on their own after painting, but as soon as i saw them, i mentally imagined them as the stars of a card made based upon kazan's sketch 47 from 2S4Y:



and i mean, i suddenly saw the whole entire card, like a snapshot: the flowers, wonkily concentric circles of bling & stitching, the corrugated cardboard, the swirls of wire. only the chinese newspaper, the leafy ribbon and...believe it or not...the bird (!) were not present in my "vision". other than that, i promise this was 95% complete when i saw it in my head:

(patterned paper: my mind's eye & current + bits of chinese newspaper, corrugated cardboard & notebook paper; kraft cardstock: bazzill; bling circles (re-colored w/copics): heidi swapp; bird clipart: anahata katkin; flowers: vintage silver and tiny purple flowers from michaels, both painted with various shades of blue watercolor paint. copper wire & millefiori beads from a beading store; ribbon: may arts; ink: ranger; rub-ons: american crafts; adhesives: hot glue, tombow mono runner, 3m foam tape, mini gluedots, sewing machine)

all i had to do was make the thing, which i did almost feverishly, in case the idea should evaporate completely whilst i worked. luckily it didn't, and i was able to pull all of the ingredients together quite quickly. by far the longest step was figuring out--after i had everything arranged--how to attach all the various bits and in what order.


the background papers & chinese text are machine stitched. the copper wire is wrapped around the corrugated cardboard, twisted around itself, and then both are attached to the card with hot glue in the center, and staples out at each end. the circle is reinforced with a bit of thin chipboard, hot glued onto the corrugated cardboard, and propped with two layers of foam tape under the bit that overhangs the background. the flowers, beads, and leaves are tacked at strategic intervals with mini gluedots, and anchored more securely with dabs of hot glue anywhere i was able to hide it.

at the very end i added a rub-on sentiment and a little swirl...and called it a night! yep. totally worth cleanin' that wall. :)

24 comments:

  1. What a FANTASTIC card!! I wish I had visions like that! :D

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  2. sweet mother of pearl...I love this...everything about it is soooooo ultra fabbie...good grief girl, how do you do it? I'd like to sign up for a Lauren card making class please:)

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  3. Wow- this card is worth cleaning the whole house for! I want to get in your head and see your visions! I love love love it!

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  4. YOU are COMPLETELY AMAZING!! Holy Moly do I ever LOOOOOOOOOOVE this card!! Wow!!! I'm slack jawed in awe!

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  5. Very sweet card! Love the bird and the detailing you put into it! :)

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  6. !!!!!

    Again, you have left me speechless.Wow, and I do mean WOW Lauren...this is flippin' AWESOME!

    (-: Heidi

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  7. Wow! All the different textures are just marvelous - it's something that I want to hold in my hands and just stare at. Love the sense of movement the wire & vine provides, too

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  8. i really think you ought to come and clean my wall, too! :)
    i want just an OUNCE (heck, i'd settle for a milliliter!) to worm its way into my poor noggin!

    this card is a stunner, girl! love it all. the wire is my favie!

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  9. Wow, just WOW!!!

    Thanks for playing along with us @ 2S4Y. :)

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  10. Holy macaroni! This is a true work of art! Your card is MARVELOUS and although you had to clean your wall, YES, it was totally worth it! Fabulous! Thank you for joining us at 2S4Y! ♥♥ Kay

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  11. Heck ya that was worth all the cleaning!!! Wowsers!! I love this. I don't think I have ever seen you use so much blue. That is so gorgeous. I swear Prima is going to be knocking down your door girlie cause you know how to alter some flowers. Very cool. I love this. Great card. I hope you get in the 5 again!!! Wouldn't that be Fab? :)

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  12. I agree with everyone saying that this is worth cleaning everything up! This is so pretty, so many beautiful touches! Love it!

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  13. Lauren o my gosh. What a visions and imagination you have.Not to mention creativity. Love everything about this card, and that chinese paper looks great in the back there.
    Ønsker deg en fin helg = wishing you a great weekend!

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  14. No kidding ... I'd clean your wall if it meant I could create something like this ... fabulous!

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  15. oh-goodness can this be any more gorgeous- I think not! Holy cow this is totally worth a little splatter!

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  16. Absolutely awesome card! You should win a blog award for the best card making story! It is nice to know that someone else has visions! Congratulations! Oh by the way! Next time just leave the wall!

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  17. wow...gorgeous! congrats on fab 5:)

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  18. Congrats on being one of the Fab 5 at 2S4Y!! This card is such an amazing creation!

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  19. this is one seriously awesome card!! absolutely love the mix of everything; wire, cardboard, stitching, etc, etc! just gorgeous!! congrats on making the top 5!

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  20. Top 5!! woohoo!! Lauren, this is seriously, ridiculously beautiful!! You outdid yourself!

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  21. holy sh*t, girl!!!! that's gorgeous, amazing, awesome, inspired, inspiring, hot, so many other adjectives. wow. yep...wow.

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  22. Holy bird wings. But this is amazing. I love your scientifical methodology. Pure genius.

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