Thursday, November 19, 2009

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. :)

13 comments:

  1. Ah my young Paduan you have learned well.

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  2. This is particularly magnificent! Your sandpiper is perfect and vintage-y. I love it on the photo; my brain does not "see" art in everything as you do, but I am learning! Your card is wonderful and perfectly Lauren-y. I DO NOT think you gushed enough, in fact :)

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  3. YAY! LOOK AT HIM!! (her?) LOVE the colouring and LOVE LOVE the text in the background...and LOOK AT THAT STITCHING!!!
    Brag away my friend :)

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  4. So very cool Lauren. Thanks for the email. I'm so glad you like the sandpiper stamp. The coloring on it is divine. The pictures just don't do it justice. :)

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  5. Amazing card. Love everything on it.

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  6. Cards made specially for someone are always the best ... love every single stinkin' detail.

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  7. Awesome project!!! So unique and creative...love it :)

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  8. I, too am obnoxiously pleased with it - it's beautiful!!

    I find it interesting that the Russian text is about an airplane. Flight was the destiny of your beautiful card.

    xo

    Lydia

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  9. Oh wow Lauren, this is SO gorgeous! You really did Gina's beautiful stamp justice!

    (-: Heidi

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  10. My friend and I were recently talking about the ubiquitousness of technology in our daily lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that debate we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.


    I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside... I just hope that as memory gets cheaper, the possibility of downloading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about almost every day.


    (Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://knol.google.com/k/anonymous/-/9v7ff0hnkzef/1]R4i[/url] DS NetPost)

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