Thursday 30 September 2010

A voyage to sea

Another craft which gives me a great deal of  pleasure is my paper crafting. Even as a little girl I always loved to cut and stick everything and anything and made scrapbooks years before the term "scrapbooking" was ever used. My Mum and I are both keen paper crafters and over the years have attended several classes on this art. We always had to arrange these for a day when I was not working, the children were in school etc etc so we were quite limited to what we could attend but we have been lucky enough to be taught by some very talented ladies. As well as my bead stash  for my jewellery making I also have a large stash of  papers, embellishments etc for my card making. I do have an ever patient husband, he has allowed the cupboards in my daughter's old bedroom to gradually be take over by me as my craft storage room, thank you M ;0) x


Recently my daughter's boyfriend sailed off into the sunset (well actually he's been posted to serve as a trainee engineer on a cargo ship sailing between Spain and France!) as part of his Marine Engineering course. He went a few weeks ago and is not back until nearly Christmas. Yes, a long time and I know how much she is missing him :0(  However her job as a very busy junior doctor keeps her quite distracted, especially the frantic on calls!

 Before Tom left for sea I decided to commission a little ACEO that I could use to make into a Bon Voyage card for him.

For those not " in the know " an ACEO stands for Art Card, Editions and Originals. These are a branch of   ATC s (Artist Trading Cards) where artists make little miniature works of arts to trade with one another or sell.
ACEOs are very affordable as they small, about the size of football trading cards, but they are still one of a kinds.
The artist I bought from is the talented Vita who sells on Etsy.

This beautiful little mermaid is holding up and protecting the ship and I thought Tom would appreciate the imagery - although I'm not sure how many mermaids he will meet on his trip.

I added some "sea" themed backing paper

and made a frame for the watercolour using rivets at the corners and finished off using some silver peel off lettering.......

and hey presto I had a card which he could then use as a little picture in his cabin or a bookmark etc.

As a keen paper crafter we NEVER waste a scrap of paper so I decided to also use the backing paper to make my Dad's birthday card and a couple of other male cards (these are always the tricky ones to do).

   


I used a paper folded shirt on this one for my Dad's card...















and a different variation for this one and also a third variation shown below.








It's so interesting how differently cards turn out despite using very similar "ingredients". So once I finished my crafting session I had 4 cards !

So Bon Voyage to Tom and a very safe time out at sea, see you at Christmas!
Bye for now,
Jane x

12 comments:

  1. Are there no end to your talents Jane ??
    What absolutely brilliant cards, you should be selling these too. I'm sure they would do really well, they're great. :)
    Vivienne x

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  2. those are fab Jane. I have a collection of ACEO's in my bedroom/library/painting storage/underbed figure drawings storage!! I also have a very understanding hubby who has approx, 2 drawers and an eighth of the wardrobe space - most of that is taken up with my 'collectables', I love ACEO's especially the whimsy ones, mine are all dogs and cats! do you make the shirts? I have a stack of craft paper and albeit a keen origami-ist, I can't do shirts and cardy stuff......

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  3. Fantastic, Jane!

    You nailed what is always a problem: the cards for men! A huge struggle, and I almost always end up buying one. You're so talented, scrapbooking and cardmaking are something that I would love to learn (I have many books already!) if I just found the time. We have no classes here of them, such a pity.

    I agree with Viv, these would sell great!

    Yours,
    Mia

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  4. It's such a delight to see the beautiful papercrafts (and more!) from your talented hands! What a beautiful mermaid card you have lovingly created, and such fun folded shirt cards, too :o)

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  5. *Blush* Vivienne, you are very kind with your comments. I think I am just a person who can never sit still, I always need to be occupied. My husband calls me his make and do wife....I have been making and doing since I was a little girl. The only thing that gets in the way is going to work!
    I had thought of putting my cards on Etsy, I may well give it a go and see...they do seem to sell well at my jewellery parties?

    Enjoy your evening, its been a glorious day here after all the rain yesterday,
    Jane x

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  6. Laney, good to see you back here!Thank you for your kind comment. I think all of us crafty people must be a nightmare to live with, as you say we also seem to love "collectables" and have stashes of all sorts.
    Mind you I am a bit of a tidy freak and I do have it in some kind of order so my hubbie does not live in total disorder!
    I bought some paper shirts some time ago and took them to pieces and had a go myself, they are fiddly but great fun.
    I do buy occasional ACEOs for special cards just because they are so unique and can then be kept as a bookmark, little picture to frame etc.
    Enjoy your evening.
    Jane X

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  7. Hi Mia, thanks so much..*blush again*. I do love creating individual cards for people and the shop bought ones are so expensive. As you say it's the men cards which are pretty limited and it's great to do something different.
    Mum and I have been so lucky to have attended some super classes, we even managed a weekend residential one a few years ago which my Mum,bless her, paid for me too.
    Watch out I may well list a few on Etsy!
    Have a great evening, nearly the weekend.
    Jane x

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  8. Hi Michele, thanks so much for your kind comment. Card making/scapbooking is HUGE out with you in the States and a lot of the new ideas come over here from across the pond.

    Tom loved his card and I think that beautiful mermaid is enjoying being out on the ocean waves as we speak.....!

    Take care and have a great weekend,

    Jane x

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  9. the card is absolutely beautiful!!!!

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  10. Thank you Vita, your mermaid made such a lovely apt card for Tom! Have a peaceful weekend,keep creating your wonderful little works of art,
    Jane

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  11. Wow! You are a sweetie for doing that for your daughter's boyrfriend! I'm so impressed!! I love the ACEO that you chose - very appropriate for Tom..I hope he loves it. And the extra cards - wow, you are really talented! I wouldn't know where to add the right touches. Neat to see so many facets of you, Jane! I thank you so much for your kind visit! Glad that you got to partake in some bread pudding!! I shall have to have a proper doughnut when I visit London in a few weeks (1st time)! I'm so excited!! : )

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  12. Wow Shirley, a visit to London soon...how fab..you will love it! My husband works in the city, in Farringdon near St.Paul's and Barts hospital,he has for many years and it's still his favourite city in the world.

    You will certainly be spoilt for places to find cakes and tea...enjoy :0)

    Thanks for visiting me here and your kind words.
    Jane x

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