Using the right words

Helloooo, welcome back to my mad world. So Hels Sheridan set her Sunday Stampers challenge 'Words' in honour of the late Robin Gibb, and I have been working on this on and off all week whilst singing every Bee Gees song in my head. As those of you who have been following my recent posts will know I am working on a birthday/motivational double-sided ATC collection for my OH (instead of a basic birthday card) so the words are very important. I finally settled on...

In my head was a plan for how to create the main word but the rest came together as I went along. Somewhere I have seen someone using small windows in letters to a lower layer to add dimension and interest, but can I find it? The bottom layer was created by stamping manuscript in black archival ink onto silver paper, scrunching it up and then running lightly over the lumps and bumps with teal ink.

The top layer was fun to create and came from a browse through TH's CC2 book. It is the riveted patchwork technique (which I won't go through out of respect for TH - just get the book as it is beyond fantastic). I don't have black soot alcohol ink but I do have copper mixative and black archival ink which, if left to dry, create the same effect. One thing I would say is raid the tool box for bradles, screwdrivers with different heads and use smaller embossing tools, the more the merrier!!

Now that main word was more fiddly than expected. I had to stamp the letters (Sam Poole's again!!) onto the metal layer and cut out the inside of each one using a craft knife. The same letters were stamped onto antique gold card (inked up with the teal ink) and cut out individually - again including removal of the inside of each. These were then layered on top of the metal layer.

To finish gold sprockets were die cut and stamped with archival black, and these were then arranged with brass chain and bits from an old necklace. Very industrial methinks. Hopefully you can see from the piccies above and below how this project is starting to come together?

The reverse of two of these have already been started but need more lightbulb moments to get them finished. That may well come from tomorrow's Sunday Stampers challenge, in which case I may get my entry done earlier in the week for once.

Just a quick heads up - you may have noticed the link currently at the top of my blog to the Crafty Ribbons Best of British event. It has been highlighting some fabulous British craft companies for the past 15 days and if you visit each of the posts you can enter draws for some goodies kindly donated by them (you don't need to have a blog to do this either - I know Hels, everyone should have one !!) The design team have also been super busy creating samples for every day which are well worth seeing. OK, that's all for today. Pink metal flowers to finish (for another project!!) and mouths to feed. I'd love to hear from you and will always try to reciprocate (though some of these verification widgets don't seem to want to work). See you all soon,

hugs Buttons x