Thursday 19 March 2009

Keeping up the suspense

Hope you're having a happy Thursday. The last week has been a bit of a blur, but I'm back with the first project for my 14 February class – a suspension card.

I first saw a tutorial for them at Splitcoast. If you haven't seen one before, I think of them as a bit of an interactive twist on a window card. Basically, you punch a hole between 2 layers & suspend a smaller centrepiece in the hole with some thread (or dental tape in this case). If you twist the centrepiece before you envelope the card, it twirls around when the receiver opens the card.
I thought it would be fun to use the circle scallop punch for the hole, so that's where I started. Also, as Sale-A-Bration was in full swing at the time, I used the very pretty 'Botanical Blooms' set. The colours are I think a very pretty combo of celery (yay!), pretty in pink, regal rose, rose red & white. The ribbon is the gorgeous, gorgeous 1 inch rose red stitched grosgrain from the Summer Mini. Here's a close-up (if a little blurry) pic of the window.
To get the multicoloured effect on the greeting (again from Occasional Greetings), I inked the whole image with a pretty in pink ink pad, then used a regal rose & rose red marker to highlight a some of the words. This is a great way to save time, rather than markering (is that a word?) the whole stamp.

More Suspension Cards

Thought you might like to see some more suspension cards I made at the same time- mainly with the Fall Flowers paper pack (going soon! – sigh).
This one was the first one I did & I really liked the layout, but after nearing breaking a circle punch by trying to go through too many layers at a time (see tip below!) & deciding it was a little busy with all the patterns, I decided to simplify the class design.
These were the next 2 I made. I liked the simpler layout & the detail around the suspension part on the first one, but decided I wanted to do more stamping at the class.If you'd like to try making one yourself, check out this suspension card tutorial on Splitcoast. Just one recommendation - Do NOT try to punch through more than 2 layers at a time – I find 1 layer of card & 1 layer of paper works best.
Hope this has given you something new ideas to try. Next time, I'll show you the second card we made at the class....& I have to say it's probably my (& quite a few of my customers) favourite card of the year, using my favourite set & paper....so far anyway. Thanks for visiting.
Hugs
Di J
Supplies:Botanical Blooms SuspensionStamps: Botanical Blooms (SAB), Occasional Greetings
Card: certainly celery, whisper white, rose red, pretty in pink
Ink: pretty in pink (pad), regal rose (marker), rose red (marker), certainly celery, wild wasabi
Accessories: 1 inch rose red stitched grosgrain ribbon
Tools: punches – scallop circle, 1 3/8 in circle, 1 ¼ inch circle, 1 inch circle
Other: Dental tape

Fall Flowers Suspensions
Stamps: Friendly Flowers (Summer Mini), Eastern Blooms, Think Happy Thoughts
Card: certainly celery, soft sky, old olive, groovy guava
Paper: Fall Flowers
Ink: old olive, blue bayou, certainly celery, groovy guava
Accessories: 5/8 inch celery grosgrain ribbon, soft sky double stitched ribbon, celery brads, not quite navy brad
Tools: punches – scallop circle, 1 3/8 in circle, 1 ¼ inch circle, 1 inch circle, ¾ inch circle
Other: Dental tape

3 comments:

Andrea said...

Di! They are all absolutely lovely but I especially love the Botanical Bloom card. It is really pretty.

Chrissie said...

I love suspension cards!!!
And I love all the ones you have made! Great job Di!

LeAnne said...

So cool! I haven't made one of these in a long time, love your choices of color, too!
LeAnne