Creative Expressions Calling Card Challenge

Hello bloggers hope you are all well. I have decided to enter the Creative Expressions design team challenge which has been titled Calling Card. After doing a bit of research it turns out that amongst other things a "calling card" is an ATC type card that was given as part of contacting like minded people in the early 19th Century. Typical, I thought, as I have never made an ATC in my life as I must confess I couldn't see the point of them. Why would I want to make a card measuring 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches ? But after making the six for this project I am definitely converted as I really enjoyed designing them.

I started off by making the calling card case. For this I die cut 3 Labels 8 nesties. 2 from chipboard and one from black cardstock. The chip board labels were painted with Gesso and then inked with Tim Holtz Distress inks before being over stamped in Weathered Wood distress ink using the cracked paint effect stamp from Words Like Honey. The sunflower was created by using a melt pot, ultra thick embossing enamel, and yellow melt pot dye. The melted UTEE was poured into a sunflower mould and when cool was coloured with latte and gold alcohol inks and then mounted onto die cut circles before being glued to the front chip board die cut using Pinflair glue gel.

The inside of the case was made by attaching lengths of foam board around the edges of the other chipboard die and then painted with black acrylic paint. The inside is covered with black card that has been stamped with the cracked paint stamp using weathered wood distress ink. The outside of the strips has been covered with a length of brown self adhesive ribbon to hide the joins at the corners. For the hinges two lengths of black ribbon were glued to the back strip of the case. The other ends were attached to the reverse side of the front panel (lid). Once the black cardstock nestie label has been stamped with the cracked paint stamp it can be glued to the reverse side of the cover to hide the black ribbon hinges. I cut a piece of black cardstock to fit the inside of the case and stamped it with the cracked paint stamp using weathered wood distress ink.

Here you can see the calling cards fit nicely in the finished case.

The first card was made using a set of stamps from Stamp Addicts. The base card was covered with broken china and mustard seed distress inks. The gazebo was stamped using vintage photo distress ink and then a water brush was used to pull some of the colour out to colour in some of the image. The cross keys have been embossed in black. The two little birds embossed in gold. Correspondence has just been stamped using black memento along with priority. The priority stamp is from Chocolate Baroque. The card has been finished off with black soot distress ink sponged around the edges.

The second card was created by covering the base with broken china distress ink then placing the bird cage mask from That Special Touch Of onto the ATC and then spritzing sunflower glimmer mist over the top. When dry Correspondence and the birdcage and branches from Words Like Honey were stamped over the top using black memento ink. As before the edges of the card were sponged with black soot distress ink.

The butterfly and dragon fly card was created from stamps by Chocolate Baroque. Firstly the base card was spritzed with a red glimmer mist then when dry a leaf mask from creative expressions (That Special Touch of)was placed on the card and then a green glimmer mist sprayed over the top. When dry the butterfly and dragonfly was stamped onto the card using a green and orange memento ink. The detail stamp for the butterfly and dragon fly was then over stamped using black memento ink.

The clocks ATC card was made the Time set of stamps from Creative Expressions, however I must confess that I have lost the stop watch from my set so had to substitute it for a very similar stamp that I found in my stash ooops! I covered the card with a dab of colour in stone from Stamps Away and then some pumpkin dab of colour. I stamped the stopwatch in blue Versafine and then placed a mask that i had cut from a sticky note over the top of the stopwatch. I then stamped the clock background to the top half of the card using the blue vesafine and then in brown memento I stamped the sentiment. I have used Promarkers to colour in the edges of some of the clocks and gears. The card has been finished off with edging the card with ocean Dab of Colour.

These last two ATC's were sponged with stone dab of colour from Stamps Away before being stamped with Darkroom Doors playing cards. The queen of hearts has been stamped using red memento and the hearts have been glittered with red stickles. The edges have been embossed in black. The urgent stamp from Chocolate Baroque has been stamped with black memento. The Ace of spades has been stamped using black memento and then sponged a bit with black soot distress ink to create the smudges. The edges have been embossed by mixing glitter red and black embossing powders together.

So there you have it one finished project.............