Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"Trying to find the place I just left"

Because of my numerous failed attempts at the Make it Crafty Distressing challenge last week, I was very happy to see their new sketch & Vintage theme challenge. Another opportunity! I learned a lot following their instructions on distressing, mostly that it means more than I thought it did. I had made some really pretty paper with Tim Holtz distress inks, but then I messed it all up trying to use acrylic stamps on it. Too advanced for me (thus far!) This time I knew better. I embossed watercolor paper using a texturing plate and then "distressed" it using different inks. The key here applying the ink with a wet-nap wipe. For the orange stripes I spread on ink straight from the pad, which was risky but came out well.
For whatever reason, I decided to use the cover of a book for the main image. Not just any book; a book I had the honor of designing. The whole experience was very important to me: I worked with the press's editors to design the cover and the poet is a favorite of mine. The card contains several elements that together tell the story of the cover's design: the smaller images are the two postcards I used as reference in the final design, the brads spell PB (for Passager Books, the publishing company), and the embossing plate and tool I used were gifts from the other designer, a good friend. I feel like the Crafter Me made a card for the Designer Me. She really appreciates it!

Inspiration: Make it Crafty sketch FUN challenge
Main image adapted from cover of
Perris, California, poems by Norma Chapman (Passager Books, 2010)
Vintage
Greetings from California postcard images: Travel version and Historic version
Supplies: brads from Around the Block, Tim Holtz Mustard Seed distress ink, ColorBox pigment ink, textured watercolor paper from PLAZA art stores, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, embossing texture plate & texturing tool
Blog title from "I'm Pedaling Backwards," Perris, Califonia, pg. 54

7 comments:

  1. Really great colours here and I just love the way you have used the textured watercolour paper, its really inovative! Thanks for playing along at Make it Crafty this week. Jill

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  2. oh wow - what a fabulous way to showcase something so personal to you = I love that you have used your design and inspiration to make this card, Thanks for sharing with Make IT cRAFTY

    Beccy x

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  3. How pleased I am that my words have flowered in to this great image! It's wonderful.

    Norma

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  4. Love how you've created the distressed look with the embossing and inks! Congrats and what a proud moment to have designed this book. Thanks for playing along with our fun challenge at Make It Crafty. Hugs, Maria

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  5. i love how you tied in the colors of your book cover with the papers you chose. and you did a great job embossing and distressing! so glad you are having fun learning with us - that is what it is all about! thanks so much for playing along with us in our fun challenge at Make it Crafty! Hugs, Carisa

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  6. Wow! Now what can I say! What a fabulous way to recreate a fabulous achievement and remember it. A great take on the sketch I created too. Hugs hun and I hope to see you again. xxoo

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  7. What a wonderful tribute to your hard work on the book. Great job on the texture and distressing on this card. Thanks for joining in on the fun at Make It Crafty.

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Thank you for taking the time to leave a message. I truly appreciate it, and I will enjoy hopping over to your blog as well.