Saturday, February 28, 2015

Best Girlfriends B-day!

My GF just had a birthday, and I made this "Faux Card" for her! It's something I've wanted to try for a long time, I've never seen it done before, so I figured now was as good a time as any because I knew I wanted to create a cute little 'scene' for her to enjoy. I figured she could put this on her desk at work, or hang on the wall, or whatever.

Instead of making it an "open and close" card, I made it a "faux card" and instead of having an inside she will just pull the tag out from between the front and middle layers of the scene. It came out SO freakin' cute and MUCH better than I expected.

Here's a sneak peek, click below to see the rest of the pics!

**NOTE: This is a VERY image heavy post, so if you don't have high speed internet, or you're viewing from a cell phone or tablet, pics may take a few moments to load, so please be patient!




I put a LOT of work into making this "faux card". I spent a whole afternoon working on it, and I had a lot of fun. I have to say, this project has been the most fun of a project that I've worked on in a very long time. Knowing that I had an idea in mind, and that I was able to make it happen, and it turned out even more adorable than I expected really helped make doing all the work for this project more fun. :)


There are a lot of layers to this "faux card" and a lot of different pieces. I spent a lot of time die cutting and gluing things down, and I also spent a lot of time waiting for things to dry before moving onto another piece.

Here you can see where the tag pulls out, this is where all that ribbon was on the side of the tag. I also used lots of "glitter" stuff. What gal doesn't like a lot of glitter and bling? Ok, well, I am not certain that she will like this as much as I do, but I mean, it's SO cute, who wouldn't like it? LOL.

The tag is a double sided tag. It wasn't originally. It is a punch out tag from the My Mind's Eye "Happy Go Lucky" line, from the 'Happy Together' set... This front side of the tag is the original, only side of the tag. The back side of the tag had information from MME about what set of papers this tag came from.

To make the tag double sided I just added a piece of white cardstock to it and then added a cute strip of coordinating deco cardstock like the one I used on the front of the "faux card" and then I added a cute multi-layered flower with a dragonfly brad. I wanted to be sure that there was plenty of ribbon so I put some of the ribbon on the front side of the tag and some of the ribbon on the back side. By splitting the ribbon up between the 2 sides of the tag I was able to make sure that the ribbon "stayed" attached.

As you can see, I stapled the ribbon to the front side of the tag. I used 2 silver staples and 2 orange staples. I colored the silver staples with an orange sharpee. A quick and easy way to add some color.
The ribbon on the back side of the tag is held on with a few extra large glue dots and some glossy accents.

 Even though this is a birthday "faux card", I wanted her to know I'll always love her. It's rough being so far away from loved ones and we should tell them we love them every chance we get.

Here are some close up pics of the details of the "faux card".

For the main image on the card I used 'Boho Anya' from The Greeting Farm. I colored her with my Prismacolored pencils and blended with gamsol. I added some stickles and gems to the flowers in her hair and I also added 2 micro gems to her bracelet.
I had *not* originally given her rosey cheeks with freckles, but I've seen that on many other greeting farm characters and wanted to try it. I *SHOULD* have tried it on a sample piece, because I don't really like how it came out on her. But, such is life, what's done is done.

For the grass I used DCWV 6x6 mulberry paper in green and colorbok green glitter paper. I also added in a small strip of floral paper to make it look like a field of daisies. This deco paper is also seen on the back of the tag. It's from the My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose 'Mabel' cardstock 6x6 stack.
For the actual grass cuts, I used my bigshot and the Sizzix die 38-0182, Grass. I just used the front and back of the paper to make sure that I could have the grass going in 2 different directions. That way, it didn't all look like it was blowing one way. it looks more fluffy and full this way.


The clouds turned out really cute, too. I cut the clouds with my bigshot using the Sizzix Cloud # 1 die, 380189. I thought it would be so pretty to have 2 of the clouds shimmer, so I used Colorbok white glitter paper. For the other cloud at the very top, middle, I just used some white Bazzil Cardstock and then I inked the edges with some Stampin' Up! Bashful Blue (I also inked the edges of the glittered clouds with the same ink).

 For this sun, I used 2 layers. I cut this with the Cricut and the Celebrate with Flourishes cartridge. It was part of the "layer" of the sun and clouds. So I just used the layer part and got the sun. I used 2 different sizes, size 2 and 2.5. so it made it perfect for being able to layer the 2 pieces to make a dual color sun. I used Stampin' Up! Only Orange to ink each tip of the sun and also to smear a little on the middle of the sun to give a little glow. I used 'Crystal' Stickles on each tip of the sun as well.
I wasn't originally going to put a face on the sun; however, for Christmas my mom got me these cute little "Dress Up Faces" stamps by Sizzix. after I had put the sun together, I dropped my bottle of stickles on the floor and when I bent over to pick it up, I bent down by my stamp bin and there was the pack of faces stamps sticking out. I did several test stamps on spare circles and just "laid" it on the sun before actually committing to this adorable winking face. Once I had decided I inked the stamp in Memento black and stamped it. It turned out so cute, don't ya think?


For the "happy birthday" flag I used Stampin' Up! 'Itty Bitty Banners' and then I cut it out with the coordinating dies on my big shot. I inked the edges with Stampin' Up! Tempting Turquoise ink, just so that the orange ink wouldn't blend in with the flowers in the background deco cardstock.
I folded the end of the flag around the string, which is attached to the balloon, as you can see in the pic below. The string is also fed through tiny little holes that I punched to make it look like she is holding the balloon string.

Here is the balloon. I stamped it on some blue cardstock. The blue matches the scarf on the girl. I used some stickles on the balloon to give it some sparkle, and of course, I had to add a bow. I'm known for my "mini bows" and I love adding them to things to give a finished look. The balloon looked so plain before I added the bow on there.

Here is a little something I included and clipped to the back of her tag. Now, I will admit, I LOVE confetti. But, it is a HUGE pet peeve when people add confetti inside a card. I don't want to sit there and have to clean all that crap up! LOL. So, when I'm inclined to add confetti (or sequins in the place of), I put it inside a little baggy and put it inside the cards (or add to tags, in this case). this way, she can have fun with it, but she doesn't have to clean it up! I'm sure she will appreciate that. haha.

Here is the making of the "tag holder" for the "faux card". It was pretty simple, but took quite a few pop dots to do. I added some glossy accents to BOTH sides of each pop dot, just to be sure that they would stick on there good, and FOREVER! lol.

It was so easy to make, it's the tag placeholder and the dimension of the "faux card" all on one sheet.

Here's a note.... (not actually included with her "faux card", just a note to my blog readers in case they wanna try something like this).


Well, that's it for my "faux card". So, how do you think it turned out??? Do you like it? Is this something you'd be happy to get and happy to display?

I love it a lot, and I think I will be making more things like this in the future, because this did turn out really cute. I don't mind all the work I put into it at all, because it is going to someone who will appreciate it, and all the work is definitely worth the end result. :)

Thanks for coming by to check it out.

Keep on Craftin'
~Melisa Marie

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