Love Knows No Distance

I've traveled a lot in my life and lived a lot of places. A love that has depth and meaning really does know no distance. This card is filled with various methods to bring those who love each other together.

Supplies

InLinkz.com

I've been wanting to do a travel related card for a while and have been collecting various means of transportation items: Bicycles, hot air balloons, airplanes, cars, boats, travel documents, all to bring love together.

First thing I started with is the World Traveler embossing folder. I brushed it with Distress Ink, Mowed Lawn, and ran it though with Confetti Cream. I wanted a non-white card stock and the flicks of browns in the cardstock gives it character.

I trimmed the panel and edged it with more Mowed Lawn by running the ink pad directly on the cardstock edge.

To start my dry fitting, I die cut some of the travel related dies I have: Memory Box bicycle and Spellbinders sailboat, compass rose, and 'adventure'. The compass rose, boat flag, and 'adventure' were cut from foiled card stock for a bit of shine. I also stamped some travel document bits, KaiserCraft Pack Your Bags, with Distress Ink, Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo, to give them a weathered look and then fussy cut them. I placed them and the map panel on bicycle paper. At this point I was thinking about doing a 5 x 6.5" card. The map is an A2 (4.5 x 5.5") so it took up most of the space with little of the bicycle paper showing which is why I tried the map at an angle.

I added two more stamps from Stampin' Up, both embossed, the plane in silver, the sentiment in sapphire, and fussy cut them both.

 I embossed some brown value cardstock with the car from Artful Muse and highlighted it with Black Soot Distress Ink and added it to the layout.

I fit in a couple more stamps from Pack Your Bags, dry fitting the stamps before putting them to paper.

I decided the boat was looking like a flat blob so I added Barn Door Distress Ink.

I decided the plane was looking too heavy on white cardstock so decided to stamp it on Vellum instead. Once more I embossed it with silver and then fussy cut it.

I decided my card base was constraining so I changed to a 5.5 x 5.5" square. The card was shaping up and reaching its final form.

• I stamped the sentiment on vellum and embossed it with the same sapphire as before.
• I cut the bicycle, again, out of silver foiled cardstock because the black was too stark and the grey was too.. something that adding Distress Ink to didn't fix.  
• I added a Sizzix hot air balloon which I cut from two colours of the Spellbinders Media Mixage translucent paper and embossed with Ornate Swirls.
• I stamped the travel documents with a cancellation stamp and added the balloon travel sticker both stamped with Broken China from the Pack Your Bags set (and the two I had dry fit as just stamps earlier).

To make it easier to handle, I adhered the 'adventure' to the compass rose to make them a single piece. I ran the 'adventure' through the Xyron and put it directly on top of the compass rose. I also added a small bit of liquid glue to the boat's flag to adhere it to the boat and make that a single piece, too.

I adhered two panels of the bicycle paper to the card base with the visible bicycles (top and bottom edge) going in different directions. I trimmed the sides to match the card base. I used a craft paper card base because I had it handy.

When I fit the map on, I saw it was just barely smaller than the width of the card. I added Stampin' Up washi tape to the sides of the card which also gives them a finished edge.

I adhered the map panel to the middle. After firmly adhering it, I remembered I wanted to put some of the items sticking out from under it. Doh! I had to add those items in differently than my last dry fit.

With thin die cuts, one of the best ways to add dimension to them is to stack identical cuts together. Since I had made a couple other cuts to try different colours with the layout, I used the ones I cut and set aside to build up the bicycle. Small dabs of liquid glue adhere them together.

I then applied glue to the final bottom and placed it on the card since it was too big to go through my Xyron (a bigger one is on my wishlist now that I see how handy it is).

Adding mounting foam behind die cuts can be tricky since you don't what it to be visible from the front. I cut small strips to add to the spokes on the compass rose. I could have done the same treatment as the bicycle, but multiple cuts stacked together do add a bit of bulk and I wanted the compass rose to be more airy.

I also used mounting foam on the car, boat, plane, and sentiment. The travel documents/stickers and the hot air balloon were added directly to the map panel with tape runner. For the sentiment, so it would lay flat. I only put mounting foam where it was not crossing other elements.

In the dry layout, the vellum sentiment was looking too insubstantial. I had wanted it semi-transparent because I was concerned the map was getting lost, but it didn't fit. I switched back to the original piece I made and it looked so much better. I felt something still was missing on it so left it over night to ponder. The next day, I carefully lifted the sentiment and added Broken Chna to the edge which gives it a much more finished look.

This card is a little bit "everything but the kitchen sink" but I like it. It conveys the message I wanted, traveling by any means to be together. I was also aiming for a gender neutral card, one which could be appreciated by anyone.

What do you think?

Challenges

Simon Says Stamp blog 13 June Monday challenge: World Traveler