Summer!

Sometimes I get a hair-brained idea in my head and I just have to make it. For some reason, while colouring the little girl, I got the idea to do another clear front card and so... here she is.

The front is a clear panel of re-purposed packaging with only the "Summer" panel and the hinge scallop on it which you can see in the 'open' picture and in the stand-up view. 

I used a summer words paper for the back of the "Summer" panel to hide the adhesive while adding more interest inside the card.

Supplies

InLinkz.com

Putting It Together

The spark of inspiration for this card was when I was thinking about the colours for a challenge I missed the deadline on (life took an odd turn last week and processing that derailed me on the weekend) and about a lovely die set I recently got but hadn't yet used, Way With Word 4 Seasons.

One of the picture inspirations for the colours in that challenge included a weathered dock. I got to thinking about docks going out into lakes and boardwalks along beach fronts and Summer. I have a few wood papers, but this one felt sun drenched, sun bleached to me (BoBunny Calendar Girl). On top of wanting to use my new die, I also wanted to give Shimmer Sheets a try.

Note to self: Always use the Precision Base Plate when using Shimmer Sheets. My first attempt to die cut Summer did not cut all the way through. It's a thin plastic so it needs that extra umph on cutting that the Precision Base provides.

Because I wanted my rectangle to be longer than any of my dies, I had to do a double cut to have the dots go all the way around.

Looking through my stamps (on Evernote), I kept being drawn back to this one. Funny thing, when June release was being previewed, I wasn't all that taken by the You're Sun-sational set. It was the one I least liked in the set and yet, after I've gotten it in my hands, it's become much beloved, especially this little girl. The only things I don't like is the shell in her hand and her feet. To me the shell looks more mitt like than shell, and her feet, I can't figure out if she's standing or jumping down or.. . But the way she's holding on to her hat and the bit of breeze shown by her dress is all so lovely. So, at some time I am sure I'll put flowers in her hand. This time, though, I will be cutting off her feet and covering her hand. I drew a pencil line around the die I'm going to use to cut her out to remind me where I need to wash her background to. I stamped her on to Canson Watercolour paper with Memento black ink.

I have become completely addicted to watercolouring with Distress Ink. Even though I am cutting off her feet and covering the shell, I still painted them *laugh*

Background: Tumbled Glass

Dress and Hat: Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, and Victorian Velvet

Skin: Spun Sugar, Antique Linen, Worn Lipstick

Hair: Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo

I was running out of evening (darn that alarm in the morning) so I tried dry fitting a few different papers to figure out what I wanted for the inside. I tried a variety of papers from Echo Park, Carte Bella, Stampin' Up and more. I was looking for something that would 'scream' Summer. I will admit that I have started to amass a bit of a collection of papers *laugh*

Even though the Summer panel is going to be on the outside, on the clear front, I used it in my dry fitting because of the visibility of the interior on the finished card.

I had cut and scored my card base from Neenah Solar White 110 lbs cardstock. The back is 5.5" square and the front is short because of my intent to have a clear front. I actually cut this shorter later and then die cut the hinge. I wanted the card base to be the hinge and not the clear plastic because it would be more flexible. I learned this from my Sunshine Shaker card in May where I also re-purposed packaging.

Early on, I decided I wanted to use the KKS blog's July sketch tipped on its side. This is why I put the girl on a circle, but I was having a hard time thinking what I wanted in the second circle.

I finally decided to use the ice cream cones in the circle and add a pink beaded circle for whimsy.

After trying a lot of different papers, I finally decided on these. Unintentionally, the patterned papers, aside from the wood, all come from the same pad. It is a bit busy and colourful, but I think it's also fun. I flip-flopped on the hot air balloons so many times, putting it in, taking it out, looking for something else, putting the balloons back in, taking them out, etc. But, I like the bit of sky, too. I had also considered making my own background with trees, but that would have dropped a lot of the bright fun. It was the flowers which pushed me to have the hot air balloons.

Side note: The bottom is from the same sheet but the two patterns were in a different position. I wanted the flip-flops on the bottom instead of mostyly hidden behind the wood panel. So, I cut the paper at the blue strips and adhered the flip-flops to the flowers. I had considered having them flat, but this worked better and allowed me to have one less loose piece when assembling.

I sponged the edges of the 2 patterned panels with Tumbled Glass and didn't matte anything. I had decided I wanted to have wider borders of white on the sides and almost none top to bottom.

You might be able to see the bit of pencil where I traced part of the cirle on the cardstock, where it would be under the panel. I use that as a guide for placement after I put adhesive on the piece. 

At this point I still hadn't entirely decided what I wanted to do with the hinge.

I cropped off the hang over of the girl circle (which I planned to do from the beginning). You can see the pencil mark for my little circle. I wanted it high enough you could see the ice cream cones.

If I were to re-do, I would put the ice cream circle a little lower and the rectangle panel a nudge lower, too, but I didn't want to completely obscure the flowers, either. I had also considered, in the dry fit phase, having the panel obscure the girl's left arm entirely, but tht would have also covered too much of her cute dress. Like this, though, I was afraid she might look a little Vanna White-ish, i.e. presenting the panel or holding it up.

For the interior, I wanted a space for someone to write their own sentiment or note or whatever. This white panel will be directly under the wood panel and is the same size. Like the girl, I put this panel extended out to the card edge. I wanted the patterned papers to feel backgrounded. Everything on the inside is 'flat'. The clear front will add dimension with the wood panel.

While continuing to ponder on the hinge, I ran the Summer through the Xyron to make it into a sticker I could easily place on the wood panel. I decided to put it at a rising angle for a bit of fun.

After flip-flopping on the scallop border, I finally decided it would look better than the alternatives I considered (including a washi tape with summer beachy words). Running this through the Big Shot also squished everything to the back of the card base, too.

But, possibly because of the balloons throwing me off visually, I didn't get the scallops perfectly centred. I really should measure *laugh*

I attached the clear front to the hinge from the inside. For aesthetics, if I were going to do this again, I would close the hinge flap and attach the clear front on the outside, but attached this way might have more strength. If you look at the front in the finished pictures, you can see a bit of the inside scallop at the edge of the outside one. The outside edges of the scallop are very narrow so the card front is mostly being held by the middle.

Here you can see the inside scallops nicely covering the adhesive on the inside. It was a PITA to get this interior scallop to the right width. If I do this again, it would be better to have an extended part of the hinge cover under the top patterned paper and scored for the fold.

Oh look my wonderful messy desk with 2 other projects, I didn't cut down this picture (or colour correct) before adding it in.

I closed the card front and used the white panel to place the wood panel. They're exactly the same dimension, so I just needed to lay it directly on top.

Opening the card face, you can see the back of the wood panel and its adhesive.

To cover that, I had created a third panel of the same size with summer words from Summer Party. I oriented it so it would be upright when the card is open which makes it upside down for its own panel. Since I could see through the clear panel, I lined it up on the wood panel.

 Voila!

Challenges

Personal challege: More than 2 patterned papers (3 pads and 5 different papers! 6 if you count the fact I cut one and repositioned it *laugh*)

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps blog 13 July Wonderful Wednesday: Anything Goes



Side Note: Appologies to anyone who looked at my blog while I was still writing this one. I accidentally hit "Publish" instead of "Save" when I hadn't written most of it.