A Quick Baby-Wipe Technique 'Eclipse' card and a Funny story!

Good Morning ladies,

Today's card is one that I made yesterday morning, Lucy came down to make herself a cup of coffee and said ''Is Adam's Birthday card ready'', 'what b'day card was my reply', she was sure she had asked me last week to make a card for her friends birthday, but she hadn't, or I certainly never heard her mention it!  So she says ''Well I am leaving in just about 45 mins to get the train to Wales, can you get one made'' , I'll have a go is all I could say, so off to the craft room I went, I asked if he was into anything in particular, colours etc but 'no', just do something personal and Ok for a Boy' was my only brief. 

Now for me the hardest part of any card is deciding what to use, colour, style etc.  As I was looking around for inspiration I noticed my Large Letter Dies, so I immediately thought that I would have a go at an 'Eclipse' card.  So I roughly measure the letters, decide on the size and cut my Whisper White card to size, I then sat for a moment trying to decide whether to use decorative paper or create and background, I then remembered this weeks challenge and thought, I'll include some embossing, then it hit me.....I will use Blues and Greens and do the Baby Wipe technique with some grungy background dies, so that it exactly what I did.

I took two babywipes and folded them together into a little rectangle, I then added a few drops each of Balmy Blue, Mossy Meadow, Pear Pizazz and So Saffron, I took Timeless Textures and Artisan Textures Stamp sets and set about building a grungy background, after I had done adding colour I dried the piece off with my heat tool and then took one of the stamps and randomly stamped with Versamark, I then added Embossing Powder and heat set, I think that adding hints of metal or shine really does lift these designs.  I went with gold as I thought it went well with the yellow and greens.

One tip I will give is to always make your piece of stamping bigger than you need, that way you can cut it down so that you have only the best bits.

I then die cut 'ADAM' out of the stamped piece and put the rest of the layers of the card together, I added a mat of Gold for extra touch of luxury, I made my card base with Dapper Denim card, to tie in with the colours in the card, Lucy didn't like the Balmy Blue as it wasn't masculine enough!

Now when you die cut your letters for the 'Eclipse' technique you have to remember to keep all of the pieces of the die cut, including the waste, so that you can piece the entire letter back into the die cut aperture. 

I adhered by stamped piece onto the card base with gold mat, I placed the letters back into their apertures and glued down all of the popped out pieces (from the centre of the A's and D), I also stuck down the pointy parts of the M aperture, I added dimensional (foam pads) to the back of the letters and then I decided to edge then in gold to make them stand out a little more, highlighting his name. 

Finally I added the letters into their apertures, adding a little touch of glue to the foam pads as they were being stuck onto metallic card.

I stamped the inside to match, the sentiment was the large 'Happy Birthday' from 'Perennial Birthday' stamp set, which I stamped in Versamark and embossed in gold to match the front.

The card measured 5 1/4 X 6 1/2, so didn't fit any envelope I had, so I got the Envelope punch board out and rustled one up to match the card.

I couldn't show the inside of the card or the envelope and Lucy and written on them before I had chance! (Because of the rush)!!

I think from start to finish, including making the insert and envelope took about 37 minutes, which for me (Mrs Indecisive) is pretty good going and I don't think that it looks like a last minute rush card!

What do you think???

Now while I was making the card, Lucy was buzzing about getting ready, the smell of hairspray, deodorant and perfume where all but choking me, the odd calls of 'Have you seen my ???''  and 'Can I borrow????'' floating about, Harley kept barking, which drives me insane, he did it all day sunday too, he was barking for nothing more than attention, or he was yesterday at least...….

When the hairspray and perfume had evaporated there was a vile odour that filled just about every room in the house......yes you guessed it, Harley had messed all over the kitchen floor!!!  

I just looked with my puppy dog eyes at Lucy, who was just running out of the front door, ''sorry mum, I would love to help, but my friend will be here any second and I need to wait out the front so she knows where to stop'' !  Thanks Lucy !

I have a very sensitive gag reflex, once I start I usually end up throwing up pretty much 80% of the time, so I had to get prepared, I needed something to cover my nose and mouth to mask the smell a little, we don't have anything like that in the house, so I had to resort to using a Sanitary Pad 'with wings' (thankfully because they covered my nose)! I had to put the sticky side to my face!  I put on two pairs of gloves, the thin throw away ones I use if I HAVE to do the litter tray and marigolds.

I tentatively step into the kitchen, let Harley into the garden and survey the damage, OMG it's everywhere, he obviously had something that didn't agree with him!  I reached for my bleach spray and pretty much use the whole bottle over the mess, I then used virtually a whole roll of kitchen roll to cover it, bin bags at the ready I cleaned it up, I then bleached the floor two more times with neat bleach!  Kudos to the 'Always Ultra' it stood the test of time and masked most of the smell!  

So remember that most things in your home have more than one use!  Harley was fine for the rest of the day.  I however needed a long lie down!!!

I hope I haven't put you off your Breakfast, I will tell you that it put me off mine and my lunch!

I hope you have a lovely day,

Love and hugs

Sandra

xxxxxx