MFT Card Design Superstar Submission v.2

This design came to me as I was browsing my MFT dies to see what I might use. I came across the Sentiment strips and thought they would look awesome as a background design. You know what? They totally do!

My original thought was to cut a window out of the upper middle and have the strips on the front of the card and a sentiment on the inside showing through the window, but I quickly realized that wasn’t going to translate itself as well in reality as it did in my head. So that design got nixed. The Accent It Die-namics turned out to be perfect because they provide that sentiment without detracting from the interest of the strips.

What I love most about this design is it’s versatility. Change up the color of the glitter paper, and you’ve got a card for an entirely different event. Use black glitter paper and you’ve got a graduation card; use silver and you’ve got a wedding card; use gold and you’ve got a wedding or New Years card; pink or blue…hey, there, baby; need a birthday card? Pick a color. 😉

I will admit, assembling all the sentiment strips is a bit time consuming, but it has a fabulous impact, especially in person! I didn’t stamp anything on the inside because I wanted to keep this available for any event (gold seems to be trendy that way), but I did layer a full-mat of mint paper on the inside for an added level of interest and a fun little surprise.

SUPPLIES:
Dies: Accent It: Celebrate, Sentiment Strips (My Favorite Things)
Cardstock: Stamper’s Select White (Papertrey Ink), Mint To Be (Avery Elle), Glitter (DCWV)
Accents: Black Rhinestones, Gold Stars Sequins (Pretty Pink Posh)

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MFT Card Design Superstar Submission

I first heard about this contest through my friend, Janet, who encouraged me (repeatedly!) to enter. She was even kind enough to loan me some of her MFT stamps, one of which was a cute little mummy-child.

When I was younger, my family and I took a trip to Egypt. We got to spend a week visiting the pyramids, seeing tombs, and viewing the rich history of the culture. It remains one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Mummies, therefore, always remind me of my trip to Egypt…even cute little Halloween children images of mummies. So my first thought was to use this little guy for a card for my mom. Cute as he is though, I didn’t want him on the front of my non-Halloween card. I’m just a traditional nut job like that.

Enter, gauze. Being fresh out of cheesecloth, I raided the first aide supplies. I have every intention of restocking later…hopefully before the next disaster rather than after. A word to the wise: if you’re going to try this at home, don’t use multi medium matte to seal over the top of the gauze. Or maybe do, if that’s what you want. But take it from someone who tried that: it may give the gauze a great “permanent” texture, but it won’t be as soft or – dare I say it – feminine as leaving the top side be.

I wanted a lot of texture so I stretched the gauze along the long side and pulled the narrow sides apart a bit, roughing the weaving up in areas with my fingers. I also added a lot of ripples and bubbled areas to the gauze as I was gluing it down to give it even more texture and dimension.

For the glue, I spread a pretty decent layer of Multi Medium Matte over the card mat (I did not apply the gauze directly to my card base as I figured it would need some additional support). If your layer of glue is too thin, it won’t end up holding the gauze to the cardstock once it dries. Speaking of drying… work in sections or your glue might be dry before you finish…

For the labels, I smeared the edges through Versamark and applied gold embossing power. I wanted the front to be reminiscent of our trip to Egypt, so I found a hieroglyph-like font and typed up a few of the dingbat images to create a sentiment strip. [Funny side note; we actually have a printer that uses wax instead of ink to print. Little did I realize, when I went to heat the embossing power along the edges, the wax melted a bit which gave it the appearance of a stamped design rater than the strong, crisp black of the printer. I like how it ended up looking; it seems older this way.]

You were beginning to wonder where the cute little mummy-child was, weren’t you? Well, here he is, carrying a translated plaque of the hieroglyph sentiment. I brought in a dark full-mat color for the inside because I liked the unexpectedness of it after all the gold and it also served to tie in the darker color of the sentiment on the front. I colored the mummy-child with some Copics because leaving him white seemed too stark for the dark background and also gave him an aged look. I think I need to work on rosying cheeks, though…

Thanks for looking!

P.S. Please forgive the photos. I was in a rush to get them done…

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: Pure Innocence Mummy (My Favorite Things)
Dies: Designer Label Stax #3, Pure Innocence Mummy (My Favorite Things)
Cardstock: Stamper’s Select White, Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink)
Ink: Versamark, Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Copics: E00, R20, T1, T3
Accents: Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Gold Lame (American Crafts), Perfect Pearls Mist in Gold (Ranger), Gold Embossing Power (Hampton Art), Metallic Thread (Gutermann), Black Rhinestones
Other: Multi Medium Matte (Ranger), Rolled Gauze, Egyptian Silhouettes Font, Gyptienne Font