Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Not everyone's choice, but fun to make!

Our fourth son celebrated his birthday this week. Making cards for him is always a challenge as he spends most of his time running a coffee and churros cart, or working in a mobile shop, at rock festivals all summer and food festivals for the winter. In his spare time he is a drummer in a Heavy Rock band, and in a drum/guitar duo. So your standard male card of cars or boats, doesn't really move him! I have exhausted my repertoire of drum/music themed cards, but both he and his partner, love skulls and other gruesome art, and you have already seen some of the cards I have made for them in this genre. So once again I hunted around for a suitable image. 
I found this one on the Silhouette Cameo facebook page. There are some excellent designers on there and they are very generous with sharing their designs within the group. Helen Geaves designed this one for cutting in heat transfer vinyl to go on a sweat-shirt. She cut some areas in pink and added lots of rhinestones and it looked fabulous. 
I downloaded the file and resized it to fit on an A5 card. It made some of the lines too close together so I removed a few pieces and I did not cut the dotted lines. I then cut it from black glossy sign-vinyl and used tranfer paper to place it on the card. I used a printed image as a guide to place small black gems where the dotted lines are above the eyes and around the teeth and chin.

To finish the card I made a frame from narrow strips of vinyl and also used it to cut out the birthday greeting. Handsome fellow isn't he?
This was quite a challenge because it was an intricate cut, which took ages to weed (remove the bits I didn't want), and I had to be very careful not to distort the shapes when I transferred them. It's not perfect but I was quite pleased with the result. And although it is not a card that I would particularly choose for myself, I know Jonathan will love it and that is what matters.
I am linking this to the Left of Centre Challenge blog where they like anything creepy, goth etc.

5 comments:

Di said...

Aaaaaargh, I was catching up on blogging late evening here, in the dim light of a lamp and this guy popped up on my dashboard and scared the wits outta me! A brilliant card Kate, thought you'd taken up Zentangling at first. LOVE the term 'weeding' for picking all those bits out of intricate die cuts :)

Hugs, Di xx

kiwimeskreations said...

Having seen some of your cards for Jonathan, I knew immediately who it would be for. Well done Kate - it is spectacular, if not my cup of tea :-).
Blessings
Maxine

Saskia said...

Cool!

Shirley-Anne said...

Hi there Kate. Thank you for your email . I have changed my comment thingy back to previous status so please try again and let me know how you go commenting on my posts .
Now your card here is awesome . The decorative skull has so much detailing .Seems a labour of love to me and I am sure your son will love it .
hugs Shirley-anne

Sarn said...

That's the great thing about being a card maker . .. you get to make PERSONALISED cards. This is certainly unique and I'm sure your son loved it.

Hugs
Sarn xxx