Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Friday, September 12, 2014

FOLLOWING THE STAR

Well it looks like I may make my third post today. (The second one is on my other blog).
In my Creative blog Hop post I said I was working on a run of Christmas cards. I finished them last weekend, but there hasn't been time to do a post about them until now.

Taking part in Christmas challenges has kept me making cards all year, but a few a month is not really enough for me, so I thought I had better try and do a run of one design. I really like Christmas cards that show something of the nativity story, which is after all, what the season is all about, so I sketched  my design on paper, using an idea I found in one of my old files of magazine cut outs, when I was reorganizing my room. And here is the finished card.
For a project like this it is worth putting in some work first, so here is how it was done.
1. I stamped a very old Bethlehem scene, using an Art Impressions stamp, (top left). I scanned it into the computer, and used a graphics program to split it into five elements (centre and bottom left), which I rearranged to look like the final picture (right).
2. I arranged the sections in one line and found I could fit seven lines on one A4 page so I printed this out three times onto cream card. I roughly added patches of brown and yellow with copic markers.
3. This gave me 21 sets of buildings which I cut out by hand! It didn't actually take very long!
4. In Adobe photoshop I made a background using two digital scrapbook papers. I resized it, again so that I could fit seven copies on an A4 page, and printed them out three times. I cut them with my rotary cutter.
5. I found twenty-one pieces of card in various weights and shades of cream, and cut and folded twelve centimetre square, base cards.
6. I matted the background pieces onto navy card - again I managed to get seven out of a sheet of card, and glued them to the right of the base cards.
7. Now it was time to layer the Bethlehem pieces on each one. I just used double sided tape for most layers, but put 1mm pads under the dome-roofed building at the front.
8. I used a file from my silhouette library to cut 21 kings on camels. Originally he was going to stand in the empty panel at the left hand side, but I thought this looked like two unrelated images - Bethlehem and the king, so instead I moved him across so that he overlapped the front building, and cut 21 'half' kings using a different image, and added him behind the first one. I  liked this a lot better. Because I was cutting the kings from paper, and it was already a fairly delicate design, I decided not to try to cut the very thin reins. Instead I drew them in at the end with a fine permanent marker.
9. The final bit was to cut the stars using a Memory Box die. I scrabbled through my mirri-card snippets and found enough little pieces to cut them without starting on a new sheet, so I was pleased about that, and it doesn't matter that there are several different shades of gold.
I didn't feel any sentiment was needed, but on the inserts I used a word art piece referring to the kings, and taken from from the book of Psalms, which is part of a digi set I bought a while back. Sorry I can't remember its origin.
It is not often I do such a big batch of cards but it is a good way of upping my total, and I shall be doing it again very soon I think. And just to prove I really did finish all twenty-one of them, here they all are, complete with inserts and envelopes, and they even have my 'hand made by..' labels on their backs.
As I managed to use up lots of little snippets of gold card, I shall take these over Pixie's Snippets playground week 141.


5 comments:

kiwimeskreations said...

What wonderful cards Kate - and who worries that they are mass produced, they are stunning.
Blessings
Maxine

scrappymo! said...

Oh my goodness Kate...you have made a bevy of lovely cards. Your image is wonderful. You are right about it being the true meaning at christmas.

Love your pretty design and your patience!!!

Veerle said...

Oh my Kate, this is very nice. Sounds like its a great program to alter pictures or scans like that. Have a lovely day, hugs Veerle xxx

Di said...

Oh Kate, these are so beautiful. Fascinating to read how you made them too. especially maneuvering Bethlehem around - and 21 is a great number for a batch bake!

Hugs, Di xx

MaryH said...

This was a most impressive reading post. I was intrigued by the methods you used to create the Holy City and that is just awesome. A marvelous idea and one you carried through to create a wonderful card. The Wiseman(wisemen) were perfect embellishments, and I can just imagine how fiddly these were to cut from paper on the Silhouette. I have enough trouble with lightweight cardstock! (I'm still trying to learn appropriate blade settings..even though I have a cheat sheet). I like religious themed cards too, and you've made a beautiful set. Well done, and tfs the how-tos. Hugs