Dale's Crafts: RECONDITIONED CARDS

You think of reconditioned cards and "yuk" often comes to mind! I have seen some neat cards done by some of the churches, but for the most part they are made by little old ladies with poor eyesight and not much creativity. The pictures are often cut out badly with pinking shears {shudder} and sometimes the personalised written wording inside has been covered with really old computer paper - ugh! I have even seen pictures that have been roughly stuck onto a piece of paper folded in 4!! No, no, no!!!!

I'd like to believe that I have taken reconditioned cards to a new level and want to share my stylish creations with a bit of explanation:

As I am an avid stamper, I decided to first stamp a background onto the folded square card. I stamped the BRS swirly stamp with dye ink, trimmed the picture, backed it onto black, then onto the card. The embellishments were added into the four corners and on some of the dots of the swirly design. Plain, simple, but striking!

As we started out years ago making the A6 cards (A5 folded), I decided to show that one can apply the wonderful new techniques on the smaller cards, too. I stamped the same swirly as above, but this time decided to edge it with a sponge dipped into a black inkpad.
This girl with roses picture came from an old Mouth & Foot Calenda r, where various disabled painters feature their artwork. As it is a thinnish paper, I stuck it down with acid free tape to prevent it showing through at a later stage. I then created a frame with the aid of a ruler (to keep the lines straight) and peel-offs. The flat pearls on the top corners hide the overlap, the flower arrangement the bottom left and the quotation which was with the picture on the calendar, the bottom right corner. This was also framed with a swirly peel-off to compliment the stamping. A feather was added behind the flowers to soften the tone.

The crackle background stamp is from Niki Zipp of Paperchain in Johannesburg. The lovely scalloped black border is a die made by Nellie Snellen. The background within the scallops was made with the shaving foam technique.
I sewed the fibre directly onto the buttons and attached them to the card and ribbon with double sided tape.
I make all my square cards 14 x14cm as you can make an envelope for them from a paper cut 21 x 21 cm. Make a template square of just over 14 cm and fold the corners over it. If you have a ScorPal, place the paper diamond-wise at 15 cm and score at 22 cm, turn, score, repeat. Nick off the corners, fold and glue.

Another Mouth & Foot Painting...plain & simple again and enhanced by feathers and flat pearls.

This background stamp is also from Niki Zipp. It's been in my stash (I won it in a prize) for absolutely ages and quite honestly never appealed to me until now! It has a deliberated aged look about it and is almost fuzzy once stamped, but don't you agree it makes the most awesome background? Because of its boldness I felt it was better suited to a manly type image and what better than a wild animal?! As rhinos are in the news a lot at the moment what with all the nasty poaching going on, I felt this would be most appropriate. I think this picture came from yet another calendar! The subtle gems in the corner are the only embellishment suitable, although a black ribbon across a corner could also have worked.