Yay!!!!
Lydia (UnderstandBlue) is the host this week, as Audrie takes a break, and she linked to EcoCycled on Etsy for the inspiration. As a fellow English major, Lydia is a fan of words just like I am, and she found the EcoCycled idea of making art on top of book pages inspiring. So did I!
Of course, I needed more white space on the page than the inspiration photos allow, so changing the scale of the "book page" worked for me. My little panel (1 5/8" x 2 7/8") looks more like a collage than most of the inspiration photos, but the overall effect is similar.
To create my faux-page art, I used Papertrey's Text Style, stamped repeatedly and offset with each stamping so the words wouldn't so obviously repeat. The ink is Hero Arts charcoal, which eliminated the harshness of black but still looks bookish. The mug, from Papertrey's Warm Happiness, is stamped in Memento Luxe rich cocoa and the steam curls are in a Colorbox chalk light brown for added warmth.
I actually contemplated stamping some color in the mug (there's a stamp for that), as so many of the inspiration photos have color in them, but decided to let the letters carry all the color. Glad I resisted. It simplifies the whole thing, and there's already a lot going on in such a small space.
The words were stamped with an old StampinUp alphabet set whose name has been lost over the years. The ink is Memento Luxe rhubarb stalk, which gives a nice pop of color amidst all the neutrals. The word panels were cut by hand and popped up on little square dimensionals.
I also wanted the text to relate to the images, even if it was subtle, so when I selected where on my prepared text panel to stamp the coffee mug, I tried to make sure words like "delights" and "joyful" were conveniently centered near the top of the mug. I didn't plan the fact that "happiness" shows between the coffee and book panels...that little bit of serendipity made me giggle with glee.
Ordinarily, I can point to a specific inspiration photo that I worked off of to create my card, but this time, I just took the general idea of the whole site and made it my own. But here's an example of the book theme being used, and here's an example of a line drawing over the text without color.
This was so much fun, and there are countless ways you could play off a text background or use an actual page from a book as your background. Click on over to the challenge and play along, if you feel so inclined!
Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Warm Happiness, Text Style; StampinUp alphabet
ink: Hero Arts charcoal; Memento Luxe rich cocoa, rhubarb stalk; Colorbox chalk light brown
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: dimensional squares
Two of my favorite things!! Love this card! I enjoy making cards with book pages. I have a couple of really old books with pages already nicely aged that were bought at thrift stores, and they make wonderful backgrounds for many different styled cards. (and yes, I do wince a bit when removing the page.....but better to be recycled than placed in the trash.)
ReplyDeleteLu C
I have one such old book, but it's a biology textbook. It just didn't seem right for this particular theme, LOL!
DeleteI love your card, Susan! As a coffee-drinking librarian it really speaks to me! Jo x
ReplyDeleteAnd no real books were harmed in the making of this card. Love it!
ReplyDeleteGreat card! I'd like to add that if you don't want to tear up an old book for its beautiful, aged pages, you can scan the page and print it out. I bought an inexpensive portable wand scanner for just such a purpose!
ReplyDelete