Handicrafts by Kate Perry and other ramblings

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

REJOICE

I have been playing with a new die I bought recently, that is just too cute not to show you. The die is called Trio Choir by Cottage Cutz. It is a small plate about 9cm x 7cm, and on it there are twelve pieces - a head, three hair styles, a right and a left hand, two belts to tie either left or right, a pair of shoes, a dress, a music sheet, and one more part that floored me for a while until I realised it was a little lace collar for the dress! Also included are three tiny clear stamps for the facial features.

For my first attempt I cut all of them in white paper, and then cut the duplicated elements to make the whole trio, and added some colour using copic markers. I kept it simple and mounted them on some cream card with gold dots on it, and then added a gold mirri-card frame, cut using a Spellbinders die from the Radiant rectangles set. I mounted it all on a mid-brown base card, and added a matching small label with a gold peel-off 'Rejoice' on it.


They were a bit fiddly to do but rather fun, and I hope to get a few more like this made very soon.
In the meantime, I decided to do a more simple version with just one chorister on it, to help me build up my stash of finished cards. 
At my Wednesday craft group, we are often given unwanted papercraft items to sell for charity - usually the local MACS group. (Sadly the craft materials often come from a husband who has lost his wife to cancer, and who wants her 'stash' to help the local cancer charity). When I was helping my friend to pack up what was left to go to the MACS shop, I found several sets of pre-cut cards in a range of colours, all with matching envelopes, and she told me to take them home and use them. So I wanted to make sure they didn't just get lost at the bottom of the cupboard, and set about making cards with them straight away. I took a bit of artistic license with the colour for these ones. I had to smile, thinking back to the days when my oldest two sons were choir boys in their pristine white cassocks* each Sunday! (I think that should read surplices. Their cassocks were the blue gowns they wore underneath. We used to tease the oldest one and say he only went on to become a priest so he could still wear a dress!)
I have already used some of the cards on my previous posts, but I was left with a cream one, and one each of blue, turquoise, red and lilac. So I rummaged through my Christmas snippets box and found some backing paper for each one, and then looked in my other snippets for something that went with them. Mostly I cut a pale mat to cover the base card leaving just a small border. Then I used a labels 4 die to cut a topper for each one. I used tiny snippets of brown and black and peach paper to cut the hair, belts, shoes, hands and faces, and used white for the music but toned it down with Old Paper Distress ink. Then I cut a dress to match the BP or as close to it as I could find. I soon had a system for gluing them together and had them assembled on their cards in no time. 

Then I went through all my very old embellishments and found something to 'pretty up' each one. I found a box with literally hundreds of tiny red, green and colourless domes. They are more like pearls than gems because they are not faceted, but they are clear and shine beautifully. Goodness knows where they came from, but at least a few of them have now been used. I also used peel-off borders, gems, and matching stickles glitter glue around each label topper.

The word rejoice across the bottom of each BP is a stamp from a very old set by Hero Arts. I like them but tend forget about them.
So here is the whole set.
I certainly managed to use up a few snippets on these, so I will be linking them up with Pixie's Snippets Playground.

I recently showed a card I had made using a silhouette cutting file, and I had some very kind comments - Thank you - so I also made some more of these using two each of the green, blue and turquoise cards. and here they are.
Thank you for stopping by to visit me. I do appreciate your comments.

8 comments:

Jean said...

Goodness me! You have been busy,I like the the little choristers and the gold spotted paper on the first card. You did well to find all the matching elements for the others in your stash. My favourites though are the baubles, that is such a lovely cutting file.
Jean x

kiwimeskreations said...

Kate these are all fabulous - love your choristers, they are so cute :-). Well done on using the bases and making some beautiful cards from them.
Blessings
Maxine

veronica said...

wow Kate, that die is small! You have patience of a saint to put those cards together, but they look great

Shoshi said...

What a production line card factory there is going on with you at present Kate! Lovely. I love the idea of these mix-and-match dies and stamps, so you can make each one individual and different. The little choristers are adorable! Such lovely cards you have made.

Shoshi

Di said...

Squeal!! Oh Kate, I adore your choristers!! Absolutely fabulous work and, sigh, do I truly neeeed them? Maybeeeeeeeeee :) You truly do come up with some great finds, I still remember the little angels twiddling their toes :)

Hugs, Di xx

Sarn said...

Very impressive collection of cards Kate. Great use of your snippets and older stuff too.

Hugs, Sarn xxx

Mary Anne / MA54K said...

My, you have been so busy! These are just lovely!

MaryH said...

OH I did enjoy this post! Love that CC die, and how splendid your choristers looked against that wonderful S/B rectangle. Just perfect for these little folks. Loved the way you've made all the elements into 'people'. Sounds a bit like playing paper doll dressup! Enjoyed the other cards too, and how different you have made each theme with your choice of colors & embellishments. Got some good snippet play going on here, and what a stash you've built up. Thanks so much for the wonderful read and the beautiful cards too! Hugs