Rudolph Day Challenge 2024 # February

I am so happy that Helen has agreed to take on the running of this challenge. It has been the perfect inspiration for me to build my stash of cards throughout the year.

I admit I was not very prepared for this month as I have been busy laying with a new piece of equipment (see my previous post). But I do have a small recycling project completed.

A friend at church collects finished-with cards each new year, and re-mounts suitable images to sell very reasonably to raise funds for the church. She sent one to me this year that she knew I would like, and it was a simple stepper card front, with a Bethlehem scene at the back, and a stable scene on the front 'step'. I just knew it could be recycled again and I made it into two cards.

For the first I used the step cut to size to fit an A6 card, and glued some snowy sky paper behind it. Then I cut the phrase from black vinyl with my silhouette cameo machine.

For the second card I used the Bethlehem scene as the background on a square card and added silhouettes of shepherds and sheep to the front. These were images from my silhouette library, cut on my machine again from black vynil. I used a different font to cut the same phrase from gold metallic vinyl.

I shall link this up with Rudolph Days Challenge at Helen's blog.

We are never too old...

 We are never too old to learn new skills. I have recently been 'give' a laser cutter on long-term loan. The owner, Steve Kirk, gave me several tutorials on his larger, more pwerful machine, at his home, along with several tips on using this one. He was also very patient with all my questions and mistakes.

So it was time for me to try a project of my own and I knew just what I wanted to do. My youngest son, Ben, has just set himself up as a self-employed performer, plus music technician, with a company called "Totally Sound". So I have made this wall plate for his studio.

The base is 3mm birch plywood, cut out and painted black. 

The treble clef, notes and script are cut from 1.5mm bass plywood. The clef has a light spray of varnish, and the rest are spray-painted in white. The script is a font called Zapfino which he  has used on his business cards.

For the picture I started with  a coloured photo he has sent me. I used Gimp to turn it into a black and white sketch, and then I engraved it onto the base plate with the laser. I cut a mask from eclipse paper and held the 'window' part over the engraving and sprayed it lightly with varnish, and then covered the image with the mask while I painted the black background.

I then mounted the pieces with acrylic glue, and black sticky foam tabs behind the script.

As I live in Spain, I  wrapped this in several layers of bubble wrap to post it to UK last Friday, and I was amazed to hear today that it has arrived already. And most importantly, Ben loves it.

It is fun to have a new 'toy' to play with.