I'm joining my team mates on week two for the challenge at
Anything But A Card. The theme is an interesting one and caters for all tastes. At first I thought it was really difficult but when I discarded the part I didn't want to do (sorry all Irish bloggers!), I realised that what was left was green and recycle. I can do that, I thought! If you haven't entered yet you must go over to
ABAC and see what the other designers have come up too - so many different ideas for one challenge!
Ages ago I bought some old beer mats in a fab vintage shop in Brighton. I had no idea what I would do with them then but they were the perfect items for this challenge.
I used the beer mats as the shape template and middle layer for some drinks coasters plus a larger bottle mat.
Lots of pictures I'm afraid but I like to show you everything:
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| The three main layers for each mat. The green layer was made using distress inks and some water spritzing. The beer mat followed by a layer of recycled card from the back of a paper pad. |
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| The final pieces: 6 glass coasters gift wrapped with some recycled ribbon; a circular bottle mat and a fabric gift tag which matches the images used in the project. |
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| The fabric tag was stamped, coloured with distress inks. For extra strength the shape was then attached to a second piece of fabric using bond-a-web. Some areas of the design were picked out with black stitching. The edges of the tag were zig-zag stitched to stop them fraying. Card was attached to the back so a message can be written. An eyelet was added with some black ribbon. |
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| The complete set of coasters: square for the glasses, round for a bottle. |
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| For each coaster a background was made using distress inks, some stencilling with distress inks and some with embossing ink and mica powder. |
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| Various Lynne P images were stamped in archival. Each coaster than received two coats of clear embossing powder. Utee may have been a better choice but I find it can dull colours and I wanted these to remain bright and vibrant. You can see the mica in this image: it appears as gold-like shadows here and there. |
The back of each coaster was covered with black felt to act as insulation and protection for polished surfaces.
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After glueing the layers together, a gold leaf pen was used to finish the edges.
Remember: you can do the four leaf clover and leprachaun theme or you can go green and/or recycle. I can't wait to see what you come up with!
