Queen for the Day

Old Photos on envelope and Queen for the Day on card front

Inside of card with Kanban bits and hand written journaling

Update: I’m having a bit of a duvet day today, doing some preparation for December cards (cutting pips and inking edges).  That doesn’t make a very interesting blog post so I thought I would share a card I made in the summer that I am particularly fond of.

Inspiration: As part of Elizabeth II’s coronation celebrations, my mother in law was crowned the Queen of the Gala in her local town (Clackmannan) when she was twelve.  She is having a tough year so we wanted to make a bit of a fuss of her for no particular reason.  So at the time of Elizabeth’s Jubilee celebrations I made a Queen for the day card and we got her some treats.  The card borrows from scrap booking quite a bit with some old photos of the crowning ceremony, unfortunately the photos we had were not very clear but there is bunting and they have a lovely vintage feel.  Can you see the horse and cart that has been decorated as her carriage?  I think it’s so romantic.

• Products: Kanban Cool Britannia/Jubilee kit; 8” by 8” kraft card blank (I love kraft card but I think it works particularly well with the vintage photos); some paper and ‘Queen for the day’ stamp from ‘Simply Homemade’ magazine; red card from stash; some bling and butcher’s twine from stash.
• Techniques: The toppers and background card from Kanban did most of the work for me setting the scene.  The bunting ties in nicely with the bunting in the background of the old photos.  I’ve framed the photos with some red card and some dots and dashes.  I’ve added some hand written journaling.  I understand from the TV tips by Mel Heaton and Rosemary Berry that this is very important in scrap booking.  As yet I have not done a 12” by 12” scrap book page (that will be changing soon though), but I really like making personalised cards like this.  My husband is a very typical Scottish man and doesn’t do talking about feelings, so in a way this is a gift to him too, to express the feelings he can’t say himself.
• Favourites: Kraft card; faux stitching; extra details inside card and matching envelope.
• Extra bits (I love extra bits): Bling here, there and every-where.  I’ve coloured the union jack in the background of one of the photos.  Clever people can do this sort of thing digitally but I just did it with a red pen and a blue pen.  I like this sort of effect.

Watch this space: Trying to alternate between December cards and other requests.