Shabby Chic Cantilevered Card St. Patrick

Hi everyone I hope that you had a great week. Here it is Friday already. As I was putting together this card I realized that instead of designing a cantilevered frame mat card I could have just made a square or rectangle pop up panel to put my frame mat on. Oh well now I have the file for stamping directly on or for printing directly on. Also I realized if I was going to use a background stamp on the pop up panel it would be better to stamp on the card stock before cutting out the panel or to at least not fold the panel first. My stamp both times got hung up in the folds giving me this shabby look. I decided to let it be and not cut out a new pop up panel. Here is my shabby chic card that finally once I got my printer re-installed and the print head cleaned got done. Orange just won't  do for St. Paddy's.

 Once I had the pop up panel cut out I used my eBrush to color it since it was cut out of white card stock. Then I decided to use a background stamp by Ditto on it. Alas I had folded the panel already to see if it was going to pop up correctly.  Also for some reason the iridescent paint I had added to the gouache I stamped with didn't show up here.  I think using a brayer to add the paint  to the stamp instead of directly dipping the stamp into the gouache made the difference as the shimmer showed up on my sample. At least now I know I can stamp with my gouache paints. If you are going to use gouache paints to stamp with remember like dye inks they are usually not waterproof.

Originally I was just going to stamp on the frame mat using my music background stamp. (By the way this came from a frame file from the Silhouette store. Frame inserts can be great for stamping on or using another way.)  Instead I found this neat piece of sheet music so used it as a pattern fill in Studio.. After it was printed and cut out I edged it with Vintage Photo ink and while the ink was still out edged my popup panel.  I believe the image of the gentleman is from Graphic Fairy as I downloaded a lot of St. Patrick images from there a few years back.  Once I finally got my printer to print correctly I cut him out by hand because for some reason my Cameo kept cutting off no matter where I placed him on the work space.. Even when I placed him separate from the mat frame. I now have lots of white scrap to use. :-(

To put the gentleman on the card I used a trick a friend of mine showed me. I glued his feet down but used an adesive square further up on his body so it would look like he was actually bowing. For those who might be worried about extra postage for mailing a card like this it all folds flat in the envelope and doesn't come to life until the recipient takes it out of the envelope. These days given the cost of postage that may be something to consider.

I think Mother Nature is teasing us but the weather has been sweater weather today so instead of spending time crafting I took my dogs on a long walk. If the weather stays this way I'll go on a picnic with family this weekend.

I love my time spent crafting  indoors but I also love my time spent outdoors. In fact before too long I'll be doing some of my crafting outdoors on the patio table. As well as taking photos wildflowers, etc. on my walks.

Do you craft strictly indoors or do you like to do some of your crafting outdoors when the weather is nice?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!