As I just did the last challenge (with a day to spare, I think, another one has come around very quickly. It’s funny how it came about. I had read the challenge to use purple, and that it had to be a card {shudder} and was clearing up the mess of my milk carton project after taking my WOYWW photos, and came across and old Papercraft Inspirations mag (ok, not so old – it was the May 2010 issue!) and decided to have a quick flick thru it before deciding to toss it or not. And I came across an article on IRIS FOLDING. I’ve never done iris folding – it seemed a lot of faff for no good reason, but as I was looking at the templates the circular one caught my eye (if you click here it will download the template ✿ Issue 73 templates 2.pdf ) and at the same time the lyrics from Dead or Alive You Spin Me Round started spinning around my brain (if I’m honest, more the Marilyn Manson version in my head.)
Like so many UK music artists (Take That, Sandy Shaw, the whole cult of Eurovision, to name a few) Dead or Alive was completely unknown to me but I saw the lead singer on Celebrity Big Brother and heard their version on the radio a lot while that was on TV. Then of course the Flo Rida song came out and it sort of got ingrained in my head, to play every time I saw a circle (I know, my head works that way LOL!) As a sidebar, I was stunned when visiting my sister to find neither she not my nieces had even HEARD of Girls Aloud – but then I had never heard of Adam Lambert til I read and old People magazine at her house so fair enough.
Anyway, the song lyrics and the circle template collided to give me my card idea.
I grabbed a handful of very old papers from my scrap bin (honestly – we are talking 5+ years back papers) and increased the size of the template a bit, cut the aperture, misted on a couple of purples and a yellow-with gold glimmer/shimmer mists thru my baking sheet grid onto the card front then got down to cutting and folding and sticking.
I stamped my girl with heart purse and Copic coloured it (and used a few Sharpies as well as my Copic collection is very small) then cut her out. Her very thin legs were a challenge that me and my Xacto rose to.
One little tip to share – when I cut out a stamped image I always use the edging trick I often do for photos by edging the cut out figure with colours to match (so her arms and legs get skin colour, her boots brown, the purse purple, etc) to minimise the white that would otherwise show
You can see a bit better on the back
It just give, I think, a nicer finish and less of a “halo” effect.
I pop-dotted her with teeny weeny foam squares.
I made the letters by using the font Rock it! and spacing the letters out A L O T and printing them on yellow-with-gold misted cardstock (the circle I cut for the aperture, actually). I cut them each and edged each bit with purple ink. To fit what I wanted (You spin me right round, Baby, right round like a record baby round round round round…) would have meant much smaller letters than I was willing to cut, ink and stick!
I was right, actually. Iris folding is a lot of faff and while I like the look of it I am more about the fast card than the all day one so not sure how often I would do this. But I am glad I did it ONCE, so I can honestly say I tried it.
Honestly, there is just no place with good light, even on a sunny day, in my house to stage a photo, so I popped out to the back patio. Typically the sun went int hiding
but I couldn’t resist a shot or two out the back, to the right…
and to the left…
07/06/2010 at 4:33 pm
I love your use of lyrics for inspiration – very kewl! The papers in the iris fold are beautiful and the layout is totally fun! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Stampotique!
Val 🙂
07/06/2010 at 11:06 am
clever clever. Love this idea. Thanks for joining in with us at the Stampotique Challenge. Jo x
03/06/2010 at 11:01 am
Love it! I’ve not tried iris folding yet either….. I love what you have done with it…
02/06/2010 at 8:33 pm
WOW!! What an awesome design you’ve done here, it’s really beautiful. You’ve outdone yourself. I just love how you put it all together. Normally I don’t really care for the Iris folding but you’ve done a really amazing card here. Thanks for the inspiration.
29/05/2010 at 11:20 am
Absolutely brilliant! Love it! x
27/05/2010 at 10:42 pm
Your card is gorgeous and you have the most amazing view! Thanks for joining SDC!
27/05/2010 at 6:58 pm
Well I’ve never before seen an iris folding that I’ve liked, so you have done brilliantly! I love the centre of it.
Thanks for joining us at SDC x
27/05/2010 at 4:12 pm
What a wonderful piece and a great iris folding background! Thanks for joining us on SDC #8.
27/05/2010 at 2:56 pm
Oh this is gorgeous! I have several books on iris folding but decided it was PITA! Brilliant job! xxD
27/05/2010 at 2:13 pm
What a fun project and I love that iris folding look and the song is a favorite in our house!!! Great job and thanks so much for joining us at Stampotique Designer’s Challenge!
27/05/2010 at 12:20 pm
Fab card and will have to look at iris folding in a new light maybe.
27/05/2010 at 10:25 am
Brilliant effect ….love the card …. and sentement. Great tip about cut outs …thanks ….why didnt I think of that lol