Peacocks ....

I often browse through the Galleries at Graphicus, there is some extremely talented people on there. I was taken aback by with a card made by Lesley Wharton - "Lesleys' Card" . Now it was my dear old friends birthday in September and I had began a card based on Lesleys' idea but the present I made was one of those - wow I've got to get one of those moments while at the Graphicus open day. So below is what I did .....

Now this is a big card, I used a lot of my scrap booking card stock for it and I think off-hand it ended up at about 10" square. The idea of the card is that it opens in an alternating fashion, so after opening the initial front covers left then right, the pages inside then open to the left, then to the right until the verse at the end is reached.

So what did I do ... The initial "Peacocks" from the "Peacock Ladies" themeplate were stamped in
"Versafine Lagoon Blue" and embossed in clear. I picked 3 vibrant "Glimmer mists" colours - Fully Purple, Patina and Yellow Daisy and spritzed each colour separately, waiting for them to dry before add another colour - this is because I wanted the brightness of each colour to show - if you spray them over each other whilst each is still wet then you can end up with a murky colour. When everything was dry I touched up the eye of each feather with a gold pen - this took flipping ages ! Behind the outer leaves I used some Patina Glimmer mists on some parchment paper to back them with which gives a lovely effect as the glimmer really shines on this.

Below: So after opening the outer layers this is the next layer. The background card was colour washed with the Glimmer mists, then the Peacock stamped and embossed in Gold detail powder, then
over painted using the Glimmer mists to deepen each ones colour. This section then opens to the left to reveal the next layer.

Below: The backs of any previous upper layers have been Ink dusted over so as not to leave them as plain white card. The Peacock lady from the same themeplate above was stamped in Versafine Onyx black, then using the glimmer mists as paints I just coloured her in, a few touches with the gold pen to add to the effect. This page now opens to the right.

Below: The final page with the greeting . The design is from the "Peacock Summer Party" CD and the verse was created on n overlay for the insert. Again the back of the previous upper card have been Ink dusted.

Now the present ....

At the Graphicus open day they had these brilliant Maya Road chipboard boxes which have a small book inside.

I first gesso'd the whole thing - box and all the pages ( every side ! ) Then glimmer misted the outer box before using various stamps from the "Peacock Ladies" themeplate all in a gold fine detail embossing powder.

Each one was coloured in using various glimmer mists as paints and some added sparkle in the way of gems.

Each of the pages was ink dusted and then on the front side either had a stamped image or sentiment on.

The reverse of each page had photographs on which are very special to Viv, I converted the photos to black and white and added some white edging detailing to them. A small vellum wrap with the date on written with a gold pen.

And I left two blank pages at the back so she can add a couple more in time x