Taheerah Atchia

Hey everyone!

I hope you’re all enjoying your weekend. I’m getting lots of crafty time in!!

I thought I’d pop on today and post a masculine card I created recently. I know when I’ve created something that I’m really proud of when I keep going back to look at it over and over!!

I started with a piece of Simple Stories AWESO{ME} patterned paper and cut it down to fit an A2 card base and adhered it to a Vintage Cream card base. I am really hooked on this line and bought another 5 sheets to replace the part of one that I’d used!! I splattered the paper with some Studio Calico’s Mister Huey’s mists in Warm Calico, Overdue and Custard. There might have been some Pumpkin thrown in there too? I can’t remember!

I then grunged up the panel further by stamping with WPlus9’s So 80s set. This is easily my most favourite set of theirs, I come back to use it over and over! I stamped the retro images using a mix of Summer Sunrise and Ranger’s Mustard Seed Distress inks. I also added paint splatter images from PTI’s Grunge Me using the same inks, and the rings from the same set using Palette Haystack ink.

The bottom and the right side of the panel wasn’t the same colour round the edges as the top (as the paper was trimmed down) so I stamped the corrugated image from My Hero, My Dad using a mix of Spring Moss and Palette Haystack inks, then inked all the edges with VintageTouch Chamomile ink to tie it all in. You can’t tell the difference between what is printed and what is stamped and I love that!!

Onto that main paint splatter now. I stamped this image from So 80s using a mix of Pure Poppy ink and painting over the ink with Mister Huey’s mist in Overdue before stamping it down. I stamped it twice for extra intensity. Love how the image came out – because it’s a splatter image anyway it was fine for it to not be a completely clean stamp, although it was near-perfect! I added some extra small paint splodges from Boy Basics: Skater Dude by painting over the stamp with Overdue mist again. Love this look – will be trying it again!

I added the ‘Awesome’ sentiment from So 80s using Versafine Onyx Black, again stamping twice. The ‘You’re So’ sentiment if from MFT’s At The Movies set. I inked the ‘You’re’ from one sentiment using Versafine Onyx Black, then made the ‘So’ from two different sentiments, again stamped with Versafine. I really love using existing letters in sentiments for spelling out new words, it’s a great way to get additional mileage from them if you don’t have an alphabet set in the same font.

Onto the final embellishments now! These came from My Hero, My Dad (curly brace), Star Prints (largest star), Boy Basics: Skater Dude (smallest star), So 80s (medium star), and Get to the Point (arrow). But you’ll notice these aren’t just clean stamps in one colour, oh no – there’s a lot of detail there!!

For each of the images I started with a piece of Vintage Cream cardstock which I inked with Palette Haystack ink in a direct-to-paper technique. I then stamped and grunged using images from Grunge Me (circles) stars from Been Boo’d, and painting directly onto the cardstock again with Mister Huey’s mists, all using a variety of colours in the reds and browns palette. I then stamped the images using a mix of Kraft and Dark Chocolate inks, and painting the stamp over with Warm Calico mist haphazardly, before stamping down. I then trimmed all of them out and adhered to the panel using Pinflair Glue Gel.

That arrow image was the most agonising part – I stamped two different looks for the arrow (same image, different created backgrounds) and then agonised for about 15 HOURS between which image to use!! Okay, I’ll admit to about 5 of those hours being dedicated to sleep, but even so!!! I finally decided on Arrow #2 after much debate and to and fro and I’m really happy with the choice!!

And there you have it! I’d love to hear your thoughts on this project, and on the photographs too! I decided to try and incorporate some props so used my tiny Sony U3 VAIO laptop (Google this thing, seriously, it’s a Taheerah-sized laptop!) and tiny mouse, and used my granite chopping board as a platform. I’m having fun experimenting with photos since I got my new camera!

Thanks for stopping by, see you again soon!!