Sunday, May 3, 2009

Action Ian (magnetic skater ian card)

Do you skateboard?



My cousin Matt is really good at it; this was inspired by him (he's an artist who specializes in pencil sketching and has a gorgeous style that's a mix of graffiti, anime, & fantasy). I lived with him & his family in my 20s and I remember fondly the cool skate ramps he built (while I nagged him to wear a helmet.) :O)

I was a skate Betty wannabe, but my skateboarding career consisted of going down the massive hill on our street on my skateboard (sitting on my scrawny little butt) and landing on that butt when I fell off at high speeds. How times have changed! I should try it now that I'm well-padded, hehehe ;o) but I'll stick to the safety of cards with skateboards on 'em, thanks!



1...tool talk Magnets
2...new nifty stamp (to me) Skater Ian & a BIG sale at Paper Garden Projects
3...make interactive Skater Ian (& his wee shoelaces)
4...camouflage big magnets
5...create a half pipe & some scenery
6...emboss graffiti (font) & make a brick wall



Skater Ian can catch gnarly air, yo!

I've been flipping out that this action actually worked! Never ever had so much fun with a card. It was as easy as any old card, but it's a cinch to make interactive. The image is just stuck on a magnet & then there's a free-floating magnet on the back (not attached in any way.)

The fun part is that it can be played with two ways:
  1. pose-able: the magnets let you position the dude anywhere you want
  2. OR play-able you can move the magnet around inside the card to make him skate!
-1-

(magnets)

This doesn't look like much,



(and it took 2 seconds to put together)
but the movement is neat-Oh!

Ian's skate repertoire might vary with the type of magnets you use...He even flipped on his head with the magnets I used (stolen from fridge magnets.) Sometimes he wipes out (falls off the card) but even that was fun (yup I'm 5 years old at heart.)

-2-


Boy stamps don't come any cute than this dude.


-3-

...make interactive Skater Ian
(& his wee shoelaces)



CLICK PHOTOs to ENLARGE them


Stamp & Colour Skater Ian.
This kewl dude was embossed & coloured with Copics markers. (If you've been wanting to get some, they're all on sale at Paper Garden projects HERE.)

Face & arms E-00 Skin white (faded out a lot with a colourless blender) T-shirt: Frost Blue B00 & Warm Gray no1 & a colourless blender. Pants & shoes: BG-15 Aqua & B-16 Cyanine blue G14 Apple Green, Cadmium Yellow Y15 Hat: Cool Gray no7 on a colourless blender shaded with black Hair: E-44 Clay, E-49 Dark Bark, R-29 Lipstick Red, Cadmium Yellow Y15 Shading Putty YG-91 Copic.

...to add shoe laces:



Step 1) Thread laces through image:

A) thread needle with embroidery thread
B) pierce hole in each shoe
C) put needle through to back



Step 2) Snip thread from needle



Step 3) Adhere snipped ends of thread to back of image



Step 4)
Tie shoe laces in knot
...I tried a bow, that was just crazy! The knot works if you're feelin' lazy. hehehe



Step 5)
Trim Ian's shoe laces (don't want him to wipe out!) ;o)

-4-

(camouflage big magnets)



If your magnet is bigger than your image, adhere magnet to patterned paper & trim. Stick it pattern side down to the back of you image:



...then any part that sticks out behind your image can have a matching pattern.

-5-

...make a half pipe (& scenery)





  • Patterned paper Basic Grey Ambrosia 6x6 pack
  • Any oval/circle shape to trace (or cutters)
  • Pencil
  • Scissors
  • black Queen & co brads.
  • metal mesh (fence) from dollar store
  • bushes & grass: scraps of basic grey paper (COL-384 Believe "colour me Silly)
  • berries are knots of turquoise embroidery thread


Step 1)
Trace any oval/circle shape (or use a cutter.) I traced the bottom half of a Creative Memories oval cutter.

Too cool that this paper (Basic Grey Ambrosia 6x6 pack) has papers that work well for boy cards, but they pages still have such classy patterns.



Step 2) Trim along top of the half-pipe...where you want it to be (paper cutter can be nice & straight, of course,)


Step 3) Cut along the curve (if you traced a shape) :O)



Step 4) Embellish however you like. I added brads (a strip of cardstock cut from the stripey paper in the Ambrosia 6x6 pack and 10 black Queen & co brads.)

-6-

...make embossed graffiti, yo.



Isn't it great that you can use a zillion free fonts? These Graffiti Fonts are wicked sweet. (I used Bored School Boy here. It's got room for lots of colour!) ;o) After Matt visited us last time, I was saying "yo" for weeks. For real, yo. ;o)



Graffiti Font
Quartz Stardream Cardstock (from Paper Temptress- whole line is 20% off for May!)
Black ink & clear embossing powder
Markers (Copics & water-based)



Step 1) Print & emboss graffiti font, yo. ;o)



Step 2) Colour (this is a blend of copic & water-based markers)



Step 3) Cut a wall shape around the sentiment



Step 4)
Sketch in a brick wall (Copic-warm grey no1)



Step 5) Shade the bricks (Copic-Cool Gray no7 on colourless blender pen)



Thanks for letting me pretend I'm cool
(my young siblings tell me cool people don't say cool ROFL)






Want to be inspired? Don't miss Cathy's lovely link list of all her gorgeous tutorials. Just click Tips & Tutorials at the top of her blog. I was WOWed!



(today the ol' blog should be called: Mel is a geek but wants to be a Betty)

23 comments:

Julie Campbell said...

Mel! You are so stinkin' BRILLIANT!!! I don't know how you do it, day after day. And... I know you don't even feel good to top it all off! This is SOoooo cool!

Anonymous said...

HOLY MOLY! This has to be the coolest card ever!!!! You are just incredible! Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to see some more!

xoxo
Sara

Becky said...

You are just to much :). You are one creative and talented child. This is so stinkin cute

take a little piece of my art said...

OOH OOH OOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE anything that's interactive...this is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You're my super hero!!

Deb Neerman said...

Genius! LOVE this Mel-a-Licious! Tooooooooo flippin' kewl!!

julietk said...

That is a great card, I love it :-)

Chrissy's Creations said...

Wowee wow wow wow! That has to be the coolest thing ever! Great card!!!

Jessica Diedrich said...

This is SOOOO freakin' cool! OMG! LOVE this! Don't be surprised if it ends up on the C.A. blog sometime in the nxt few days ;)

lisa808 said...

How neat is this?!?!?

WendyB said...

Action Ian is AWESOME!! Mel, you really are cool!! ;-) Thanks as always for the great step-by-step instructions, awesome product links and fabulous free-fonts link...I'm having WAY too much fun on that site now! Keep on doing what you do...you inspire so many of us each and every day. God bless you!! ;-)

Chris said...

Amazing, spectacular...you come up with really the neatest, most wonderful ideas!! :)

Katie Cotton said...

what a cool project!!! Great job!

Mary said...

O.K. I have decided that you are not a real person, but actually a conglomerate of brilliant stampers who submit fantastic projects under the name of "Mel Stampz". Right? I'm pretty sure I have this blog figured out. You can tell us, we won't be mad.

Vannessa said...

This is so fantastic!!! I just ordered this stamp today and was ooking for ideas fo it when I saw this card on SCS. When itarrives I'm totally going to case your card! Thanks for the inspiration.

Susan (rainy) said...

FABULOUS!! Love the interactive idea. Mel this is so wonderful!!

Princess said...

Found your site because I'm trying to find information on Copics. I am considering purchasing a set...and not sure where to start.

Then got distracted by your skater dude! WOW! He is sooo great. I love the entire card....and that it's interactive! I know lots of young kids that skate! Or dirt bike or bike ride or...well..anyway...I'm fascinated by your easy interactive card.
Thanks!

Now off to learn more about copics and were to even begin.

Annie said...

Oh Mel you are just sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo amazing - this is fantastic. Last year I made spinner cards for all the male members of the family (on the basis that men need a card that has play value cause they haven't grown up) and they were a huge success. All Christmas day was spent playing!!! Wow this year they will be playing with magnetic dudes - just an amazing idea. I absolutely love it.

Ann xxx

WickedPixie said...

OK, that is the COOLEST stamping related thing I have ever seen! You are a genius! :-) Traci

Scrappinangler said...

This Totally ROCKS!! One of my good friends son loves to skateboard and would love this card!! I am definitely ordering this stamp - his birthday is coming up!! Thanks for the awesome tutorial! I absolutely {heart} your blog!!
~Tori

liannallama said...

fabulous! Thanks for the great interactive card and tutorial!

Elena said...

Wow! This card is FABULOUS! I love the shoe laces! And os course the action idea!!! So cool!!!!!!!!!!!

Kim Etherington said...

Love the skaters bowl. That is a cool idea. Really cool boy card!!
Love it!

Professor Shoelace said...

How cool! (Yes, I'm old enough to think "Cool" is "Kewl").

I love it how Skater Ian even has shoelaces. But then, that's probably because my name is "Ian" and I run Ian's Shoelace Site! Nice touch, Mel.