Through the Looking Glass: cracked glass technique & pastelled collage stamps

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful Mothers out there! You make the world a magical place.

This card reminds me of my Mom. (And not simply because she read me all those stories as a child and bought me my penguin complete edition of Lewis Carroll's work.) But also because she planted and nurtured (still nurtures) my love of art and literature. Thank you Mom! I love you so! This card also reminds me of the best Mom I know (next to mine): Kim--who is super hard on herself, but who is super-amazing wonder-Mom. (The two images of Alice remind me of her twin girls whom she does an astounding job raising.) Here's to you Kim!

Okay, now to ramble about the card: :0)

Do you have collage stamps but aren't sure how to use them? You may want to try stamping them in brown & colouring them with pastels...I've had these Alice in Wonderland stamps for ages (got them from Non- Sequitur) and I have never used them. I had a vision of Alice reflected in the looking glass for ages, since there is a pair of stamps which so nicely reflect her in the sheet of rubber. So here she is. When you open the card it reveals the characters Alice found through the looking glass (and down the rabbit hole...):


Do you automatically think of black as the default colour for collage stamps? I know I always have, but then I thought of brown and that led to pastels. Have you ever used the eraser that comes with the Stampin up pastels? That thing rocks! You can apply large areas of colour and then refine it with the eraser which can tone it down--or erase it so you can start fresh. Makes it so easy to play around and get the look you want! (Can you tell I had fun?)

The colours really pop when you add the Utee
(thick embossing powder to do the cracked-glass technique):

I liked the look of the brighter colours, because I thought it expressed that the world was more vivid in Alice's imagination. Don't worry if the Utee looks pebbly (like rain drops) after the first application, it will even out as you apply more. I was tempted to keep that look and might have to try the rainy look on a window card sometime...

Hot Utee TIP: don't overheat your Utee layers (like I did) or you get a weird circular "pool."
Cool Utee TIP: After adding the embossing powder layers, you can pop your image into the freezer to speed up cooling time and get crackin' faster.

More card details:

The wooden 'frame' is made using an emboss resist distress technique:

1) Stamp a background image in Versamark (I've used chocolate chip c.s.)
2) Emboss with clear embossing powder
3) Swipe with silver Encore ink
4) Wipe away excess ink

The right hand side of the card (the flap) has a pocket to tuck a secret letter in. The patterned paper I used is 7gypsies Paperie "Quadrant tablet" 12x12 (for the front right image); it kind of looks like pages of paper laid out. The rest of the card is stamped on homemade d.p: a printed out sheet of the USA constitution (please see this post for the link.)

Thanks so much for stopping by; happy Mom's Day to you Moms! :0)