Lili of the Valley ~ Zoom Zoom

Hey crafty friends, I'm popping in with a really fun card today, that I made for my wonderful father-in-law when he got a new car recently. There's a lovely story to this, as our fabulous car which we've driven all around Europe and the UK, that we brought back to New Zealand with us 10 plus years ago, has started to age badly and recognising we were needing to upgrade ours, he chose to offer us his old car when upgrading his. 

When I say Dad's 'old' car, it's a lovely car, with plenty of miles left in it and a perfect upgrade for us, so it is a win-win! We are truly grateful for this gesture and opportunity as it's always nerve-wracking having to buy a second hand car, not knowing the history or how it's been treated. But we have full confidence taking on this car and couldn't be happier. Dad was ready for a new adventure and we were blessed in the process! It was unexpected and perfectly timed, as we knew our next warrant of fitness might cost a little more and sure enough, when I took our old car in for a check up, it was going to require lots of costly rust repair work! We live by the sea and this car is now over 20 years old, so we knew it was going to happen sooner or later. 

Of course, we wanted to say 'thank you' to Dad and Mum for this wonderful gesture and there's no better way than a hand-made card right?! So I pulled out this fabulous Racing Green image from the Vintage Boys Images at Lili of the Valley. I had this as a Rubber Stamp back in the day, but this one is still available as a Digital Image, which I love, because then you can size it however you wish to fit your card. Centre stage was perfect for this card and I opted for a non-traditional size card, as I just built the layers up around the image once I'd got the image panel as I wanted. The image panel was cut with an A7 Die Set from Pink and Main, but I wanted more of that fabulous tartan paper showing, so cut the Matt layers slightly larger than the largest A7 size frame. So this is quite a large card. 

I needed somewhere to add the sentiment, so decided on a white cloud which I'd had diecut in my stash a while from an older Whimsy Cloud Die Set. It was just the right length to add the sentiment and has a lovely shape and size without needing another to 'pull off the look'. So I was happy with that. I stamped the sentiment which is from a Whimsy Stamps set, in VersaFine Clair Morning Mist Ink, for a softer finish and to match the hues of Dad's new silver car!

I'd seen some time back a card I loved from Marianne Fisher, which used cogs with one of these Vintage Boys Images and knew I wanted to somehow incorporate those for a more masculine look. I'd love to say I have the skills to grunge up and relic these, but I don't, so I opted for a range of shiny metallic looking papers and cut the cogs from a few different metallic hues from the from the Charcoal Set of the Sizzix Opulent Cardstock Range. One a more of a gunmetal finish, one a brushed steel like finish and one a shiny silver finish. I think they look pretty fun in combination and I layered them up on two of the corners for a fun finish to this card.

The image I coloured with Copic Markers and took my time to add the different highlights and details to the Silver Car. I also added some fun details to the image. We bought Dad a cool Baker Boy Cap a few years back and we know he enjoys wearing it out on his walks. We also had bought him a fun muted tones plaid scarf, so I coloured up the scarf to emulate that, adding some stripy details with white gel pen in one direction and plaid silver pen details in the other direction. I also added some sparkle to the dark shades. Fun little finishes that really personalised it for Dad. 

Thanks for popping in today friends, last month was crazy with a big move for a family member that needed some extra help and TLC, so my time was taken up in these last couple of weeks with that. I'm scrambling to get caught up on some of my posts now. Not that this is new, my blog could have alternately been named 'London Buses', because there'll be none for days and then three come at once! Hehe, posts on my case, but that makes me smile, I so miss our London days! I will be back soon I promise with another crafty adventure. Until then, hugs and happy May! Wends xoxo

RETIRED

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