Clearly Hard to Photograph!

Today's offering is a clear card made in response to this week's All That Scraps Wednesdays Challenge which was to make, well, a clear card!  The real challenge, however, was PHOTOGRAPHING it!

First I made a 15cm square card from acetate, I was going to have it see through front and back, but decided to cover the inside of the back with orange cardstock from DCWV so that the embossing I did on the front panel showed up better - which it did.  I used the "Cupcakes" embossing folder from Craft Concepts, this is the first of this brand I have used and found it excellent, with really crisp deep grooves; and they're a cheaper alternative too, so I can get more of them!!

I took the photo on the left from the inside of the card to get a better idea of the embossing, I don't know if it gives a better idea or not!  

The photo to the right is just a close up in different light to try - again - to show the embossing up.  It was really effective in real life - TRULY. 

I used Inque Boutique paper "Cabana" on the strips.  I initially was going to stick the image, "Balloon Trevor" one of the Sugarplums from All That Scraps, straight on the acetate, but it looked pretty ordinary from the inside of the card, so I stuck the strip of paper down the edge (which I hadn't embossed so I had a flat area for the image) and pop-dotted Trevor to it.  It still looked a bit ordinary from the inside, so I stuck another strip on the inside backing on to it.  The strip with the sentiment on is the same size as the one on the front, the letter stickers are from a huge packet from BigW, El Cheapo strikes again!  I put a narrow strip down the left of the orange to bring some colour onto that side of the card .  

Trevor is coloured with a combination of Copic markers, Bic markers and pigment inks, I washed the area around him with grey to exaggerate the shadows created by having him sit up on pop dots.  I also gave his balloon a coat of clear gloss but it's a bit old and no longer that glossy - time for a replacement methinks! 

Now I had the issue of where to actually sign the card, so what  I did was emboss a strip down the side of  a piece of white card with the cupcakes, and stick that to the back of the card.  I then made an envelope large enough to hold a banknote from the patterned paper and stuck it to the back of the card.  As this card was for a friends' nine year old I simply stuck a number 9 on the flap of the envelope, there was still plenty of room underneath to write (though I'm sure the banknote held far more appeal than the sentiment anyway!)  

I know there's lots of photos of this really very simple card, but you know how it is trying to capture something on "film".  All I can say is thank goodness for digital photography or this would have been a very expensive card!  Thanks for looking, and I'll "see" you soon - quite possibly through an acetate card :-)