Cinema Saturday 49

I'm sure you can imagine that I was exstatic to be asked to guest design for Cinema Saturday's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers challenge. Those of you who have seen the Extended Edition dvd sets will have noticed that each one has a different style - FOTR is Elvish, TT is Rohirric (if that isn't a word it is now!) and ROTK... well maybe I will save that for when the girls nominate that as the weeks challenge! Anyway, it seemed that the thing to do would be to make something for The Two Towers that had a Rohan theme. One thing that really stood out for me was all the banners that are displayed in Meduseld, so I selected one and based my piece on that. I also have a bookmark of one of these banners, so I decided to make one of my own.

Thank you to my lovely assistant Karl Urban for helping me to present my bookmark to you.

Here's a closer shot of it. I used the emboss resist technique for most of this card as I wanted details in yellow on a green background. The horse was embossed with white, and I then went over it with my VersaMarker to fill the gaps and create a border and then embossed in clear. The base has a fold along the top so it will fold over your page.

Most supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: More Mustard, Summer Sun, So Saffron
Stamp Sets: Carte Postale, Wanted, One Of A Kind
Inks: VersaMark, Ruby Red, Garden Green (I think... it's been a while)
Accessories: white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, 1 3/8" circle punch (again I think, it's been a while), brayer

PS For the curious... I knew there would eventually be a CSCC for The Two Towers, and when working on cards for Fellowship I had ideas sparking for this. I then found out that Karl Urban would be attending the SupaNova convention in Sydney, so I made the bookmark and took it along and got him to pose with it. Squee!

Arwen card

AKA Cinema Saturday #14 part 8
It's my sister's birthday today, and now that I know she has received her card I can finally share it with you. This was actually the second card I made in preparation for the Cinema Saturday Fellowship week, but I liked how it came out so much that I decided to send it to my sister for her birthday card, which meant if I shared it at the time the surprise would have been ruined. Anyway, this card is based on the dress Arwen wears when the Fellowship are leaving Rivendell. It's been so long since I have watched the cinematic release that I can't remember how much you see of it there, but I know you see it more in added scenes in the later movies... so if you don't instantly recognise it I'll forgive you.

The card has a Perfect Plum base with a gate-fold opening. Over the top on the front is a layer of Pale Plum that was wheeled with the Baroque Border wheel using silver ink and then clear embossed. I can't actually remember now how I rounded the corners in the center at the bottom, but I know it wasn't using a corner rounder... either I traced something and cut by hand or, as I suspect, I used the round tab punch, feeding the corner from the back of the punch so only a small section was "punched". Over the top of the embossing are some Eastern Elegance rub-ons (note: NOT Easterling Elegance rub-ons...) and bellow these is a decorative brad from the Styled Silver Hodgepodge tin. Finally, there is a belt made with Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon. To create the design on it I used a silver gel pen and just eyeballed the sketch of the design from Alley Cat Scratch.
The belt slides off so you can open the card.

Here you get an idea of how I made the belt. I first created a belly-band from cardstock, stuck the ribbon over top, folding over to the back. I cut two more pieces and folded these gate-fold style so the edges met in the middle on the back. These are attached on the inside of the belly-band part of the belt. These were a bit fiddly and initially didn't want to stick (I had avoided using sticky strip as I thought that it's thickness would show edges through the ribbon), but using sticky strip and a few days under something heavy did the trick. You can see where a bit of tape is exposed on the inside of the belt... I've rubbed some baby powder over it so it wasn't sticky any more as it was too awkward to remove it.

Here is a shot of the brad from the back. I spent a little while thinking "how can I have a brad in the middle and it not interfer with how the card opens up?", since traditionally you split the prongs so they lay opposite each other - this would have meant the brad was holding the card closed. The answer was, of course, simple: cut one prong off so it isn't in the way! The brad is only attached to one side and fits nice and tightly so there's no chance it will fall off.

Most supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum
Stamp Set: Baroque Border
Inks: Silver
Accessories: clear embossing powder, Eastern Elegance rub-ons (Spring mini, no longer available), Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon (Spring mini, no longer available), silver gel pen, sticky strip, Styled Silver Hodgepodge
Show watched while creating: Fellowship of the Ring of course!

Cinema Saturday #14 part 7

Yet more Arwen cards for Cinema Saturday #14. These ones are inspired by the "bridge dress", seen when Arwen approaches Aragorn by the shards of Narsil and later when they kiss on the bridge (hence the name) and Arwen gives Aragorn Evenstar. Lots of white on white, which is good because I have been wanting to do another monochromatic white card for some time (though technically this isn't monochromatic as I've used silver, but close enough in this instance). For both cards I have used the So Swirly wheel for the background, stamping in VersaMark then applying Heat & Stick powder, heating that, applying Dazzling Diamonds glitter and then heating it again to fix it. This was to represent Arwen's dress, which was so covered in beads it was very noisy when Liv Tyler moved in it! I've also used a flower from the Pretties because it is pretty and has a similar shape the main part of Evenstar. I've also drawn on her head-dress for the crystals, though I have incorporated the hatpin differently in the two cards.
This second card has an additional scallop edge and is missing the Styled Silver ribbon slide. I wanted the hatpin and clead beads to appear a lot more dangle-y on this card

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Whisper White, vellum, textured Whisper White
Stamp set: So Swirly
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: heat & stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Pretties Kit, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, Styled Silver Hodgepodge, scallop edge punch, dimensionals
Show watched while creating: Fellowship of course!

Cinema Saturday #14 part 6

This card, yet another for Cinema Saturday #14, is inspired by the outfit Arwen wears as she races the sick Frodo to Rivendell while being chased by the Ring Wraiths. Book readers will know that this part was taken from Glorfindel and given to Arwen, but I can forgive PJ because he did need to make sacrifices to condense the story (heck, if Tom Bombadill can't make it into the movie I don't think Glorfindel can complain!) and if it wasn't Arwen in this scene we would have missed out on this fantastic costume . Basically the outfit is a light grey suede with creamy metallic crinkle inner sleeves, dark grey/plum trims, silver butterfly belt "buckle" and plum leggins. The sleeves of the dress have a fine swirly pattern that was probably painted on, so I chose to make that my feature but used a stamp instead of copying the design to cardstock. The Basic Gray ribbon and crinkled Vanilla ribbon are to represent the sashes and inner sleeves and the butterfly is to represent her belt buckle (once again I chose not to copy the exact design because you don't always have to go for obsessive detail! Shocking, but true ).

The butterfly was stamped with silver ink and then embossed with clear embossing powder to give a more subtle look. Nearly all of Arwen's outfits had some sort of link to butterflies and/or dragonflies so it is no wonder I am drawn to them since I love those bugs so much .

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Perfect Plum, Going Gray, Basic Gray
Stamp Set: Priceless
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: white embossing powder, clear embossing powder, Bsic Gray taffeta ribbon, Beachfront Ribbon Originals, dimensionals
Show watched while creating: Can you guess? Fellowship of course!

Cinema Saturday #14 part 5

The next card I have for you in the Cinema Saturday #14 series is for the other Fellowship member who parted ways in the FOTR movie: Boromir. Boromir's costume has a lot of texture and detail, and I have drawn on a few specific parts for this card. The background is based on Boromir's fur-line cloak, most prominent as they trudge through the snow. It was impossible to replicate burn-out velvet with cardstock so I just opted to stamp the swirly design in Chocolate Chip so it had the darker colour like the design on the cloak appears darker than the velvet nap (in truth the back of the velvet is the same colour as the nap it is just the lining fabric that makes it appear darker... some geeky costume details for you!). Of course the Close To Cocoa velvet ribbon had to come out again for the fur lining. The Ruby Red layer is inspired by the gorgeous bullion embroidery on the sleeves of his tunic (~cough~ sari fabric ~cough~), and the framed sentiment piece is supposed to be reminiscent of the decoration on his belt. This is another thank you card because in the end he did good (the EE gives a lot more to his story and thus his end isn't as big a turn-around as it seems in the original cinema version... and I will admit I was tainted with knowledge of ROTK EE too which adds to Boromir's story even more).

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Ruby Red
Stamp Sets: Carte Postale, Simple Delights, Occasional Greetings, Baroque Motifs
Inks: Close To Cocoa, VersaMark, StazOn Jet Black
Accessories: Ruby Red marker, Close To Cocoa marker, Designer Label punch, Styled Silver Hodgepodge, gold embossing powder, dimensionals
Show watched while creating: Fellowship of course! (yes, I have watched this a lot over the last week)

Cinema Saturday #14 part 4

This is my card for Strider/Aragorn, the third member of the Fellowship. I combined elements from his two identities, the rugged Strider for the top layers (which I heavily distressed the edges on, I also scrunched up the top Gray layer a few times after stamping on it) and "belt" and the black layer is based on his "Council Velvets", the clothing he wore to the Council at Rivendell. I did some planning for the background but in practise it didn't come out so well, I rarely used the Stamp-a-ma-jig and it shows. Oh well! I kept this pretty simple because other than the brief talk at the Council about how he is the rightful King he is Strider in character. I'm sure there are a few people who think that Handsom Hunter is a fitting cardstock for Aragorn in name alone, but I have included it for the handle of his sword and the emerald in his ring.

To get the belt buckle I had to attack a buckle from the Pewter Hodgepodge set. My humble jewellery wire cutters made a dent in the metal but did nothing for cutting the back end of the buckle off. Thankfully I have my parents visiting and Dad happened to have something a bit heftier that did the trick (I know we will have heavier duty wire cutters somewhere in the garage... but organisation is not a strong point out there!).

The quote is reminscent of something Gandalf says to Frodo while pausing in Moria, but I think it is very apt for Aragorn considering his heritage, the life he has lead to date and the state of affairs in Middle Earth during the film.

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Handsome Hunter, Going Gray
Stamp Sets: It's Your Birthday, Lovely Letters
Ink: Basic Gray, Silver, Going Gray (for distressing)
Accessories: Chocolate Chip 1/4" grosgrain (retired), Pewter Hodgepodge, Cutter Kit, dimensionals
Show watched while creating: Fellowship of course! (am I sounding like a broken record yet?)

Cinema Saturday #14 part 3

My second character card for the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge #14 is for Gandalf. Gandalf was the first person to join Frodo on his mission to take the Ring to Mordor, and thus the second member of the Fellowship. Obviously this card had the potential to be very drab and plain, but the thing with costumes for this movie is that they are much more interesting and complex than they first appear (which is apt for many of the characters as it gives a better indication of their true nature and Gandalf was greater than he appeared). Using textured cardstock was a given for me, since his clothing has such a "thick" weave. To add some interest I drew on the hem decoration of his culottes, stamping the lower part in Going Gray ink and the upper part in VersaMark. The strip of velvet ribbon is for the fuzz of his felt hat. I decided to make this a thank you card in recognition of the assistance he provided to Frodo, the Fellowship and the other races of Middle Earth in the struggle against Sauron. Just like Sam's praise of Gandalf in the Fellowship EE (Extended Edition, where the film was re-editted and some scenes were extended, others were completely brand new), this card does not do him justice but is fitting.

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Going Gray textured, Sahara Sand
Stamps: Brocade Basics, Party Punch
Inks: Going Gray, VersaMark, Basic Gray
Accessories: Pewter Hodgepodge, Beachfront Ribbon Originals, Cutter Kit
Show watched while creating: Fellowship of course!

Cinema Saturday #14 part 2 - The Ringbearer

In my previous post I mentioned that I had done the LOTR costume thing (see exhibit A & B), so it probably comes as no surprise that when it comes to these movies, I'm highly inspired by the costumes. Translating a costume to papercraft means sacrificing a few costuming guidelines (largely accuracy ), but for most of my cards this week I have used costumes for basic inspiration, so very few will look as close to the original piece as the Legolas card. This card, for example, is inspired by Frodo, but you probably wouldn't pick it straight away.

The earthy colours are drawn from Frodo's costume, his Really Rust vest, Always Artichoke cloak and reddish-brown coat (I used Ruby Red because it's the closest colour in some shots). The velvet Close To Cocoa does kind of match part of his costume, but I had to include something furry for the hobbity foot hair . With eyes like Elijah's I'd have to include bright blue somewhere, hence the turquoise rhinestone brad. The Bashful Blue punched star is for the phial Galadriel gives to Frodo, which contains the "Light of Earendil, our most beloved star"). And of course, the gold rim of the metal-edged tag (paper inner removed) is for the Ring. I chose this sentiment for a number of reasons, there are a few of Boromir's lines regarding both Frodo and the Ring that remind me of this but over-all I think it sums Frodo up pretty well, to carry out this task when it has been the ruin of so many others is a marvel.

Now I must confess that while I have watched Fellowship countless times and coveted many of the costumes, I wasn't as familiar with Frodo's so I did reference Alley Cat Scratch for description and detail images, so if you are feeling a little stuck for ideas take a wander through the Character pages over there . Alley Cat is where I went to for tips when making my own costumes, and through them I have become quite a stickler for detail when it comes to the costumes... so much so that this card is "to scale"... it is Halfling sized, being 2x3", about half the height of a standard card. At the end of the week I'll have to post a photo of all my Fellowship member cards so you can see the scales

All supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Really Rust, Bashful Blue, Confetti White
Stamp set: So Many Sayings
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Accessories: large star punch, Word Window punch, Ice Circle Rhinestone brad, gold metal edged tag (retired), Theater Ribbon Originals, mini glue dots, dimensionals
Show watched while creating: Fellowship of course!

Cinema Saturday #14

Firstly I have to say I was so dang surprised, chuffed and excited when I was asked to be guest designer for this week’s Cinema Saturday movie. I am a huge LOTR fan - I've done the convention and costume thing (see exhibit A to the right -> they are not my natural ears), my ringtone is LOTR related, there are multiple things throughout the house that are LOTR related… you get the picture . I have been literally bouncing, and randomly giggling to myself all week as another idea pops into my head. Initially I couldn’t think where to start, and then I realised that starting wasn’t the problem… the problem would be stopping! Anyway, when I really thought about the one main thing that I wanted to focus on for this movie, it was the hobbits. Particularly their homey nature and fun-loving ways despite everything that is going on. While there is that undercurrent of trouble through the early part of Fellowship, it’s still largely fun times with Gandalf’s arrival and Bilbo’s party, so I kind of went with those. I had two main ideas in my head: the Party Tree and Bilbo’s door. I decided to combine them. So we kind of have a framed picture of the tree hanging on the front of Bilbo’s door, brass doorknob and all, along with the birthday banner. The tree and frame was simple enough, I had to dig around for a “brass” brad large enough for the proportion, and for the banner I printed that out from my computer (I have like 10 LOTR fonts, this one is ‘Hobbiton Brush Hand’). In the movie the banner has some green swirls around the writing, but I chose to move those to the bottom of the door. For me, LOTR is where I really fell in love with all those swirly sorts of patterns.

Being such a huge fan of these films, and knowing the incredible about of work and detail that went into making them, I felt I too had to put some work into this card that wouldn’t be initially obvious… so inside the card you have the hinge. I’m trying to be less anal and ignore the fact that my door opens on the wrong side and opens out rather than in as Bilbo’s does…Now, how was it all done? The first thing was to make the door... I spent a good while walking around the house for something round and the right size to trace around since I don't have any fancy circle cutting tools. Upon finding a bowl the perfect size, I traced it on Garden Green and Caramel cardstock and cut them out. I then cut another slightly larger Garden Green one for the front of the door. Of course, it was only after I had the card all together that I realised the back piece didn't have to be Green as well, and a better colour would have been Naturals Ivory to match Bilbo's walls...

Moving along... I used the scoring blade in my trimmer to score the front and back of the door so it looked like planks of wood. The "Party Tree" was inked with markers and stamped before I sponged the other colours over top. Because the tree trunk is narrower than the sponge dauber I used the side of a cotton bud instead, which worked even better because it created a mottled effect. I rounded all the corners for the tree layers and stuck them all together.

Like I said above, I printed out the "Happy Birthday". I did it this way for a couple of reasons... one being I didn't have an alphabet stamp set that was the right size and style, another being I had this font already, so why not use it? And thirdly... because I am anal and there really was no other option! I attached the banner to the door using pipeweed twine (I mean hemp twine!).

To replicate the hinge decoration on the back of the door I merged a couple of screen shots from the movie together so I had most of the pattern in one image, resized it and printed it out. I then laid the print out over my Caramel cardstock and traced over the outlines to indent the cardstock. Then I simply went over those indentations with the fine tip of my Chocolate Chip marker before filling it all in with the brush tip. I very nearly put Aged Copper brads where all the bolts should be but I decided that was going a bit far and would make the card very heavy and lumpy on the inside.

Now, remember how earlier I mentioned that I kept getting ideas for cards inspired by this movie? Well, I managed to carry out a few of those ideas, so you'll be seeing many more Fellowship of The Ring cards here over the rest of the week . In the mean time I will point you towards one other Lord Of The Rings card I have already made, a Legolas card.

Most supplies by Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red, Naturals Ivory, So Saffron, Creamy Caramel
Stamp Sets: Lovely As A Tree, Baroque Motifs
Inks: VersaMark; Certainly Celery, Wild Wasabi, Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip used for sponging
Accessories: Chocolate Chip marker, Garden Green marker, 3/16" corner rounder, non-SU brad, 1/16" hole punch, hemp twine, Hobbiton Brush-hand font, sponge dauber, cotton bud, dimensionals
Show watched while creating: Fellowship of course!

Touch of Hope

This card was inspired by a dress worn by Arwen in the Lord of the Rings movie The Two Towers. The dress is known as Arwen's Hope Dress due to the scene in which it is seen. I decided to focus on the gorgeous sleeves (though if i had some burgundy velvet ribbon it may have been a different story), and wheel the Watercolr Vine jumbo wheel on Pale Plum cardstock using Whisper White ink. I used the 2-way glue pen to go over the vines so I could get as much Dazzling Diamonds to stick as possible. To finish off the card I took some liberties and took inspiration from beyond the dress alone. Arwen had a lot of butterfly motifs incorporated into her various costumes, so I stamped the butterfly from Touch of Nature on silver cardstock using Bravo Burgundy ink and cut it out. I mounted it over some white taffeta ribbon that I used to simulate a belt worn by Galadriel. As I was sticking the card together I wondered whether I should have found somewhere to stamp "hope", but then realised that the elves never had slogans on their clothing so felt it appropriate to leave it off. I'm sad, I know it!

Legolas card

It was my sisters birthday on Sunday, and she's finally got her card (she's just moved and the card to let her know to pick up a parcel didn't say which PO to go to!), so I can finally share it with you!

We are both big Lord of the Rings fans (in case you hadn't guessed by my avatar), and I had bought all these jewel toned wrapping papers and ribbons to do up her pressies, so from that had the thought of trying to do something similar to one of Arwen's dresses. But, one day in sorting through my craft stuff I came across some suede paper... and got to thinking... and got to planning. Then I got nervous about it turning out ok, and after wasting a few days just thought "I have to try it, and if it doesn't work, a dress it is!". As you can see above, it worked out pretty good! I printed out a sketch of the jerkin from Alley Cat Scratch LOTR costuming site, at the size I wanted to make the card (as big as I could!), and also printed out my version of the decoration on the jerkin (something I started working on and never finalised for them to use... oops). Cut my card, cut the suede, then was once again trying to nut out how to "etch" the design into the suede. In the end, of course, the answer was simple. I layed the print out over the suede and merely traced over it with a ball point pen, which pushed on the suede and left a indented mark, which I then went over with a silver gel pen to finish off the look. Of course, my sister was disappointed that opening the jerkin didn't reveal Legolas' bare chest, but you can't have everything (though she did get heaps of other good stuff).