How to sum up some of my favourite things in a space 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches … ?

That was the challenge for this mini mixed media creation. Read on to see how I got on, and what was included.

First, the finished thing.

Cool isn’t it?

Can you guess which of my favourite things I managed to cram into this little capsule of happiness?

I shall reveal as I share how I made it.

First, leather. Sorry to all of my animal friendly chums but I adore the smell, the feel and the texture.

You will be pleased to know that this is faux leather. In fact, a faux leather that I discovered how to make during a recent experimental session.

If I haven’t already, I will be sharing a video on this. I say that as I am scheduled this post in advance and therefore I haven’t quite figured out when the video will appear.

Anyway, it involved card, ink and a special medium. Perhaps you might be able to guess the combo … ?

In either case, I think I made a pretty ‘real’ looking leather.

I used this to make the artist trading card background. This was edged with a gold metallic pen.

The little swatch panel, curled at the corners, was intended to encapsulate my love of old time knitwear and also my love of paper. Not easy to put the two things in one however by using an argyle pattern stencil and then curling the corners, I think I may have got it.

I used Pebeo Modelling Paste through the stencil. This was then coated in a light yellow pigment stick and then dry brushed with a sage was paste.

The edges were then embossed with a coppery metallic embossing powder. Of all the metallics available, I seem to return to copper a lot – I think it’s because it’s a warm colour and reminds me of old brass bits and pieces that my folks used to have around the home and that I used to end up being volunteered to polish with Brasso.

The leaves and the honeycomb were supposed to represent my current adoration of chamomile and honey tea. This stuff never fails to reduce my anxiety a little and also gives me a head start on relaxing at bed time.

The leaves were a Couture Creations die from the Le Petit Jardin range that you’ve seen me use recently as part of my design team projects. This was die cut from textured cardstock and I then used a couple of pigment inkpads to add a tiny touch of colour.

The honeycomb pattern was a laser cut border that I coated with gold metallic pen and glued around the artist trading card over the second layer.

For the next layer I used another swatch of my super secret, or not so depending on whether I have blabbed by now, faux leather.

I punched two holes with my cropodile and added a couple of eyelets through which I threaded some black twine.

This was supposed to represent my love of men’s ‘posh’ shoes. So many men wear crappy trainers or weird looking footwear these days that to see a pair of classic lace up leathers is a rare treat. I personally think that shoes maketh the man – he says popping on his slip on sketchers and rolling his eyes.

The final touch, the little pencils, were to signify my all round admiration of the humble pencil. I love the smell, the feel and the result of using this age old writing instrument.

The pencils were made from little bits of cocktail stick that I rolled in espresso coloured archival ink and then dipped into a coloured pigment ink, for the tips.

Phew! Quite a lot crammed in there.

What would your favourite things and do you think you could squish them into the ATC space? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Anyhoo, that’s it for this one. Many thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing you back here again soon.

Bye for now.

J :)