Falling for Wednesday Hop
Plaid
Good day, fellow crafters. Today I present to you my entry for Week 4 in the Falling for Wednesdays IG Hop sponsored by @kellysantidesigns. The theme for this week is Make Your Own Plaid, which is an interesting subject. The history of plaid is a journey that spans centuries and various cultures. Plaid, today most often associated with Scotland, has a rich and diverse heritage. Its origins can be traced back to the Gaelic word "plaide," which refers to a piece of fabric used as a garment. In Scotland, the traditional kilt, a knee-length skirt-like garment, is perhaps the most iconic representation of plaid. The earliest evidence of tartan or plaid patterns in Scotland dates back to the 16th century. However Plaid patterns were not exclusive to Scotland, though. Various cultures worldwide had their own versions of checked or striped fabrics. These patterns were often used to distinguish clans, regions, or social classes. In North America, Native American tribes, such as the Cherokee and Navajo, had their unique variations of woven plaid patterns. I really hope that what I have put together here serves as an inspiration for you to craft something of your own. Enjoy.
To create this card I started by giving some thought to my color scheme. I wanted some rich colors but didn’t want to use the more common colors of plaid that you see, especially in fashion. In the end, I decided to go with some natural coloring that I am seeing out in my own yard and gardens. I chose to use yellow and orange to represent the growing sunflowers and ripening pumpkins as my main colors and brown as my secondary.
Beginning with the plaid itself, I utilized the Tim Holtz Plaid die, featured left, to cut out my pieces. I then aligned them per the instructions and adhered them with liquid glue. With this die set you can have the larger plaid pattern on top, but in my opinion, it doesn’t look as good and it gives you a lot less room to adhere to when assembling the pieces.
The next phase was to create the background for my plaid. As I mentioned before, I went with a brown color for this piece. The reason was to help reinforce the nature-inspired theme of my fall design. To do this, and pictures don’t do it justice, I turned to my Distress Oxide Mica Stains in the color Fallen Acorn. I absolutely love this product for the shimmer and shine that it gives my cards. I used each of these colors to spray onto a white cardstock, being sure to use my splat box because they aren’t called stains for no reason, and then allowed it to dry. Finally, I then trimmed it to its final dimension and adhered the plaid on top of it with liquid glue.
The last phase before assembly was to create the sentiment. For this purpose, I turned to the Autumn Leaves die set from scrapbook.com, featured right. I next created another mica-stained background paper this time using Distress Oxide in the color called Specimen. This color has a greenish hue that I felt also helped to reinforce the nature theme of my plaid. I used the die to cut out the letters of the sentiment and then used the corresponding shadow die to cut out the background for the letters. I assembled them with liquid glue and then adhered the sentiment to the card background.
The final step was to assemble the card by adhering the background panel onto a kraft-colored A2 card base using double-sided tape.
They aren’t part of this project but if you are interested in the leaves in the photo they were created using some white cardstock, the Fun Stampers Journey Zen Leaves stamp set, clear embossing ink, and some extra fine white embossing powder. I used each of the stamps and the clear embossing ink to stamp the leaves in a random pattern onto the cardstock, making sure to get good coverage. I then covered the inked image with the white embossing powder, knocked off the excess, and then heat set the powder with my heat tool. I then cut them out with the corresponding dies.
