"Portal to Atlantis" Iris Fold Art Card featuring Lost Coast Designs Border Stamps at Blockheads Paper Arts

Howzit Bloggers!

I'm a huge fan of fantasy and Scifi and the stories about Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle have been firm favourites of mine since I was about 13years old!  So when it came to designing some projects to give you ideas for what you can do with border stamps by Lost Coast Designs I was immediately inspired by the borders that seemed to have the feeling of water and my art card story developed from there.   So come with me on my Creative Adventure and delve into the mystery...

LSBD Log:  Day 11 - A strange portal has finally been unearthed revealing a spiral staircase, with intricately detailed mosaic steps, leading down into mysterious watery depths.  Could this be it?  Have we finally found the lost civilization of Atlantis, here in this remote location of the Bermuda Triangle?  What will we find down there?  The expedition will head down the staircase at 5am...


 I used 3 Lost Coast Designs border styles to create the Iris Folds:  Tear Drops (top right), Spirals (bottom left) and Wave (bottom right) and the 4th border, Antique Text, to frame the triangle window.  I also used Blockheads Paper Arts' Greco-Roman stamp images and the small medallion from the Architecture set to complete my Atlantian theme.

Portal to Atlantis

My adventure began by making my own faux marble background paper with home made Perfect Pearls mists and Distress Inks re-inkers.  The recipe I used is as follows:
one generous scoop of Perfect Pearl (that's the white one) from the Perfect Pearls Metallics set with one full dropper of Weathered Wood Distress Ink re-inker and water added to a Mini Mister spritzer bottle and shake well.  Generously sprtiz glossy white heavy weight cardstock with the PP potion.  Flick drops of undiluted Weathered Wood and Bundled Sage Distress Ink re-inkers into the mix and allow the cardstock to curl and the inks to run any way they want.  Spritz on more PP potion to make the re-inks dilute and run even more until you're happy with the result.  Allow the inks to dry or hit it with a heat gun to speed up the process.  You can see in the right hand photo how glorious the shimmer is!

Stamp up 3 of the Lost Coast Designs borders onto 12x12 paper that has a distressed grunge colour scheme from the My Mind's Eye Tres Belle Collection with Memento Paris Dusk ink.  Completely fill the paper so you've got lots of borders to work with.

Cut out the borders leaving blank paper on each side of them so you can fold them over to make sturdy strips.  Adhere the fold flaps down with a glue stick.

 

Cut an isosceles triangle window out of the PP background and cut a mat to frame the PP bkg panel with a triangle window cut into it too from black cardstock and adhere it to the back of the PP background with double sided tape.  Create the iris fold design with the border strips following the diagram I created.

The colour coding represents each border style.  Adhere each strip in place with double sided tape as you go to keep everything neat and tidy.

Stamp the Antique Text border with Paris Dusk Memento ink to frame the Iris Fold window, use post-it notes or low tack masking tape to mask off the point areas of the triangle then complete the design by stamping the small round decorative Blockheads's stamp from the Architecture set at each point.

 

Stamp the column and the Grecian mural images with Paris Dusk Memento ink and deliberately leave areas of the stamps un-inked for a faded worn effect.  I used portions of the same two images to fill and complete the design by using post-it notes to mask of the various areas.

Stamp the Antique Text onto a scrap piece of the yellowish paper and tear off a section, ink up the edges with Paris Dusk Memento ink to frame it and adhere it to the PP bkg panel with double sided tape.

Use a Fiskars border punch to punch out two Greek Key borders from black cardstock and adhere across the top and bottom of the PP background with double sided tape and embellish the points of the triangle with round epoxy stickers.

To make the card I built a frame out of dimensional foam tape on the back of the PP background panel.  I coloured the edges of the white foam black with a Sharpie marker to make it 'disappear' - I must get my hands on that black foam tape I've seen recently!  Make a folded card from black cardstock the same size and adhere the PP background panel to it effectively sandwiching the bulky iris folding between the two.  Decorate the interior of the card by adhering a Swirl border strip down the right hand edge with a glue stick.

I completed the story of my art card with a coat of Magic Transparent Pearl Pen over the center triangle of the iris fold design to represent the shimmering water where the mosaic steps disappear further down into the portal!

But don't worry the story doesn't end there, I'll be back with more tomorrow ;0)
 In the mean while check out what my fellow design team mate, Colleen, has done with the Bingo Border stamp and stay tuned to the Blockheads Blog for more Design Team eye candy!

I found some cool challenges for this card:
Smudgy Antics - Anything Goes
Anything Goes Challenge Blog - Challenge #64 Anything Goes
Make My Monday Challenge - #44 Men and Boys with the added Vintage theme
I think my fantasy art card fits the bill for this one, it's masculine, the colours are very guy-esque and my theme is and techniques give the card the vintage feel

Make It Monday - #84 Anything Goes
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Challenge #40 From the Past
Use It Tuesday Challenge #29 Anything Goes (but must use hoarded stash)
My hoarded clear epoxy stickers were used on this one - they're so old they've got a yellow tint to them which was perfect for my card ;0)

Thanks for visiting!!
 

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents