Monday 9 January 2012

Red Letter Day

Time for another challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show and this week our theme is RED LETTER DAY.
Following a search on Google, I found that red letter day originated from the practice of marking the dates of church festivals on calendars in red. The term came into wider use in 1549 when the first Book Of Common Prayer included a calendar with holy days marked in red ink, these dates were designated in the book as a red-letter day;  the term is sometimes written without the hyphen. Red letter day today is also known as a gift experience. With this in mind I tried to incorporate both into my card using Tim's Air Travel set to represent the gift experience, a flight being the experience or the journey. Dates highlighted in red were used taken from the Odds and Ends set along with the sentiment stamped in red using vermillion Archival Ink . A dashing gentlemen from the Steampunk set has been added to a bottle cap and a little embossing using clear embossing powder for dimension. Copper brads and a Blue Moon metal charm token add a little more interest to the card.
The background is a piece of grey board cut 5" x 5" and covered with vintage paper from an old book, torn into random pieces and coloured with Distress Ink brushed corduroy. I added five copper brads to the side of my card to add to the masculine feel.
I adhered the vintage paper with Claudine Hellmuth Studio Matt Multi-Medium and applied a few random patches to the top so that the ink would resist these areas and leave random white patches along with the clear embossed image. "The Journey Is The Destination" seemed the perfect sentiment.

Please pop over to the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog and take a look at my fellow team members they have created some inspirational projects and remember there is also the chance to win a $50 prize from Simon Says Stamp.  I always look forward to seeing your creations each week.


Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment, much appreciated.  Enjoy your week. Tracy x x 


22 comments:

Sandy said...

OMG Tracy this is spectacular.
Stunning stamping card. Love it.

Paula Whittaker said...

fab take on the theme. Hope you had a fab birthday the other day!

Trish Latimer said...

Genius background with the torn paper Tracy, love it!!! Fab card! xxx

Anonymous said...

Fabulous vintage art Tracy! x

Suzanne C said...

Beautiful card. Lovely distressed background. The bottle cap with the man is clever.

Ana Cristina Caldatto said...

Lindo cartão!

Asia King (aka Joanna K) said...

Superb vintage creation, Tracy! Love the bottle cap! xxx

G Peplow said...

Hi Tracy, This is brilliant! I love the whole card, great stamps and really effective ageing, Gay xxx

Lisa Somerville said...

Fab masculine card - love how you did the background!

Netty said...

Terrific collage Tracy, x

Anonymous said...

He is rather dashing and I think he knows it lol.
A quite fabulous card with excellent thought process throughout its creation.
Wishes
Lynne

flutterbycrafter said...

Terrific work and it certainly fits in with the theme beautifully xx

Barb Cady said...

That's interesting about the red letter day! Love the way the plane is flying out, lovely images! x

Anonymous said...

that is a cool masculine card. Love it. I myself lways find it hard to make a card for a men

Brenda Brown said...

Fabulous work Tracy and I enjoyed finding out about where the term red-letter days come from, this all makes interesting reading.
Your card is beautifully designed and the steampunk man in the bottle top has got to be my favourite.
luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Emma Williams said...

There's so much work in this piece of artwork and it's absolutely wonderful...perfect for the challenge!!
Love Emma xxx

Terry said...

Hey there Tracy, your project for the Red Letter Day is absolutely georgous. I LOVE IT, fab colors and the plane.....mmmm complete yummieness....I hope you had a fabulous birthday Tracy and hopefully you got spoiled rotten hehehe. Thank you for your sweet comment on my blog hun. Hugs Terry xxxx

Candy C said...

Tracy...your piece is brilliant! The history alone was interesting enough...but then you added your beautiful project! I love the rich brown background text. It really looks like old book pages. Then the little Long Fasteners are a nice little touch! You always have wonderful attention to detail. The stamping is excellent and I love the two planes. <3 Candy

Juls said...

fabulous, love the bottle top detail! Hugs Juls

fairy thoughts said...

what a great masculine card, with so many interesting elements.thanks for the info on the meaning of the phrase, I didnt know that
janet

email: Steph@SimonSaysStamp.com said...

Very cool creation, Tracy! I will always love the journey sentiment and I also really love the way you gave the papers the distressed look!

*mwah*
Steph
Simon Says Stamp!

Hels Sheridan said...

totally stunning... love all those layers and elements... perfect card for a chap :O))