Second On The Second – Another Look At Let Them Eat Cake

Hello friends!

Just in time to link up to Second on the Second!  Honestly my head is elsewhere today as I have spent hours fixing something I didn’t know needed fixing instead of enjoying my public holiday.  I remembered Second on the Second and went to look for a post but then realised it was an inlinkz linkup and I can’t remember my password so I decided that if I wasn’t already logged in to inlinkz then I would have to  give it a miss this time.  But then I went to inlinkz and I was still logged in so I can link up! I was torn between two posts, one a birthday card for my sister and one a Harry Potter birthday card for a friend, that one was from a previous December and my sister’s card was from a previous January so I went with the January card since it’s January now.  Here is another look at a birthday card for my sister from January 2020 (before the whole world went to crap) it is that time of the year again and I am less organised because I have not yet made her card and I have no ideas!  This post was originally published in January 2020 so click the link to see the original post. Notice that this card was entered into two blog challenges – A Vintage Journey where it was picked for top 3, and Country View Challenges.  AVJ no longer exists as a challenge blog, and CVC have moved their challenges to facebook.  How sad, both were favourite challenges to enter.

Second on the Second

Bleubeard and Elizabeth’s Second on the Second Challenge asks that you bring back a post that you’re proud of or an old one that was shared before anyone knew of your blog.  The post I chose for Second on the Second today is one from June 2020 – remember this is a second look at an OLD POST, this time from 2020, not a current post! Hope you find it interesting this time around.  Enjoy…

I have a very special card for you today, this one is a birthday card for my sister!

Origin of the Idea

Yes I made a Let them eat cake birthday card with a framed portrait of Marie Antoinette lol.  So how did this happen?  Well I kept thinking about birthday cake for one thing haha, and so that phrase popped into my head.  Then I was watching Knightfall on Netflix which is a show about the Knight’s Templar in the 12th Century and nothing at all to do with Marie Antoinette who wasn’t born until a few centuries later in the 18th Century, but it was set in France and did involve the royal family at the time so I started thinking hmmm Marie Antoinette in a frame on my card – yes please!  BTW Knightfall is quite a good show, with some basic historical accuracy and a lot of embellishment of the facts lol but worth a watch.

Getting Started

I found some photos of Marie Antoinette and printed them out in full colour and in greyscale in case I wanted to colour them.  Then I planned the layout of the card, initially planning to use this Spellbinders die and this Tim Holtz set of Alphanumeric Sizzix dies.  The Frame die turned out to be just a little big for my card so I switched to a Sizzix frame die instead.  I also chose this paper from the Prima Salvage District Collection as it has Paris motifs on it – perfect!

Creating the background

This card was going to be an eclipse card, so I needed to cut the sentiment out of the scrapbook paper but I needed to paint the paper first before cutting the letters out so that there would be no disruption in the pattern once I inlaid the letters after die cutting. Firstly I covered the paper in clear gesso, before painting with gold, and turquoise paints.  When they were dry I then added some paint splatters across the paper and dried it with a heat tool.

Choosing the cardstock and assembly

After cutting out the sentiment from the paper, cut another set of letters from white cardstock.  Then glue the paper onto the card base – because this is going to be an eclipse card the die cut letters will be inserted through the negative space and would need something to stick on to – normally this would be one of the last steps when making a card!  Oh and this is one of the larger sized cards I make, approx A5, or one piece of cardstock folded in half.

Inlaid die cutting

Once the paper is adhered to the card base, glue the white die cut letters into the negative spaces in the paper.

Eclipse effect

Making sure you place the right letters in the right spaces, glue in the letters cut from the paper, making sure the pattern matches up. I outlined all the letters in grey pencil to make them stand out even more.

Ready for your close up

Here are a few close ups – I really love how this blue looks!

I used some Finnabair waxes as highlights on some of the letters

This Peacock wax is gorgeous!

Let them eat cake – the finished card

And we are done!  Here is the finished card.  I really love how it turned out and how it fits with the portrait.  I kept to a simple colour palette of colours that would have been used in 18th Century Versailles perhaps!

CHALLENGES

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

A Vintage Journey – We’re All Getting Older
What better reminder that we are all getting older than a birthday card right? Plus I wanted to make this card look like something from the 18th century, perhaps something Marie Antoinette herself would have liked to receive if they had had birthday cards then that is lol. The colours and textures on the background and the use of the waxes give it that antique look.
Country View Challenges – Love
I was tempted to make a Valentine’s Day inspired card for this challenge and I still might, but the challenge is expanded to include all aspects of love and not just romantic, so I am including this card made for my sister whom I love dearly.

PROJECT RECIPE:

Prima Salvage Distress paper
Tim Holtz Alphanumeric dies
Sizzix ornate frame die
Gina K gold cardstock
Finnabair metallic and liquid acrylic paint, waxes
Nuvo Deluxe adhesive
From stash: photo of Marie Antoinette

I hope you enjoyed a second look or probably a first look, at this post from 2020.

Challenges

Second on the Second