I'm a Real Fan!!!

I am, you know??? A HUGE fan of Melanie Muenchinger's stamps!! So why not... a FAN from a fan!! Today I will share my latest "Sporty Accessories" project with notes on how I made it. I do plan to give this to my Aunt as a small gift... just because. SHE is a huge FAN of the Iowa Cubs (we are home to the farm team of the Chicago Cubs)' I've NEVER known her to miss a single game. My father buys season box seats to the games and every year we give them to whomever wants to go or/and if no one uses them, my Aunt gets them with a front gate/stadium parking pass. Most times she gets at least one of the seats because no one is as crazy about going as she is in cold, rain OR heat! I hope this helps to chase away a bit of that heat during those really hot games because I KNOW she will be there. I started with THREE pieces of Gina K Pure Luxury Base Weight white card stock. On the first side I sponged some clouds using a scalloped circle. THIS took probably the longest and was the worse part. About 4/5 of the way down I stopped and used my stipple brush to add some green in soft strokes upwards to resemble a bit of grass below. Next... I stamped the gloves in black using Memento ink and then colored them in with my Copics. Since the sky is a light blue, I didn't worry about it showing thru my Copic color since I was blending and adding a bit of oranges and tans along with the browns. I used the bats to go up the side and stamped in the same method as the gloves. On the flip side, I stenciled a big "C" on each sheet and sponged in the red. I then used a circle cutter shape I had from my old Creative Memories cutting pieces and went around each "C" using my blue Copic marker. Then I filled in around each "C" with the megaphones and baseballs. Again... on each outside sheet I stamped the bats and colored in with Copics. I took each sheet and used my Scor-Pal to score every TWO inches across the sheet. THEN.... flipped the sheet over and scored again.. every two inches. By flipping the sheet, you will get a score every inch across the sheet and with the opposite fold lines so that when you accordion the sheet it folds much easier and in the direction needed. Remember to match the next sheet up with the proper fold you need for the next fold in your accordion. BEFORE folding the accordion, I laminated each sheet separately with self-sealing sheets I got at Office Max. I used the repositional sheets because after 8 hours (or something like that) they become permanent. I used Scor-Tape to glue one panel to the next sheet, overlapping a one inch panel over the other sheet's one inch panel. If you go slow and make sure you place your fingers along the crease, it will fold correctly. Hold it down and press hard as you make each fold. This makes for a very sturdy fan and hopefully it will last at least one whole season. LOL I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch a hole every three or four folds.. just big enough for a clasp ring to fit through them all. Since this was for my Aunt... I decided to go pretty basic on the "dangles" from the ring. I just added a few wooden baseball buttons on some hemp and braided it. A more girly type fan I would probably add some ribbons and frilly items hanging from them. Since I wanted my Aunt to be able to carry this in her purse to the games, I needed to bind it somehow at the top so it was more compact. I added a simple brad and before sticking it thru the hole, I threaded a small wooden bat button on some silver stretchy cording from SU and tied it in a knot then stuck the brad thru and made sure when I opened it I put the cording around each bent end. Now when closed she can wrap it around the end and it helps to keep it more compact. Here are a few close ups of the stamped areas. Make sense? LOL I'm not sure I do well with "written" instructions but if you have any questions, please feel free to write me. If you make a fan... please be sure to let me know... I'd love to see it. Or... post it on StampTV so we can all see your wonderful one-of-a-kind creation.

Hop on over to Melanie's Blog to see another 3D item I created using her "Sporty Accessories" set!! Have a COOL day! *snort*