Inspired by a book....

Happy New Year Blogland!! OK, a little bit late, but better late than never! When do you officially actually stop wishing everyone Happy New Year??
Well, here we are with my first post of 2011 and it's for the Cuttlebug Spot Design Team.... January is all about inspiration! Where do you get yours from? Where do I get mine from??
We were asked to come up with a project where we had been inspired by a book!!! EEEEKKK! Firstly, lets clear something up, YES I can read! but I have never had the time or to be honest the inclination to sit down and read a book from cover to cover.. Unlike my Sister, who's book collection requires it's own storage facility!!
I can watch a film and be transported off to distant lands, but a book just doesn't do it for me.. However, that said I do own lots of books.. They look great on the shelf and would appear to make me look a well read man maybe!!In resent years I have attempted to attack books by my two favourite celebrities.. Dawn French and Victoria Wood.. Both Geniuses of British Female comedy!, but alas I didn't get far through either of them!So, for today's project I picked a book that inspired me to make my card..Sunday was my best mate Ian's Birthday. He's a big fan of Laurel and Hardy and often compares our friendship to the duo.. Over the years we have certainly gotten into a "fine mess" or two...
So here we go with a step by step.I got a picture from t'internet and printed it out a few times onto some Decoupage paper.Cut my images out and layered them together.Matting them onto some Silver and Black Mirror card to keep the Monochromatic theme of the picture going.
The picture of Laurel & Hardy I found was apt for two different reasons. Firstly it was Laurel & Hardy and secondly it was Laurel and Hardy dancing!! I have always had two size 11 left feet and can't dance for toffee.. But Ian, as a child of the eighties has always been into cutting a few shapes on the dance floor, still is.. The fact at 42 he still can is great, he shouldn't, but still does!! So over the years he has tried in vain to teach me a few of his moves, to no avail I'm afraid! But the picture just reminded me of the times we spent in our younger years having a little practice before heading off to a club!He's a big fan of his music too and my new Musical Notes Embossing Folder was perfect to tie the whole project together.
I wanted to make a border to put on the card, and was going to emboss some Silver Mirror card using the Embossing Folder sideways, but this would have meant that the Notes were all sideways!! I recalled some time ago on Sir Tim's (Tim Holtz) blog he cut into the crease of one of his embossing folders so that he could pass one of his tags through it to emboss further down it! So that's what I thought I would do, cut my embossing folder. So I got a craft knife, ruler and cutting mat opened the embossing folderand found that this particular folder is already cut so that you can pass card stock through it
and emboss further down a piece of card stock... What a result!!And no join either!I attached the border to my prepared base card and finished off with the decoupage image...And there you have it, inspired by a book, in a round about sort of way!!! Have a great first day back at work folks and thanks for checking us out.
See you soon...
Andy..