Altered Cabinet Card

Nov 2, 2009

My “A Very Vin­tage Christ­mas” work­shop starts today so in its honor I fig­ured I would have a very vin­tage project. I found this old cab­i­net card placed between some very old Christ­mas cards that have been in the fam­ily for nearly 60 years. No one rec­og­nized these two young ladies and there was no name on the back so I decided to make their photo into a per­ma­nent hol­i­day orna­ment to enjoy each year. These ladies seemed to be in such a gaze that I decided to have them look­ing out a win­dow, maybe at the newly fallen snow or eagerly antic­i­pat­ing the arrival of a wel­comed hol­i­day guest. Which ever it may be, I’m pretty happy with how this came out and cer­tainly see a new addic­tion in my future. If you would like to cre­ate one for your­self below you will find the instruc­tions. The process is pretty sim­ple, just a bit time con­sum­ing but noth­ing you can’t do.

Instruc­tions:

• Using a strong pair of scal­loped scis­sors, trim the top and both sides of your cab­i­net card. Note: I did not cut edge to edge I left about a 1/4 inch on each end.
• Using a crop-a-dile punch two holes at the top and bot­tom of the cab­i­net card then set four gold eye­lets. The holes on the top will be for the seam bind­ing hanger the holes on the bot­tom will be used to attach a strip from a vin­tage postcard.
• Apply Golden Rod Stick­les to the scal­loped edges and apply Gold Ger­man Glass Glit­ter on top, tap of excess and let dry.
• Cut a piece of vin­tage sheet music to cover the image por­tion of your cab­i­net card to approx­i­mately 2.75″ x 4.25″ (Note: these mea­sure­ments may dif­fer depend­ing on the size of your cab­i­net card), cut out the cen­ter so the photo shows through. Using scal­lop scis­sors trim the top por­tion of the sheet music, accent the scal­loped top and edges using Golden Rod Stick­les, apply Gold Ger­man Glass Glit­ter, tap off excess and let dry.
• Using alco­hol inks in Gold, Bot­tle and Latte apply over the top of a Dres­den Arch­way; accent Arch­way using Dia­mond Stick­les, let dry. Accent Arch­way using Golden Rod Stick­les and Gold Ger­man Glass Glit­ter, tap off excess and let dry.
• Now that all the glit­ter is dry begin lay­er­ing your vin­tage sheet music and Dres­den Arch­way onto your cab­i­net card. I use Aleene’s Paper Glaze when attach­ing the vin­tage sheet music and a strong clear dry­ing liq­uid adhe­sive for the Dres­den Arch­way. Let dry.

• Bleach two 2.5″ bot­tle brush trees (I mix 2 parts water and 1 part bleach) pat dry off and let air dry com­pletely. Once the tress are dry apply a clear dry­ing liq­uid adhe­sive to the sides and front then roll them in Old Fash­ioned Mica Snowflakes, let dry
• Draw 2 stars onto a piece of chip­board, cut it out, paint it gold and apply Gold Ger­man Glass Glit­ter, let dry. Once the stars are dry attach them to the top of each bleached bot­tle brush tree. Trim the bot­tom por­tions of the trees bris­tles so that they will attach as flat as pos­si­ble to the cab­i­net card.
• Cut a piece of a vin­tage post­card to approx­i­mately 7/8″ x 3 3/8″ (Note: these mea­sure­ments may dif­fer depend­ing on the size of your cab­i­net card), punch two holes in the same area as the two bot­tom holes punched in the cab­i­net card, set 2 gold eyelets.
• Con­nect the cab­i­net card and the vin­tage post­card piece using red and white baker’s twine.
• Using a strong liq­uid adhe­sive attach the vin­tage hol­i­day items as shown in the photo above to the bot­tom sec­tion of the cab­i­net card. Cre­ate two small bows from red embroi­dery floss and attach one on top of the sin­gle candy cane and one on top of the clus­ter of three candy canes.
• Using a clear dry­ing adhe­sive attach a piece of Dres­den Bor­der Trim to the bot­tom sec­tion of the vin­tage postcard.
• Cut a piece of red seam bind­ing and thread through the top two eye­lets on the cab­i­net card and dou­ble knot the ends together.

Sup­plies Used: Vin­tage Cab­i­net Card, Vin­tage Post­card, Vin­tage Sheet Music, Vin­tage Rein­deer, Flocked Santa, Vin­tage Small Twine/Wire Candy Canes, Vin­tage Hol­i­day Sticker, Holly Leaves and Berries, Dres­den Trim Bor­der #217, Gold Ger­man Glass Glit­ter, Clear Glass Glit­ter, Iri­des­cent Glit­ter, Old Fash­ioned Mica Snow Flakes, Latte - Gold - Bot­tle Alco­hol Inks, Dia­mond and Golden Rod Stick­les, 2.5″ Bot­tle Brush Trees, Adiron­dack Metallics Acrylic Paint Dab­ber — Gold, Col­laage Pauge Instant Decoupage — Matte, Red Seam Bind­ing, Red and White Baker’s Twine, Gold Eye­lets, Dres­den Arch­way, Tiny Gold Jin­gle Bell, Mica Tile, Red Embroi­dery Floss,