Knock Knock Collage Card by Lis Whiting

This is a delightful collage card that even has a door handle you can use to open the card!

1. Create the base card by folding in half a piece ( 8 ½ x 5 ½)of dark brown cardstock. Set aside.
2. Cut a piece of light brown cardstock to 4 x 5 ¼. This will be your base to add all your collage pieces.
3. When choosing collage materials, keep the following in mind:
     a. Choose a variety of pieces large and small.
     b. Look for vintage or collage-y scrapbook paper. This makes excellent collage material when cut up.
     c. Look for mostly uniform colors of ivory and brown or dark brown. A few pieces will need to have some color but it should be understated for most everything.
     d. Use photo copies of old stamps.
     e. There are a tremendous number of images that you can buy on CD and then print out. The ones I list below also come with a book so that you can see the images in the book also.
          i. Instant Memories
          ii. Memories of a Lifetime
          iii. Dover
          iv. Design Originals
     f. Spread all your chosen pieces out so that you can see all of them.
     i. Choose about 8 pieces of varying sizes (or you can cut them up later if the ones you have are all similar in size).
          ii. Look for similar color in browns and ivories. (These are neutral colors and will make a good background.)
          iii. Choose a couple with faded lilac and some green.
4. Choose two larger pieces of collage material and glue these to the top and bottom of the light brown
cardstock. Glue them at an angle. Don’t worry about not covering up everything. Your added pieces
of collage will cover anything that is left bare.
          i. Don’t worry about staying inside the edge of the cardstock. We will trim later. (see #8)
          ii. When placing and gluing your pieces of collage, be aware of words and pictures that you want to show. Again, try to keep within a single theme. (My theme for this card was “things Victorian women might use’.
5. Take your other, smaller pieces and glue them randomly on the card. We will be using a slide mount for the upper right corner of the card so you will want to put either a picture or word in the upper right of the cardstock now. Try to balance those pieces with color. For example: Place a piece of green in the top left corner and the lower right side of the piece.
6. Place a glass pebble over a word to accent it. (See Picture 5)  
© Lis Whiting
7. Use a die cut bookplate to accent a part of your collage. Attach a brass key on the left. (See Picture 3)  
© Lis Whiting
8. Turn your collaged cardstock piece and, from the back, trim all excess paper. Attach your collage piece to the card.
9. Slide Holder Frame: (See Picture 2)  
© Lis Whiting
     a. Color a (paper) slide holder with Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap [Ranger]. After the ink dries, cover the front with Crackle Accents [Ranger]. Sprinkle gold beads in two corners opposite each other. Let dry.
     b. When dry, attach a 2 x 2 piece of transparency to the slide holder.
     c. Add mounting tape to the back of the slide holder and attach to the upper right corner of the card.
          i. Accent a picture or a word with this frame.
10. Shrink Plastic Dragonfly: (See Picture 5)  
© Lis Whiting Please read this entire section first before you start!
     a. Prepare your clear shrink plastic by using a piece of sandpaper and sanding the shrink plastic in two directions on one side.
     b. Punch out a dragonfly (I used a 1 ½ “megapunch.)
     c. Take the negative and cut around it so that you have a square with the negative of the dragonfly inside.
     d. Take some chalks and color in green and purple LIGHTLY on the sanded side. (When the shrink plastic shrinks, the color will intensify.)
     e. Using your heat gun and a couple of wooden skewers (chopsticks are also good), hold down the shrink plastic and apply heat.
          i. As the piece starts to curl, don’t panic, it will uncurl as it all shrinks.
          ii. Use your sticks to keep it from curling onto itself. If this happens, you will not be able to separate it.
     f. When it has shrunk, turn to other side and apply heat to this side to assure even shrinking.
g. QUICKLY (VERY QUICKLY) take a wooden stamp (that you have ready to go) and press down on the shrunken piece to flatten it.
     i. Once the plastic hardens, usually you can’t reheat to soften it again very easily.
     h. Attach your dragonfly to the lower right side of your card with glue dots.
11. Shrink Plastic Door Handle: (See Picture 4)  
© Lis Whiting Please read this entire section first before you start!
     a. To make the door handle I used a Hinge die cut from Accucut. I ran the shrink plastic through to get the die cut.
     b. Please follow the same preparation for the shrink plastic as above. You should sand before cutting.
     c. Color the back of the die cut hinge with brown chalk.
     d. Heat the plastic as above and shrink it THEN:
          i. While soft, place the plastic over a pencil to mold it like an old fashioned door handle.
          ii. You will need to make sure that the end parts are flat and that the “handle” part is round. (Refer to pic 4.)
          iii. You will need to be quick as the plastic loses heat quickly and hardens.
     e. Attach the door handle to card using glue dots.
     f. Make your door handle sign by cutting out a ¾ x 1 ¼ inch piece of cardstock in ivory.
          i. This sign is the same design as the “do not disturb” signs you find at hotels.
          ii. Color the cardstock in Distress Inks in Weathered Wood and Tattered Rose [Ranger] on both sides. Edge the sides in Distress Ink Frayed Burlap [Ranger]. Let dry.
          iii. Stamp “HELLO!” on the front of the door sign using Adirondack Pitch Black and the Buttons Alphabet Set [Company unknown, probably a Pixie Alphabet set].
          iv. Cut a slit from the top middle to the punched hole.
          v. Attach to your door handle.