Spiderman
card
I had an
idea for a card—basically Spiderman saving the name of the recipient.
First I needed to find a Spiderman figure that was small
enough for a card, could bend his knees—and was cheap! I try to stick to a sane budget for a card! My
original idea had been to do a cardboard version, but when I was researching
the 50 card for my partner and the Lego to go in it, I realized a figure would
be a great solution.
I finally
found this one. It was almost perfect, but I had to shave some plastic off from
behind his knees to get him to bend far enough. Surprisingly no-one had created
an action figure that did exactly what I wanted!
To make it
look like he was “rescuing” the words, I wanted Spidey braced against a wall.
Originally this was going to be 3D, as were he words, but I decided that they
could be 2D and still work.
So I put
him on my Caterpillar Crease, jamming his feet against the edge, and inserted a
piece of card behind his back, pushing it into the nearest slot. This would be
my measurement for his depth.
I then
creased the front to create the wall. I needed it to be tall enough to take the
figure, but also so I could add a name to the front of it. My first thought was
to have Spiderman at the bottom of the card so he would be stable, but in the
end I suspended him some distance from the base.
After that,
I folded up the card so it surrounded him.
This is the
final creasing. It consists of an open front, base, back (that is tall enough
to clear the wall and toy, and give room to view it). The sides are whatever
was left over as I planned to cover them anyway, but the width of the card was
governed by the size of the toy, but also the length of name. None of these are
easily worked out in a generic way, so you’ll have to come up with the
proportions yourself.
Next, I
reused the city scape I had created for the 50th card, and cut it
out.
It looked
pretty dull all black, and I didn’t want to add lights. So instead I cut
glitter card out in the outline of the skyline, and stuck it on behind. It
gives the shimmer of lights without the fuss.
I also cut
out the name. Each letter was typed out individually, and then the angles
changed to look as though it was being dragged into the middle.
They were
then welded into a rectangle that was the same size as the base of the card
plus an extra piece at the front to get the letters raised, and in a good
location to be “saved”. The letters were also cut out in colourful scrap to
match the rest of the card (as you can see later)
Fixing
Spidey to the card was easier than I thought. I punched holes in the background
after working out where his back was going to be.
I used the
good old faithful of fishing wire to tie around his neck. This went through the
card, then back to the front where I looped under his arms. After returning to
the back and tying off, he was nicely secure.
Next I
glued the box together. I added Pinflair Gel Glue to the soles of his feet to
get him to stick to the wall, and keep him stable.
Then the
name was added. I created two flaps at either side, and glued it on to the
base, sticking the side flaps onto the side of the base card.
At the same
time I created a strip to wrap around the card. This one said “Happy Birthday”
in the most spidery font I have. This was backed with the blue card.
Again, I
reused the 50th card items, and created a brick wall, using inks to
distress it.
This was
stuck onto the section Spidey is bracing himself against.
Now for the
…fun… part. I wanted Spidey to be actively holding the letters, which means I
needed web. Fishing wire was once again the obvious choice, so I braided three
strands together, making six web braids in total. It wasn’t easy, although the
stuff will knot easily, it is slippery. I also didn’t want to knot it too much,
I wanted it to be as slim as possible so it would be hidden. That’s also why I
only used three stands per web braid, it might have been too bulky. It’s also
really thin wire (plastic thread, actually).
I had to
tie one end of the wires to his hands. Because “Jenson” has six letters, I tied
three braids to each hand, and did my best to hide the knots.
By now I’d
stuck another of the name layers onto the first, so there are two layers, and
the card was far stiffer.
I braided
the three in each hand again so they ended up as a single thread leading out to
three. I wanted to create a web pattern between them, but in the end it was too
fiddly and didn’t look right. Even though you can create tiny knots, it looked
better without them.
I then cut
slots into the top of each letter, and inserted the web braid into their own
slots.
You can see
the clips stopping the braids from unraveling, they still do not have knots at
the end.
The final
stage was the tricky on, I had to trap all of the strands under another layer
of name. This one I cut down so it only covered the front area.
I added a
load of Pinflair Glue Gel to the front, and pulled the cables as much as I
could—without pulling Spiderman off his perch, or distorting the card—but so
they looked as though they were taking the strain.
I used
clips at the top of the letters to really put a lot of pressure on the glue
holding the threads. You can’t see from this angle, but they are going in at an
angle to the threads so they don’t interfere with the tension.
I clipped
off the excess threads once it was dry.
The last
stage was to cover up any awkward joins that were visible. I put some black
card along the sides, and finished off with the Happy Birthday top piece.
As I
couldn’t cut a piece of red long enough to go over the top and down the sides,
I added blue to the sides. This makes it look designed, even though it’s a bit
of a hack.
I also
glued on the letters, making sure they lined up as well as I could. I used
alternating colours to
continue the Spidey colour theme.
Finally, a
piece of black card went on the back to cover up the threads holding Spidey in
place.
And that’s
it!
I really
enjoyed making this card, and I think it ended up looking vibrant and fun. I
was glad I could match the colours to Spiderman so well.
I used
Linda Chapman’s Black card for the base of the card, and American Crafts
cardstock for the coloured areas. I have to admit that their card is great, it
cuts well and is very vibrant.
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