I had sworn off of pocket letters (they just take so much out of me and usually take me days to complete just one), but when I found out my friend Beth (YT: Bethsscrapbookroom) wanted to collect pocket letters, I had to change course.  Beth is just that kind of special. 🙂 So just to let her know that I was thinking of her, I started to make one more pocket letter.

Full View

So I got out my Gorjuss Girl A4 Decoupage Pack that is designed for lots of layering of parts of images to create eight cards, and got to fussy cutting and layering. The die cut pieces are held in by little chads so you do need to scissor those off for a clean look. Plus, if you want a finished look, I would recommend you edge around each piece with a black marker. Now can you see why pocket letters take me so long? LOL  What is a great bonus for using these girls in a pocket letter is that you can double the number of layered image girls you can get by just using half of the layers for each girl. That is, if you use all the layers, the girls get too thick to fit in pocket letters, so using half the layers seems perfect.

Side View: to see the Gorjuss layering

I found some great black and cream striped paper from the old American Crafts “Night Fall” Halloween collection that I thought worked great as backgrounds with the moody autumnal hues of the Gorjuss girls. I distress inked the edges with a finger dauber and Black Soot ink. I also added black corner flourish die cuts for a few of the backgrounds just to help anchor the girls and add some interest.

For the center square, I added 3 Bead Landing word beads: “smile,” “special,” and “sweet.” I also added sequins in gold, shiny black, matte charcoal, and pearl flowers.  I sealed all of this up using my fuse tool to make a little shaker pocket. For the squares above and below this shaker, I made little die cut pockets with some scrap black and white delicate toile patterned paper (in contrast to the hard striped backgrounds) and inked the edges. I adhered some large cream fabric flowers to add some extra softness.

Lower Half Close Up View

For the non-Gorjuss squares, I tried to stay in black with a few pops of pink.  For the top right, I used a pink poodle die cut (representing me and my beloved Biscuit) and some “special delivery” washi tape; my letter to Beth is behind this pocket.  For the center left square, I added some softness with a hand made crochet and lace flower.  For the bottom right square, I placed a simple black die cut heart in the corner and a package of cancer awareness pink ribbon buttons (Beth hosts challenges in support of wonderful challenges like this all year long so I know she will get good use from these).

Lastly I covered the front and back (making sure to align the print) of the selvage area with the holes with a black lace printed washi. To the top hole, I tied a fun doggy chipboard tag with my info on the back.  The tag says, “Hot Diggity Dog” and I thought that represented me well while fitting in with the color scheme I had going.  Then to add some softness to the other two holes, I used the same black and white Martha Stewart polka dot ribbon (that I thought coordinated nicely with the Gorjuss girls) to tie some pretty bows.

This pocket letter is being entered into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday Autumn/Fall Challenge
Craft-Dee BowZ Anything Goes with a Handmade Bow Challenge
613 Avenue Create Anything Goes Challenge with Optional Twist

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you’re having a wonderful crafty day! WOOF