Some Paper Movement and A Lotta Card Parts

It's been a rough stamping two days, where I made a huge mess, sacrificed a lot of card stock, and have not much to show for my labors. Given all that, I will still begin and end today's post on positive notes, because, well, there is really only so much whining even *I* can do in one sitting.

We'll begin with a bit of movement of items in The Other Room. In last week's SU order I got a few 12x12 paper holders, so I put them to work. My goal was to organize the 12x12 paper collection enough to make room for the In Color card stock to fit inside a cabinet and not be so exposed to the elements. Just for the record, my windows are so dirty, no light actually gets through to this part of the room, but still, some day, it might, so I need to be careful.

This is the former home of the In Color card stock. The 12x12 versions of the textured card stock is mixed in to the other 12x12 stuff below. We won't talk about them right now.

See all that lovely space between the one box of card stock and the paper tray on the left? LOTS of room for a Color Caddy or something. So where did it all go?

I made room in this cabinet for the In Color boxes - all but this year's. I'll get to those later. Of course, I needed to remove a bunch of 12x12 papers to make room, so where did they go?

They went into the new cabinet. I had to heap the Core'dinations pile up onto the top left pile to make room for the 12x12 boxes from the old cabinet. But for now it all fits.

(Yes, I know, this collection of paper is a bit over the top. The first step to a cure is admitting you have a problem. Moi? I love paper. Okay, I admit it. But this is not a problem that needs to be cured. I simply need to use what I've got, as that will make room for more. I do not see a problem with this logic, do you? I saw someone with a great signature line... something to the effect of "I am addicted to paper, and I am in a 12x12 step progam." Yep! Me, too!)

I also tried to sand the wall some more, but my new sanding block is still not rough enough to rub off the rivulets of dried paint, so it's back to the hardware store one night this week to get a rougher block. Sigh.

So then I decided I would take control of my new medallion stamp and become it's master. I tried. Oh, I tried. I love it, but I am just not getting the results I want. So yesterday and today I made a lot of attempts, and came away with a lot of parts, but no real cards of which to speak. So frustrating.

You card-makers will understand my pain, and you non-card-makers may get a glimpse into the not-so-glamorous world of our fair craft. Let us begin the reveal.

I started out by stamping the medallion in Versamark on Pacific Point, then embossing it with white EP. What a mess. No, that is not a fuzzy photo, for once; it is a really bad embossing job by yours truly. I was really not happy with the result so I set it aside. This card glared at me the rest of the evening last night and all day today.

Then I got the brilliant idea (stolen from someone else, I am sure) to stamp just the center of the medallion in Pacific Point ink on white, punch it out with the 1 3/4" Circle punch, and pop it up in the middle of the embossed image. This covered up a whole lot of bad embossing, and it looks so clean and crisp. I did think to put a rhinestone brad in the center, since I was popping it up, anyway.

This card became passable, but I am still not sold.

After that botched white embossing fiasco, I opted to try just ink-to-white, so I used Bermuda Bay. Nice. Boring, but nice. This also got set aside, and it is still set aside, unfinished.

Today I got a hair-brained idea to try the alcohol + reinker-on-a-cotton-ball on glossy card stock technique. This got really interesting, and not necessarily in a good way. Remember, I am an Analyst by trade, so I am good at controlled tests. Rule #1 is to only ever change one thing at a time. So let's see what kind of a mess I made employing that logic ...

My first try was with 2 drops each of Bermuda Bay and Rich Razzleberry. It became a mottled mess that just looked blue. I eventually went back and stamped the medallion over it in black, which is what you see here.


Next I tried 2 drops of Bermuda Bay and 1 drop of Rich Razzleberry. Better - you can see more of the two distinct colors, but I was still not loving it. Remember, everything I do here needs to be translated into "can my customers reproduce this without starting a rebellion", and thus far I was not feeling good about the possible end result.

I stamped the black medallion and moved on to Plan C.


Here I used just 2 drops of Bermuda Bay reinker, then went back with one drop of Rich Razzleberry. Much better, but the Razzleberry seemed like an afterthought, which it was, but you never want it to look like that. I suppose I could say I meant to do that, but in truth, it was not the look I wanted.

For my last try I used only the Bermuda Bay reinker - no Razzleberry at all. I actually like this one the best. It's not what I wanted, but I think it would be the easiest to do in a class setting.

Now let's see what those pieces look like on the planned Bermuda Bay card bases. First, I matted them all on black, which may not have been my best decision.

This is the first one that all kindof ran together and got too mottled for my liking. Eh? Not sure what I'll do about this one.

Here's the one with less Razzleberry ink. Better, because more of the Bermuda Bay stands out.

Here's the one with just dots of Razzleberry. This is passable with the medallion over it.

Here's the one with no Razzleberry. For some reason I keep coming back to this one as my favorite.

None of these are cards yet, only parts. I have yet to figure out what to do with them. Ribbon? Bling? Rhinestone centers? White gel pen? Sentiments? Wha?! I will continue to ponder this and life in general.

Keeping with the color scheme, but taking a step back in time, is this card from mid-July that is copied from a change-up a few of my customers did of a workshop card. I had this in my Anniversary/Wedding card section yesterday, when someone asked if I could do one with brown instead of black. Of course I could!

And here it is, my friends: an actual finished card! I like it with the brown, but I still only made one. So Kelly, if you are reading this, here's your card!

After I made this card, I ran away (I left the house) and met BR#2 at Famous Dave's for ribz. M-m-m-m-m. After stuffing our faces, we decided we'd each eaten enough to feed a family of four, so needless to say, I am stuff-ed. I think I've had my fill of ribs for quite some time.

I think I'll cruise my bookmarked list of cards to steal, er, to inspire me, yeah, that's it... and maybe come up with a card for next month's Stamp Camps.

Thanks for stopping by!