Friday, September 4, 2009

From A Scrap: A Card Is Born

This evening, I give you a card rising not from the ashes like a Phoenix, but from a small scrap in the Heap. Okay, not even in the Heap, but next to the Big Shot. Last night I made a box out of one of the SU wood(en) sheets, and there was a piece of the wood left uncut that begged to be messed with, so I obliged! On impulse I stuck it into an embossing folder and this is what came out:

This wood embosses just like card stock. Sweet! So tonight I decided to start with it as the basis for a card. Not really much to go on, but when you never put away any of your schtuff, you are surrounded by inspiration!

I started by grabbing a cut piece of black and after staring at it for a while, I opted to emboss the top part of it with the same embossing folder. Then I stuck on the wood(en) piece using ...

... my ATG. Yep, I braved new waters and tried that sucker again. My buddy Jess told me that to avoid the globs, I should just stop the run of tape and pull straight back instead of lifting up. PERFECT! And the cool thing about the adhesive (that would be the 'A' in ATG) is it's not permanent until you attach the second piece of card stock and burnish it. This non-permanent feature is soooo necessary in the crooked household. You can actually pull off a little bit of the adhesive if you go to far with it. Kindof like playing with rubber cement, only not as smelly. Real nice.


Did you take a moment to appreciate that ribbon? Here it is again. When you collect ribbon as I do, you need to actually use it once in a while. I went in search of something with black & tan/kraft/notwhite, and grabbed this one from my box of Every Color Black or Brown Ribbon But The One I Need. I think it is perfection.

Then I messed with some Kraft-y DSP and one of my new Nesties. Yes, I know, the sentiment is crooked. (Now TELL me you are surprised by that!) I actually threw this away, convinced it was very wrong for this card. But I saved it from the trash and punched out the sentiment with the Word Window punch:

(Yeah, it's crooked, too. Leave me alone.) ... to do this:


The fact that SU makes their dies and punches to fit together so perfectly like these two fit is a total conspiracy, I tell you. I mention to my customers that a punch layers nicely with another one and they look at each other, roll their eyes, and mutter something that sounds like "of course it does!" Heh heh. They now see this coming. If I have a new punch out at a station, they look at it, pick it up, turn it sideways, ponder a moment, then ask right up front so they can add them to their orders. :-) It really does make layering so much easier!

At long last, you get to see the whole card. Ta-da! Oh, I also trimmed off the top and bottom edges of the black die cut (you can scroll up a bit to see the original shape) so the sentiment was not dwarfed by all that black, and so it fit within the lighter layer.

So, what do you think? Is black a bad color for an anniversary card? Hmmm ... maybe not for some ...

As soon as I finished this, I glanced over to the other side of the table where I have a package of Core'Dinations card stock (still out, of course). That made me remember I have a few packages of the black Core'Dinations with colored core, and this would be a wicked-cool card made with some of that color-core black that is embossed and sanded. Oh, yeah. I'll work on that this weekend.

I do not have any elaborate plans for the weekend - Saturday's market, followed by some stamping and some organizing. I plan to put together the rest of the cabinets from the parts that are still scattered about in here. Gots to, man, because I've got Stamp Camps next weekend and people need to fit in here! So whether that wall gets sanded and painted or not, those cabinets are getting built!

I have another Field Trip to IKEA planned for the 15th; I need to return some doors that do not fit my book cases and also to get some IKEA door knobs for the knob-less doors. I am taking one of my customers with me, since she's never been to IKEA. Uh-huh. We'll be there for hours, I just know it. Anyone want to wager one how much we buy that we do not need? :-)

Okay, that's it for this evening. Time for bed - gotta read some more of my book (Digital Fortress by Dan Brown) and rest up for tomorrow's market. The weather is supposed to be lovely.

Thanks for stopping by!


3 comments:

  1. if elegant black and white turn out to be bad wedding colors, i predict a sudden and hilarious return of 1970's style powder blue tuxedos with matching ruffly shirts and cumberbunds. coooooooool. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think you are safe with black and white for weddings- its been very popular the past few years. :)

    Nice ATG! Glad you two are getting along better. :D

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  3. i am going to need to inspect the ATG gun...i have been told on several occasions that i "need" one. also the "other room" looks awesome. very happy for you as I know how much work that involves.

    and oh yeah...awesome card too!

    ReplyDelete

I'd love to hear what you really think! :-)

PS: I've had to disable Anonymous comments, because the spammers were killing me. If you are unable to comment, please email me your comment and I'll get it posted for you. Sorry. (stoopid spammers)