EIC 131

One of my bloggy pals, Libby, who you may know from her From Courtney's Closet challenges and her current role with a bazillion other crafty efforts, is also a guest designer on the Etsy Inspired Challenges Team, so I thought I'd try this week's challenge to use an item from the Dollbirdies Etsy shop as inspiration for a card.

Let me just say "it seemed like a good idea at the time". I had an idea and I tried it 12 ways from Sunday, and every stinkin' one of them failed. Big time. I only finished this card because I am a stubborn cuss and wouldn't let it die.

With that very positive introduction, I chose this fabric for my inspiration:

Let me tell you my plan, then you can see why I hate intensely dislike this card. My PLAN was to emboss a design of some sort using Wild Wasabi, Soft Suede and "some wild pink color", then put a dark blue distress ink over it to create a dark blue background. FAIL, FAIL, FAIL! It was hard work, and messy, and I trashed a squillion versions before I even got to this one, and I still intensely dislike it.

Ready? Here you go:


That strip of the blue paper was the best I could do, and I cut it down to minimize it. Oh. Dear. God. I struggled so. But I wouldn't let my idea die (I don't know when to quit), and I kept trying. I finally ended up using some Distress inks instead of SU to eliminate the "stamp in Versamark ... stamp in ink ... stamp on paper ... clean stamp ... repeat" process. The Distress inks are wet enough to powder without using Versamark, so it saves a few steps, but I don't like the colors as well (I don't have very many).

The blue ink I used on the background wouldn't get dark enough (again, it's all I had). Oh, and those white blots that I think look like zits? My attempt to make the white centers. FAIL AGAIN!

I had another idea to use punched-out something-somethings to make a design around a white center on dark blue card stock, but then my punch broke and I saw it as a sign to walk away, JUST WALK AWAY!

So there you have it - my tale of woe. I admit defeat.

In happier news, I'm getting crafty this afternoon with one of my tweeps, Papergrace, who lives in CA. We use Google Chat and web cams and just have so much fun.Hopefully I'll make something I don't intensely dislike to share with you.

Thanks for stopping by!