Saturday, August 23, 2014

I Did It Myyyyyy Waaaaaaaay

Do you have that song stuck in your head now like I do? No? Well try this:




You're welcome.

Today's saga (and it's a real saga) began when I spied a sneak peek of the card that Jennifer McGuire showed us in her post entitled No-Mess Glitter Die Cuts. After I ran out and purchased half of the latest MFT release, I was grateful I had the supplies to try the cards myself. Let me just say I did break up with glitter the other night, as it wasn't a no-mess experience in my world.

But I tried. I really did. Let us begin by looking at one of my cards:


You may notice mine are sunglasses. We'll get to that in a minute.  I die-cut the glasses from double-sided sticky paper as directed and applied the glitter. I think if I'd only been making one of these, I might not have been so flustered, but I made several because I know me pretty well, and I mess up a lot, so I always cut more than I need so I can recover quickly when (not if, when) I mess up. So all along I was doing 4+ of these, just waiting for the screw-up.

So, glitter applied, I went to punch out the centers and found they were stuck in pretty well. Instead of putting them back into the dies to cut them again as Jennifer did, I took some centers I'd cut out previously from black card stock and stuck them to the adhesive. Then, when I got to the Glossy Accent step, I covered the whole thing, not just the rims.

Here's another one:



Same colors of glitter, same sob story.

I also made a few with different glitter colors, just to further complicate my life:


This started with pink in the center, followed by an orange-red, and finally a brown at the edges. And yes, it's (gah) pink, but that's one less pink card in my craft room.

One more:


Also, instead of embossing the background, I opted to dry emboss the white panel, which totally justified the purchase of that embossing folder I was enabled to need when I was blurfing.

Oh, here's a close-up of the sunglasses:

(sorry about the glare)


Then, because I'm such a glutton for punishment, I went back in for more.  I decided glitter wasn't for me, and I came up with another way to achieve the same look with less mess.  I colored a piece of card stock with three colors of Distress inks:

(see, it doesn't even need to be neat and all blendy!)


then die-cut the glasses from that. I got color with no mess, and all I had to do was go over the die-cuts with my Wink of Stella clear pen to get the shimmer. So smart. *pats self on back*

Then my world fell apart. After I cut eleventy bazillion of the glasses and fussy-cut out the acetate layers as instructed, and layered on the pretty top layer, and assembled my cards, I started to apply Glossy Accents to the glasses. FAIL. FAIL. FAIL. It went all over the acetate and I could not control it. What a mess. I even tried to apply it with a tooth pick, but it was only marginally better.

I pulled off the glasses from the card fronts and went to re-watch the video. Then I got a clue and, starting over, I again cut the glasses from a piece of distress-colored card stock, but this time I got smart(er). I opted to do the clear embossing instead of the Glossy Accents. Here's one:



Maybe it's not as dramatic as the Glossy Accents, but it was waaaay less messy.

Here's another one with a different sentiment from the MFT stamp set:


The issue I had with this set of three pairs of glasses was the tiny pieces on the tops that I wanted to make silver. Let me warn you those babies are very very teeny tiny and tough to keep track of. With all the stacking I finally gave up even trying, and I embossed these guys with holes where the silver pieces should have been. I later went back and filled them in with some Pearl Pen in Silver Chrome, using a tooth pick to fill the holes. And yes, I do have a jar of tooth picks on my craft desk. Doesn't everyone?

One more:


Now that I look at these, that center panel would look better off-center. Sigh. Next time.

In other news, I fell in love with this stamp set because it's encouraging to see that geekdom is being embraced. Back when I was a pup, it wasn't unusual for kids -- even girls, heck ESPECIALLY for girls -- to be smart and geeky. Or maybe there were just so many of us it was cool. I remember at my 10-year High School reunion when one of the guys at my table said to me, "You were one of the smart girls. You don't know me because I was one of the guys out back in the parking lot." Uh-huh.

So, final ruling: You need these dies and accompanying stamps. And if you can master glitter, more power to you. Though I've been told there will be a Glitter Intervention in my world, I am quite happy to live without it. After all, I have my washi tape collection to keep me occupied instead, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Things I used: black card stock, Amy's Magic Gunmetal glitter (at least 5-7 years old), vat of clear embossing powder I got from Viva Las Vegas Stamps, and the following:




7 comments:

  1. Wow, you've been busy! If you want to avoid the glitter mess, try Stampin' Up glimmer cardstock. Colour with Copics if needed. :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your cards, sorry for the stressful creating. I usually don't have too big a problem with the glitter...course I anti static everything in sight first...and hubs likes the stray bits in my hair, on my face...lol

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love your cards and I applaud you for venturing into the glittery forest. It's good to know that I'm not the only one that has trouble with the Glossy Accents. Jennifer makes it look so easy. It isn't.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glitter is overrated! Your distress ink solution was genius!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Of course I have toothpicks on my desk! What kind of crazy question is that?!!! The cat doesn't try to eat those. I love all these different versions. They rock. I have the A Muse version of this set. It doesn't quite have as fun of greetings. And glitter. >shudder< It makes me itch.

    ReplyDelete
  6. These are amazing! And I know they gave you fits, but OMG the finished cards are super. I love the sentiments - and since I've worn glasses since I was 2, I definitely love them :) Also, I have toothpicks on my desk. That's where they are kept - if you need one for something else, well, too bad.

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh my gosh, these are SOOOOOOO fab! i think the sunglasses ones are my fave, actually, (ok sorry about the glitter tho; i think i'm the only crafter* in the world who doesn't care if it's messy. i find EP soooo much worse, it's gritty!!!) they give the glasses just that little more "weight" so that they are the strongest & most dominant thing on the card. plus... cat's eye sunglasses?! hello, audrey hepburn!!! :) :) :)

    (*i KNOW i'm the only person in this house who doesn't care if it's messy, but luckily my husband is a saint, lol!) :)

    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)