The Perils of Making Art!

 Crafting - or rather, creating art - is SO much fun!  And it is SO messy!  And, dare I say, sometimes just a wee bit dangerous!  Today I have been slowly slogging away at cleaning up my paper art area.  I have made more than a few projects without tidying up and it has been getting deep around here.  Hence the "perils" as stated in the title of this little essay.

"Perils?" you say.

"Why, Yes!  Settle in and just let me tell you!"

Art can be dangerous.  Just over two weeks ago, I was working in the Paper Arts Studio - ok, it's actually a corner of our bedroom - and as I worked, my Pokey Tool rolled off the desk and stabbed me in the leg.  It is only just now healing up!  Truth!

Today I managed to stab myself in the finger with the very same Pokey Tool.  Teach me to try to open a jar of Crackle Paste with tools!

The carpet in the bedroom has seen a variety of creative accidents.  Ink pads suddenly drop from aching hands - and no, they do NOT land on their feet like cats.  They land face down on the carpet and swarp their hateful inky pads across the weave as you try to pick them up!  And Heaven Help us ALL if you happen to roll your chair over them.  We won't even TALK about that!

Tools go walk about on a regular basis, never to be seen again.  Or they fall off the desk and hit the poor dog in the head.  She gets very indignant when that happens!  Three weeks ago, I lost the fancy diamond top to my glue press.  Imagine!  Found it today, under a ton of paper at the foot of my desk.  I'm still looking for the holographic little stars that I bought from Amazon 2 months ago.  They looked great when I took them out of the bag.  And that's the last time that I saw them!  Glue bottles suddenly fall off the desk and squirt glue all over the carpet.  And trust me - Fabri Tac can remove the finish from a laminate floor.  Ask me how I know, but Pahleeeeese don't tell my husband!

And so here I sit, at 9 pm at night, staring at a piled up desk - I've moved every pile to the center of my u-shaped desk - and I am writing a silly blog, while listening to a movie with one ear.  (Ok, 1/2 an ear).  I am determined to at least clear the middle portion of this desk before I go to bed because I have several crafty creative things I would like to get done tomorrow.  If I only get all the stamps and dies put away, that will be great progress!  And so, as I survey my kingdom, my Arty Domain, I make yet another promise to myself...Hereafter, I Will Clean Up As I Go.  And if you believe that, well, I have some beach front property in Ohio that is for sale at a great price!  Somebody please tell me I am not the only creative that has these problems!  And remember - I share these ugly truths so that YOU don't have to!

Altenew Level 2 - With A Twist Course

 How many times have we all thought of a project, worked on it for hours, and then made cuts where they didn’t need to be made!  I know that I have done that WAY more than I want to admit!  And although it sounds cool to say, “There are no mistakes, only design opportunities,” in reality that is more difficult than imagined.  Can you see where I’m going with this?

The “With A Twist” course was fantastic!  Chock full of ideas to perk up the creative muses, test the boundaries of skill levels, and just plain fun!  And I came away from the videos with a firm idea in mind of what I wanted to do.  And then I attempted to put my ideas onto card stock.  Well, I got so frustrated with myself that I threw down my glue press in disgust, heaved myself away from my desk, and declared to the dog, “When it gets this rough, it’s time to quit for the day.” 

This morning, I started again, new card, same basic idea.  And even though some things didn’t quite work out the way I had envisioned, overall, I am pleased with the results.  I used purple embossing powder to create two floral outlines on white card stock and cut them out with the Library Blooms stamp and die set.  Next, I took a piece of white card stock, cut it on a slant, and then ink blended it using Pumice Stone Distress Oxide Ink - mind you, these are the EXACT steps that I took yesterday.  I adhered the die cut blooms onto the edge of my ink blended paper, and then put that onto a purple card base.  And then I created a sentiment using the same ink blended paper and a sentiment from the Tangerine Grove stamp set.  After cutting it out using a Tim Holtz label die, I popped it up on my card front using 4 pieces of scrap card stock.  I trimmed the excess blooms off the bottom of the card, but opted to leave the leaf at the top.  Oh!  I also went a little crazy with purple gems on this one - here it is:

But NOW you need to know the “Rest of the Story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.  I decided to see if I could save the work I had done yesterday.  You see, I had grabbed my trusty scissors, never doubting myself as I bore down on the blades, and - GASP!!  I CHOPPED OFF ALL of the luscious blooms along the decorative edged twist of my card!  I kept looking at it and looking at it, and looking at it, wondering what to do.  Finally, I turned the card in a different orientation, did a little strategic ink blending, cut down some vellum, added bling, and here is the card save.  Believe it or not, I kinda like the “mistake” card best!  How’s them apples for a surprise!

Altenew Level Two Submission - In the Mood for Color

 Today’s card making extravaganza has been a TOTAL exercise in patience!  You know the jokes about how many people it takes to screw in a lightbulb, etc.?  Well, today it’s how many cards does a student need to make before getting ANYWHERE close to the idea in her head!  I won’t even begin to tell you how many 5.5x4.25 pieces of ink blended panels are now littering my desk, but it’s considerable!  Well, that’s how it goes some days!

The card(s) that I’ve been attempting to make are for the Level 2 “In the Mood for Color” course taught by Stephanie Klauck.  It is a great class and made me realize that I have been focusing on coloring my die cuts and my stamped images, but generally not considering an overall background color.  AND I have not really considered the mood that my cards might evoke - I’ve only concentrated on what makes “ME” happy when I look at cards.  So…even though I am still using colors that I like, I think that they might have more universal appeal due to the feelings associated with the colors used.

The first step was selecting my colors.  I knew that I wanted to do some color blending, and that those blends would be my focal colors.  It is fall here where I live, and the mountains have been putting on quite a show of golds and yellows.  And while those colors do not always bring to mind fall of the year, they do denote a brightness, a lightness of spirit, and a contagious feeling of happiness.  So I selected three colors from my Distress Oxides - Mustard Seed, Dried Marigold, and Spiced Marmalade, focusing mainly on Mustard Seed and Dried Marigold.  I also selected Milled Lavender and Wild Honey for sentiments and edgings.

The next thing that I needed to do was to pick a stamp set.  Just this morning, I watched a video by Erum Tasneem, where she created beautiful cards using one stamp and two colors.  Initially I thought to emulate that, but changed my mind after sorting through my stamps.  When I spotted the Precious Peony stamp and die set, a completely new idea struck, although I did use one aspect of Erum’s video - using the back of the sticky mat to stamp a background design onto one card.  It was a great tip and one I plan on using frequently!

So…I won’t bore you with all the ink blending accidents and stamping accidents that I had today.  But I DO have a couple of “Pro Tips” for you that I hope bring a smile to your face!

Pro Tip 1:  when using Dylusions Dyamond Dust, Lindy’s Magical Powders, or Dreamweaver Stencil Powders, remove your card panel from your sticky mat FIRST!!  If you don’t, you might end up with powder on your ink blenders for your next card!  Learn from what I continuously do wrong!  (It’s ok to belly laugh here if necessary.)

Pro Tip 2:  don’t press down on your stamp wheel lid before you get it completely in place!  If you WANT blurred images to emboss, go ahead and press away.  But if you want crisp images, well, again - learn from what I do wrong! 

After many attempts, I ended up with two cards that were not disasters.  And if you have read to the end of this tale of trials and tribulations, many, many thanks!  Here is my day’s work for Altenew!

The first three pictures, all of the same card, use white embossing powder to highlight the stamped images, allowing the ink blended background to shine through the embossing.

The second card, which is shown in the next three images, used Dylusions Dyamond Dust to showcase the stamped image, again allowing the background color to come through.