I had lots of strips of this paper leftover from yesterday's card, so I figured I'd do more banners. The goal is to try to make each card different so I couldn't just copy, that would be cheating. (Although I might do a couple of the same ones if I like them, so call me a cheater.)
Again, I used a one inch square punch to cut the banner ends. I used a plain pre-made card from Michaels. I placed the banner strips so that they were not straight up and down this time - I wanted a more homespun look to match the paper. I glued them on just using a glue stick, and then used this wonderful leaf ribbon I found in some little store.
I love that ribbon, I've used it in several other projects. It comes in other colors so I will probably get more. It's one of those things that seems to come in handy more often than you would expect. They have it on Amazon in the green and gold, and I've seen it in cream, which is a good buy as you can then use alcohol markers and make your own colors. I've gotten in the habit of buying things in white so I can color them myself.
Back to the card - I cut a few individual leaves (leafs?) off and added them on the vine to make it appear there were two coming from the same area. I glued it down, and I added some red jewel dazzles. Now it looks like holly, right?
RIGHT?
Well, festive anyway.
I thought I'd outline the card in a cranberry color ink as it looked so plain. Well. Um. I think the word for this is "homespun" right? My cranberry ink pad crumbled as I was edging the card. Literally - big hunks of foam came off on the paper, streaking it and making a mess. It was an old pad, ten years or more, but I use it regularly; it is one of my favorites. Last time I used it it was fine. This time?
I thought ink pads just dried up and blew away when they become too old. This one had plenty of ink, but disintegrated. On my card.
Actually, on your card.
I decided to call the edges artistic, but the mess also made my hands "artistic." My plan was to stamp the word "believe" above the ribbon on the left and call it a day but I got a red dot of ink right in the center of the card.
I tried erasing it with an art eraser. I tried using a clear alcohol marker to erase it. Nope. I had to cover it up or junk the card.
I took a spellbinders nestabilities label and cut out the two parts you see above. On the inside part, I stamped "believe" and again used the Zing Leaf embossing powder and heat set it. I coated the outside frame with versamark, used a red embossing powder and also heat set it, and placed it where my smear was.
This card became my nemesis. I dropped everything. I had to re-emboss the frame twice because I wiped off the versamark in a spot. There are prints where there shouldn't be. The jewelled dots kept falling off. Making this card created a mess, all because of the curse of the cranberry ink pad. Whoever gets it may not get the prettiest card in the world but they will know I continued on in spite of hardship. It's a symbol of resilience in adversity - or something. Hopefully, it won't be a crumbled pile of paper in the envelope! That would be a bad symbol.
When you see the word "homespun" you know what it means -- visible mistakes. :)
For those who don't know, I am linking to the products I use on Amazon. If you click a link and buy anything in that shopping trip (even things I haven't linked to, like a lawn mower or a book) I will get a very small percentage of your purchase. So please start your Amazon shopping from either of my pages, even if you aren't buying scrapbook stuff. That's how I pay for the items to make these cards, and I now I have to buy some cranberry ink.
