Saturday, October 3, 2009

?Sinking?

Are you all sitting down? Because I'm about to share a CARD!!! I actually finished this card on TUESDAY. Since I am just now finding the time to sit down and post it, that will give you a little hint as to how my week has been!!

Wednesday was the last work day for one of the office girls. She is expecting her second child and is going to become a full time mom. So, the office took her out to lunch for a kind of baby shower/good bye.



This is the card that was made:



I had bought this stamp ages ago from Rubbernecker with the idea floating (haha....) in my head to use it with a stair step fold. Now~~~in my ever creative head, the idea was that this little boat would be in the ocean looking just as cute as could be. But once again, the idea in my head and the reality that came to be were vastly different. Somehow, I had this image as being somewhat smaller (or perhaps, the ocean larger?!!). I don't know. This card lacks the "WOW" that I had hoped for. I'm sure the struggles I've been experiencing getting the wonderful ideas that are in my head to creation have NOTHING to do with the fact that my stamping/creating time is so rare of late.

ANYWHOOS!! It is what it is and there is nothing I can do about it now!
So~~The creative deets: I stamped the image using Black Stazon on some unknown white paper (the stuff one finds when one cleans!!). I pulled out my favorite coloring medium of late (COPICS!!) and spent an evening debating which browns to use, hehe. After cutting out the centers of the front shapes and deciding that I didn't like that look, I backed them with some textured creamy caramel cs. I then searched for something to put in that area. AHHA!! Lightening struck and I pulled out my trajan monogram alphabet set and the mixed messages set from Papertrey Ink. Perfect fit! (wellllll....almost. The middle initial for the baby to be was to large for the center heart space. So that is where the mixed messages set came in to rescue!)

The ocean was done with t!m Holtz's/Ranger alcohol inks in denim, stream and bottle with a touch of pearl on a transparency sheet. I went over the 8 1/2" x 11 sheet two or three times until I got the look I was wanting. My first thought was to have the colored transparency be the ocean by itself. But it just lacked the pop that I was searching for. So I pulled out some SU Cool Caribbean paper and found my old Wave borderline template from Creative Memories and started cutting the waves to fit over the stair step fold base (which was also made using cool Caribbean). I deliberately made the solid wave a tad larger than the transparency so that the wave had a bit of of "blue (vs a white) cap". The main image was then cut out and adhered over some more textured creamy caramel. The paper that the image was stamped on was thicker than SU's whisper white but still bled when colored with the copics (NEED to place an order for some more pure luxury from Gina K....the BEST paper for coloring with copics, IMO!!) and then cut out again and attached using Stampin' dimensionals.

Now the portion that I find lacking in the creation of this card. The embellishments. By the time this card was done late Tuesday night, I just could not come up with a proper embellishment. Ribbon in the ocean? Didn't seem to work in my mind. Some type of welcome baby tag, when I'd had already stated "welcome" and "little one"? Kind of redundant. So I left it alone for the evening hoping that lightening would strike twice. In the morning, my youngest DS suggested that I draw dolphins jumping out of the waves (which might have been adorable, but not happening with my schedule that morning!!). So. Three eyelets placed. And they might be the holes that sank the ship. I don't know. Just didn't float my boat (wondering how many bad puns I can insert at this point!!).

Again~~it is what it is. Personal rating: Not going there. I personally don't care for the card. It was given away and I'm trying not to cringe. It's not that it was a baaad card....just not what I would have liked it to be.

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More organization rambling if you care. If not....Thanks for dropping by!!

Spent a wasted morning going to Lowes, another Home Depot and in desperation~a Kmart looking for solid shelves for my organizer that I'm recycling. It would appear that this particular brand now only makes the wire shelving (unless I want to buy a whole new base. Which I don't) for these organizers now. I would use the wire shelving (have some already) but I have found that they tend to bend easier under weight. And some of the smaller stuff falls through. So, DH has volunteered to make me shelves. Sigh. Sooooo. Don't know when THAT will get done.
I DID get my stack n store and more paper organizers from SU. Now to transfer that stuff over.

I am now hoping that by Christmas this mess is cleaned up. And I'm also not holding my breath!!

THANKS for stopping by again!! I'm off to find the desk top (only cleared a 4x 5" space to make the above card, hehe!). I have a bigger project that I need to work on this week and NEED all the desk space cleared!

4 comments:

Kerney Whitman said...

well...I'm just embarassed by my attempt at the stair step ocean! Geez..glad I don't have YOU critiquing ME! Seriously, this is a really fabulous card, and guess what? no one knows what was in your head to set it next to what you made, KWIM?? I hope you will post some pics of the room/area when it's done. I love to see what others come up with for storage.

kaiandkristi said...

HOW do you come up with this stuff?? Really, you need to start a show or something. Every one of your ideas is just great!! People like me could sit and think all month and never come up with stuff like this. Love it!

Melody (lacyquilter) said...

Cool. Girl you are too hard on yourself. My attempt at a stair step card never got past the folded base. ha!

dawnmercedes said...

oh wow...this is spectacular!