Tuesday 18 August 2015

Desperation is no Inspiration

You know how it is. You have to make a card on a theme or for a particular person, or you have a handful of cards to make and a limited amount of time because you've procrastinated and pretended that you're very busy and important elsewhere. And so as the deadline looms, you decide enough is enough, time to get on with it. 
And in the time it takes others to make a dozen cards, you have nothing. Well, a whole heap of mess - a desk strewn with abandoned ink pads, cut up papers, card blanks, every pair of scissors and, because the theme is Christmas, every pot of glitter glue that you own. Who was it said that anything can be improved by the addition of glitter? They lied.
Remember last WOYWW's mess? This card came out of it at some stage. It's not a difficult one. Stamp and emboss with white powder the swirly snowflake (Stampendous) and then colour the piece of card with Distress Inks and sponges. Then finally, take a lovely blue Versafine and stamp the message. Ten minute card. Except it's not. This is the FIFTH attempt. Why? Because the last part of the design is the only bit that can go wrong really. And it did. I could not get that text image (Stampendous, again) straight. Indeed, It's not straight on this sample, but it's a rare sight better than it was. So of course, if you cock up the last part, you have to start over from scratch. Which is why I stopped at five. And then realised that it may well be that the rubber and the index are not aligned. It's a foam mounted stamp so not see-through. That would and does explain it. I may have sworn gentle reader. Those of you that know me are only too aware of ability in that department. Still, at least I'm not losing my my ability to stamp straight; I thought I was destined to be a 'jaunty angle' stamper for the rest of my days! 
Just as I was beginning to think it would be better and more attractive to find an excuse to give up and tell Shopkeeper Gal that I don't want to do Christmas card idea workshops, this arrived. 
Isn't it lovely? It's from our Patsy and this vehicle is called a Jeepney...a cab, taxi type transport. And keeping it in the family, the design is by Robert, her brother. It was the perfect moment for a calm and warm greeting from a real artist I can tell you. Thank you Patsy. I tidied up, blew away the negative cobwebs and pulled out all of my Christmas stamps so that I could assess properly the things I had to do. I felt that Patsy was helping me to get a grip. It lasted until the desk was visible and I felt in control and slightly less panicky. Then Mr Dunnit came home and I turned my back on it for another day. Easily distracted and still a bit desperate!

5 comments:

shazsilverwolf said...

Hi Julia, I really love that Christmas card. But totally understand where you are at with that' last thing' bit. It's why I rarely attempt one layer cards- I know, without a shadow of a doubt, something will go wrong with the last bit of stamping.
And wonky stamps- I feel your pain. I have one- funnily enough, the one I used to stamp the greeting on Jans birthday card. I could never understand, no matter what I did, why it always looked wonky. A wood mounted too, so like you, couldn't see the actual image. Then one day I took a good, close look at it. It has 'Happy Birthday', on one line, then 'to someone special' on the line below it. And the bottom line was not straight to the top one. I ended up slitting along the rubber between the two lines, the peeling up the 'someone special' bit, and tweaking it's position till it was straight, then sticking it down again. Almost as bad as a Whispers brand stamp I bought, then went to use one day. Congratulations, it was. Spelt ' CONGARTULATIONS' on the actual rubber, although the index was spelt correctly.I mean, really? Whatever happened to quality control?
Lots of love and hugs, Shaz xx

Debbie Rock said...

Hesitating to say this as I am sure you know it already but you can, with a bit of brute force, swearing, tugging and pulling and a bit more brute force remove the red rubber stamps from their wooden blocks and use them on an acetate block. If it won't "peel" off (eventually) then you can "slice" it off with a craft knife. I simply can't use wooden blocks successfully as you are trying to do here and have given up ever getting them straight even with those corner block thingies you can use to align your stamps ... I came across this idea somewhere and it made all my wooden stamps useable again! I know your frustration very well of having to start over and over and over again when you mess up the very last stage so you have my every sympathy! xXx

Helen said...

oh Debbie you are a brave lady suggesting Julia unmounts her beloved wooden stamps!

I think there is a lot to be said for jaunty stamping, personally! I have a happy birthday stamp that isn't mounted quite straight on the block and I always forget which way it's "off" and twist the other way... and I don't use inserts, so that's the card .....gered up! (actually I just send it anyway...lol!)

RosA said...

Oh, I would have gone for the "jaunty angle" first up and saved all that angst! But that gorgeous stamp! Can't hang around, I have to go surf the internet to find it now ... thanks, I think :)

Princess Judy Palmer said...

Oh. Oh. OH! I've been there and dun that! And it ain't pretty. I might have tried starting with the greeting first. I'm not sure the sponged inks over it would work though. Or I might have tried a stamp positioner. Or a drink. Or six drinks. I can see why you gave up, but I can also see how that fun card got you calmed down and ready to rock again.