embossing

I’m not sure where my mojo is, but it definitely isn’t around at the moment. It took me forever to decide on a card for the challenge at As You See It and as many of you know, it is one of my favourite challenge sites. The current one is about colour, Challenge #381 – High Tech Handsomeness and here is my effort. And because I’ve used a folder I am entering it as a second card at CYHYP Anything Goes With A Twist of Cloudy Day . Twist not taken.

Even though I like the colours and the image that was part of the inspiration it took me some time to decide what to do. I started with the folder which is by Sizzix called Mechanics Texture Fades. I chose the slate gray CS and embossed it then went over the raised parts with a blue ink cube. My card base is basic gray so the layer was cut down to allow the darker gray to show up as a frame. I actually got this layer on straight for a change. I remembered that I had a stamp/die set that is an unbranded set. After stamping the truck I stamped the packages, heat embossed them, then die cutting after they were coloured. Prisma pencils were used to colour. These unbranded sets are useful but not fantastic and in the one I have there is a fault in the die for the parcels. As well the stamps are so soft that one has to be careful to get a decent impression.

Once I had everything coloured and put together I added foam tape behind for dimension, looked for some PP that allowed me to ground the truck and added it to the 3D layer. I wasn’t sure about a sentiment but in looking for the PP I also found some sentiment strips from Idea-ology so I chose one of those and added it at the bottom.

We had a massive and violent lightning storm right overhead a few weekends ago. It lasted 6 hours and hit one of the transformers on a pole that brought power to 5 houses. It was an almighty bang and almost made us fall out of bed with shock at the noise. Of course everything went dark and we waited for our generator to kick in. Sadly it didn’t, because the lightning also took out the control panel on the generator. Fortunately we have surge protectors on our panel and we had turned off the computers and other electronics as a precaution. We’ve been dealing with the aftermath ever since as so many little things no longer work. I have two kitchen appliances not working, our ventilation system control panel has to be replaced, a roof exhaust fan is also broken and many LED light bulbs just gave out. Now that we have quotes on most of it we’ve started an insurance claim. Just the generator alone is a $2,000 repair. We would have preferred not to claim but we are now way over the deductible and after speaking with the company the adjuster agrees that it is necessary and likely to be covered. We consider ourselves lucky as it could have been so much worse. One of our neighbors had a power bar start to smoke and burn and it freaked me out because if she hadn’t been awake to find it her house might have burned down. I guess this saga is the reason my mojo is a bit lacking. Anyone denying climate change needs to start rethinking in my humble opinion.

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Another of my commissioned cards, this time with a golfing Christmas theme. I thought it would be a nice one for the challenge at Krafty Chicks challenge #746 – Christmas so am entering it there. I saw this fold on Pinterest and searched for a tutorial so I could make it my own version. I could have figured it out, but sometimes it is just easier to see how it is done and this tutorial was really easy to follow. The paper I used is from a paper pad from last year. My images are all from a stamping buddy who gifted me with an envelope full of golf related images and I am really grateful to her for them. She knows who she is. I fussy cut the Tee ball and the Santa hats using pencils to colour. Then I coloured the focal image using pencils and some glitter pens. Once it was coloured I fussy cut it strategically so it stayed together as one piece and I edged it with a black pen. Once I had the card base cut, scored and folded I added all the smaller panels and then taking the suggestion from the video I added a strip of plastic at the centre so the focal image has more stability. Except for the Tee balls everything is glued flat, although as this card is to be gifted personally not mailed, more dimension wouldn’t have been an issue.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out and I know my friend is going to be thrilled with it as will her father for whom it is intended.

I think I have two more Christmas cards to make and then I’m done for this year. I wasn’t going to bother with these two, but have learned that the mail strike may be over next week. The government stepped in and is forcing them to settle. Obviously there will be a backlog to clear, but at least people will receive the cards sometime in January, late but not so bad as to matter. I’ll confirm with my stamping buddies as soon as I am certain the strike it over.

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