Friday, June 16, 2017

when cardmaking is like pulling teeth...

... take the time to find your good wire snippers! Yep, that's how my dilemma started.

I've a story for you today. Actually it all started when I wanted to play with my new Distress Oxides AND play along with the Ellen Hutson Mix It Up challenge with Concord and 9th products. They were still out on my workspace.

I got the idea to create some DO backgrounds and then cut one with my new heart dies. It's been awhile since I'd used my wire snippers to cut new dies apart and the ones I grabbed out of my tool drawer were old ones. Actually, I didn't realize that I had better ones! The darn things were too thick to get between the hearts to snip the wires. And because of the way the hearts were wired together, there was no way to wiggle them back and forth to break the connection - if you know what I mean. So frustration took over and I die cut my DO piece with the hearts just as they were in the package.

And I gathered my EH and C9 products and set out to make several cards for the challenge. Hmmm. No ideas. Sometimes it's nice to create with limitations. Not this time. Having read about B/W with pops of bright colors in this post, I was able to come up with this card.


Two die cut hearts down. Two to go. And then a day passed.

And then... story of my life.... the Mix It Up challenge ended. Ha! Serves me right.

But a Pin-Sights Challenge went up and lucky me - my DO piece was pink, orange and yellow - the colors in the inspiration! I conveniently continued plugging on, pretending I'd had this planned all along ;)


Like pulling teeth, it was, let me tell you. Stuck with my two die cut hearts. What to do with them? Since you listened to my story I'm going to share my creations with you. Not that they're my best work but I bet you've all had one of those crafting sessions where you back yourself into a corner and even with a craft room full of supplies you can't get yourself out of that corner!


The least daunting, I started with the negative to use as a card front. Filled the heart area with a large sentiment surrounded by a few water-softened DI blooms. Still two hearts left...


Having seen Time Out Challenge's graphic, and keeping Pantone's Greenery in mind, I added a fabric-y flower BG and a tropical leaf to one heart. Notice the hexagon in a nod to the invitation in the inspiration photo? Did you know you can make one easily from a circle? And the gold embossed edges in a nod to that scrummy cake. I'm also taking this flower-laden card to The Flower Challenge.




Couldn't bear any more pink. The last little heart with its yellow/orange tones got lots of black to parther with. Simple. And done, finally. Whew. Like pulling teeth it was. BTW, I've since found my good wire snippers and the dies have been freed ;)

love stamp (absolutely love this sentiment font)

Thanks for bearing with me today. Happy weekend.

8 comments:

Golden Goddess Designs said...

great post! I hate it when that happens...but you got some great cards out of the situation!

Alicia

Ruth said...

Lol! You made the most of a bad situation actually and came up with some lovely cards. I really love the colours you've chosen for your flowers and the gold detail on the hexagon is lovely. Thank you for playing along this month at The Flower Challenge. Ruth DT xxx

shirley-bee said...

Well, you backed yourself out of that corner very well! Loved the non-pink surprise at the end ;)

Darnell said...

I have certainly backed myself into a corner, but even with a hamster, I've never found this much creativity there! Great post and a really AWESOME trainload of incredible cards and inspiration from you, Maria!! Thank you!! Hugs, Darnell

sandie said...

well you may feel like you were pulling teeth but you have created an awesome array of cards and I just love the colours of your hearts. I am amazed how much detailed you picked up from our photo-I kept having to go back and have another look at it-the gold embossing a perfect touch plus that tropical foliage. Great to see you at Time Out

Sharli Schaitberger said...

I think each one of these is awesome, although I will confess that the first one is my favorite! Excellent work!!!!

Kim Heggins said...

Wow...so many incredible and beautiful card, just gorgeous.

Anita in France said...

What a splendid collection of cards, Maria ... who would ever have guessed they arrived via a backed-into-a-corner crafting session ... not me! Gorgeous detailing, lovely layers and such beautiful colours! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Time Out! Hugs, Anita :)

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