Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Bunny Trouble


Every have one of those projects that does not want to cooperate with what you have planned. And you are left with a choice of either forcing it to get with your plan or letting go of the plan and listening to what the project want to do. Well this was one of those projects. That cute little bunny did not like my plan. The planned card would have had the bunny on a cut out label shape with Fran-tage embossing powder and color fragments around the edges. As you can see, that is not what happened.


I started out by opening the bunny digi stamp (by a Day for Daisies) in my Silhouette Studio, resizing it, opening the label cut file, sizing it around the bunny, printing the bunny with registration marks, and then attempting to cut it out. The first time, I loaded the cutting mat wrong and the cut went through the middle of the bunny.
 
Attempt number two was successful. So I colored the bunny with colored pencils and blended them with baby oil. I then inked the edges of the label with Versamark ink and added the embossing powders and color fragments. Because the fragments don't stick to the piece, you have to heat it from underneath. Here's where it went horribly wrong. I scorched the paper in two places. So I set bunny aside and stated working on the background.
 
For the background, I decided to do an embossed resist technique. I started by stamping the Inkadinkado swirls with Versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. You can kinda see the pattern I created on the paper.


I then added Distress Ink in milled lavender and tumbled sage. I thought the lavender was a little to pink, so went back and added some watered down dusty concord. Here's the final result.
 

 
Once I got done with the background, I went back to the bunny. I had two choices: start over or fussy cut the bunny out. I really liked how the coloring came out. So I decided to fussy cut the bunny. I used foam squares to attach him to the base. It still needed something. This weekend, I had made some flowers, leaves and butterflies using Martha Stewart molds and air dry clay. So I pulled out a couple of flowers and leaves and painted them with acrylic paints. Then I brushed on some Twinkle H2O paint to add a little sparkle. I used glue dots to add them to the corners, and viola, the bunny card was finished.
Here's a close up of the flower:

 
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my troublesome bunny.  Have a great day.

Challenges entered:
Crazy4Challenges - Number 228 Shake Your Thing
Emergency Crafters - Flowers
A Day for Daisies - Challenge 92 - Pretty Pastels

Friday, March 21, 2014

Hello

So I decided to bite the bullet and start a blog.  I'll start with a little about myself. 

The Craft of Craft Nerd - I've been crafting for almost thirty years.  I got my start with a counted cross stich kit my grandmother put in my Christmas stocking when I was in the fifth grade.  By the seventh grade I was handmaking Christmas presents for my family, which I still do to this day.  My main passion these days is card making.  But I've got a scrapbook project in the works and I also love to make jewelry and wreaths.

The Nerd of Craft Nerd - I was the shy, mousy, bookish, teacher's pet type in school.  By college I was a little less shy but no less nerdy.  I graduated in 3 and a half years with a double major and a minor.  I went on to law school and finished at the top of my class.  After a year of practice, I quit and went back to school to get a Master's in History.  So basically, I'm highly over educated.  After getting my Master's, I went back to using my law degree.  I currently work full time for the State of Florida as a trial court staff attorney, which means I do research and writing for the trial court judges.

The Man behind the Nerd - I'm married to a very tolerant man.  He has put up with my crafting addiction and the various messes and clutter that go along with it for sixteen years.  He also tolerates my pet addiction.  We have two very annoying beagles (Dashiell and Myrna) and two cats (Nora and Inque).

The Blog - I plan on posting a new project at least once a week.  I'm also currently in the process of a major reorganization of my craft space.  My wonderful hubby bought me a new craft desk for Valentine's day.  So I will probably share my reorg journey.  While most of the projects I will post will be cards and stamping based, I will probably add some other things as well.

So thanks for stopping by and please come back.  I will post a project soon.