by

ScrapHappy: The Under-achiever, the Over-achiever, and the Surprise

Thanks, as always, Kate, for hosting this monthly challenge.

Every few months, I get the urge to use my Gel Press, usually when I find something interesting on the garden floor.

Last month I picked up a decaying leaf that maintained its skeleton-like structure. (Sorry, no pics) I wanted to capture the leaf pattern using a Gel Press, brayer, watercolor paper, and ink. I imagined the delicate veins of the decaying leaf in minute detail. Instead, I created several blobs. I call the first blob “cranky man-in-the-moon.”

Sigh.

This brings me to ScrapHappy, the oops edition. I set the images and my discouragement aside for a time. I decided to use them this month to make some cards.

While I had a general idea of using the blobs as backgrounds for my cards, I lacked direction. In the end, I have:

The Under-achiever: Pretty but ho-hum

The first card incorporates one of the blobs cut into a rectangle and mounted on a scrap of purple paper. The watering can is fussy-cut from an old wall calendar. I’ve saved old calendars in years passed when I couldn’t part with the beautiful images. It’s fun to incorporate them into cards.

The Over-achiever: Not knowing when to quit

This second card got away from me. I inadvertently got mired in “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” mode. While I love the punched background made with a gorgeous crafting die from PinkFresh Studio, I wish I had spent time experimenting before adding details. I stamped the floral image with versa mark ink, embossed it in black, then colored the flowers with markers. Placing yellow circles behind the image helped them stand out. When I stamped the word “hugs” on the image, it looked small and out of scale. I fixed that oops with another die cut of a leaf. Time to quit.


The Surprise: A happy accident with paper and ink

The final card looks yellow in this pic, yet all three backgrounds are the same shade of green. I tried transferring ink to the Spellbinders embossing folder, but the results were mixed. Thinking I had wiped off all the ink, I was surprised to see small amounts of purple ink transfer to the green. You can just make out the leaf image in blob number three.

Happy, scrappy!

Kate, Gun, Eva, Sue, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,
Claire, Jean, Jon, Dawn, Jule, Gwen,
Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, Edith
Nanette, Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,
Debbierose, Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,
Amo and Alissa

29 thoughts on “ScrapHappy: The Under-achiever, the Over-achiever, and the Surprise”

  5. I think all of them are lovely and very spring. I have been out of card making so long I understand very little of what you said but your results are gorgeous. Whenever I pay for cards outside of Dollar Tree I think, “Dagnabit Amy, you gotta get back into card making.” Happy Spring dear Alyson. Congratulations on your lovely efforts and how creative that it all started with a leaf.

    Like

    Reply

    • Hi Amy. You are a wonderful cheerleader. Thank you! I agree that the price of cards has reached a premium. I’m working on creating a surplus this year of both thank you cards and birthday cards, so that I have a stash that I like.

      After years of drooling at the die cut machines on offer, I finally bought one. That opened up the possibility of both dies and embossing folders. I don’t have a steady cutting hand so the dies are wonderful The embossing is my new favorite. Check out some of Jennifer McGuire’s process videos. https://www.jennifermcguireink.com/videos

      I love watching her design and create and find it motivates me to try different things. xo

      Like

      Reply

  8. It’s called art and it’s all beautiful. Each and every one. I knew you would find a way to make the blob gorgeous! You always do. Love everyone you do. I’ve also saved so many calendars of all sizes. But moving made the sacrifice necessary. Still have a few though. I fully understand.

    Like

    Reply

    • Marlene, you are a gem. Thank you for your kind thoughts and words. I’ve had to toss my own calendar surplus over the years, but I’ve had fun turning quite a few into bookmarks, drawer liners, envelopes and the like. I’m not sure why I enjoy repurposing so much. I hope you are doing well. xo

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. I smiled at your phrases of under and over achievers. I really understand! I am making cards to model at a workshop I am running, and the first one is definitely an over-achiever! Still, it will be a good example of what we can learn when things don’t go according to plan. ~hugs~

    Like

    Reply

    • Anne! It’s so nice to see you here. I hope you are doing well. I’ve missed your blog and newsletter, but I also appreciate how much work goes in to both of them. It’s nice to hear about your card making workshop. I hope you’ll share more as time permits. Hugs

      Like

      Reply

  11. The last one is truly lovely and innovative, but I’m pretty sure anyone would be very happy to receive either of the other two as well! It always amazes me how much ‘value’ texture adds to things; your embossing adventures are always the ones that appeal to me most, it seems.

    Like

    Reply

Please join the conversation by leaving a comment, below.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.