More ric-rac cards and a weak attempt at purging

Well, things have all settled down around here and I've been itching to put up some projects! Only thing is, Blogger has really been giving me fits these last few days - I've been trying to post this since Sunday! Grrr. But it's a free service, so what can I say? ;) Well, let's get to it... before Blogger changes its fickle mind and decides not to let me post after all. LOL ;)

Remember this card/post about all the great ric-rac a sweet friend of mine had kindly RAKed to me? Well, here are a couple of cards I made with the other two generous pieces she sent. I ended up sending her that (really, REALLY) green thank you card that I posted, along with a couple more "Thank You" cards which I intentionally left blank... so she could use them for herself. :) Like the green card, I wanted to use the ric-rac in an original manner. I didn't want to use it like you would ribbon by tying it or knoting it on anything. For the green card, I used it for a color blocking-type effect. Here, I used it to make a frame:

• Stamps: None! *gasp*
• Inks: None! *gasp gasp*
• Misc: :Diecuts With A View white core card stock, All Night Media dry embossing template, Wordsworth "Thank You" rub-on, Fiskars corkscrew decorative scissors, sanding block, pop dots, and of course... the adorable floral ric-rac, from my lovely gal pal, Tami. (Heehee! Muchas gracias, girl!)

Can you believe not a drop of ink ANYWHERE on this card?! ;) The flowers were dry embossed and lightly sanded to reveal the white core, placed on pop dots, matted, and the ric rac added as a frame to the flowers. I cut a half inch off (or so) of the notecard with the decorative scissors which were meant to mimic the wave pattern of the ric-rac. I adhered a coordinating strip of cardstock underneath and added a matching rub-on sentiment.



On this card, I used the ric-rac again in a color blocking-type fashion:

• Stamps: Flowers and swirls - Stampin' Up! ('Sweet Spot', 'Itty Bitty Backgrounds', 'Little Pieces' and 'Simply Said' sets). Sentiment - Technique Tuesday ('Simple Sentiment' set).
• Inks: Vivid (Fuschia) andMarvy Uchida Le Plume markers (Blush Pink and Orange).
• Misc: Prima flowers, Karen foster brads, and agian, that great ric-rac. :)

I made quite a boo-boo on this card (OOPS!), and I panicked for a bit because it was on the cardfront, and I had already cut/adhered the ric-rac to the card and it couldn't be removed to start over! But I wasn't about to waste that precious little piece of ric-rac goodness, so I just grabbed a couple Primas and *POOF*! Crisis averted. ;)

I must admit... using the ric-rac (as a card element) proved to be quite a bit more challenging that I orginally thought! With all the colors and images on the ric-rac, it was difficult to incorporate it on the card and match it with the other elements, without the final design looking too busy. Add to that my own personal challenge of not using the ric-rac in a traditional manner and I was about thrown for a loop! BUT, it felt good... it got me to really think out of the box and stretch my creativity a bit. I almost always go into a project with some definite design plan in mind. I didn't have that here... I had to completely revolve my design around a product, which I almost never do! And given the adorable complexity of the ric-rac, that made this all a biiiit trickier. But FUN! :) I still have plenty left, and I'm intrigued to see what else I can make with it. ;)

I haven't been doing much creating lately. A feeble attempt at it yesterday, only to have things go wrong left and right, so I gave up. I've been so busy reorganizing all my stuff this past week instead and that's left me pretty wiped out when it comes time to sit down and actually DO something with all that clean, wide open space. LOL I've gone with a new, vertical storage system for my paper. My old Cropper Hopper Workstation was just getting too clumsy to be out in the dining room like that. Rolling it under the table while not in use just wasn't "out of the way" enough, if ya KWIM. Not to mention, I couldn't even get all of my new SU card stock in there - it was just TOO FULL! LOL Also got some new Iris carts for stamp and miscellaneous storage. I wasn't too happy with the fact that Iris discontinued my favorite storage chest EVER (the 5-drawer mega chest), but I think the ones I did end up going with will work out OK. I'm not quite done yet getting everything in its new place, but when I am, I'm hoping it will be much more streamlined, efficient and less obtrusive. After all, it IS a dining room... six people need to be able to sit there and eat, ya know! LOL ;)

I tried to purge a few things to help speed the process along, but about all I purged were a few pieces of neon green and flourescent orange card stock. And I have NO idea where they came from, either! LOL But the kids sure loved 'em! ;) Anyway, I don't know what I was thinking... trying to get rid of a few things. I'm such a hoarder with my stuff that you'll probably have to pry it from my cold, dead hands in order to get it away from me! What was I thinking...? "Purging"?! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ;)

Sheesh, I ramble WAY too much. LOL Hope you have a great week!