My new toy

This is what came in the mail on Friday...

My first embossing templates arrived today... and I played with one this afternoon to see what it could do.

My first card. Simple embossed strips. The black and purple are punched but not embossed. Butterfly was a RAK. It would work out better if the card front was assembled and THEN embossed so that the pattern is continuous, but this looked okay with the other stuff on top of it.

I embossed a cardstock shield, then flipped the embossing over and inked up the reverse. I think I like it better this way than with the lines coloured! It needed a see-through sentiment that wouldn't distract from the embossing, so I used clear lettering stickers.

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Embossed directly on a card base with a coloured outside and white inside, then sanded. I had to trim the edges down to neaten it, but the sanding hides the face that the embossing doesn't quite go all the way to the inside edge.

I made some cards this week

My shoulder is finally better for real and I've been able to start making cards again. I designed a simple MOM card for the kids to make at the library and I spread the lettering out on the sheet so that I could use the negative space for myself. I've got another 18 in various colours still waiting to be used! If you're wondering about the butterfly, it's a lovely metallic sticker. I finangled some scrap cardstock into little hinges for the wings, and then I rubbed cornstarch on the back so that the sticker wouldn't stick to the card in the mailing box. The other cards are playing with simple punched shapes and scrap cardstock.

365 cards again

My shoulder's better now, so I was going to do a catch-up and get all last week's cards done in one go, but they've changed Mr Linky and they're only keeping posts open for a week instead of a month like they used to. I guess I'll just start from Sunday and skip last week altogether, but my perfectionist streak is shouting at me about incompleteness. :( Cards coming today!

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On the other hand, not. I thought I was up to cardmaking but I got one done and I was trying to do a second and my shoulder started screeching at me, and the card didn't even work out! This is soooo frustrating!

So much for trying to do 365 cards!

Last year I was just getting started when I had to stop because I'd messed up my wrist/thumb and I had to take three months off crafting entirely so it could heal. This year I was going great... and last Saturday night I rolled over in bed and trashed my shoulder. So I can't make cards because I can't manage all the lifting and reaching it requires. I took this week off and it's halfway healed. I really hope that another week will be enough to fix it entirely, or I'll have to give up AGAIN!