When bad cards happen to good people

Or, if your prefer, "Enough with the bed linens already. Isn't there a Coldwater Creek catalog you can look at for inspiration?"

LOL! This one is kind of bad. When I saw this bedding in a photo from a linens 'n things flyer I fell in love with not just the colors, but the look and feel of the whole ensemble. So I set out to duplicate it as best as I could.

If you look closely at the yellow print in the photo, it's a damask, so to mimic that look I stamped the flourish from the Baroque Motifs set in versamark on a so saffron card base and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I also added a Christmas Greeting from the Holidays and Wishes set because these colors reminded me of Christmas. The greeting was stamped in always artichoke craft ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder.

Next I tried to mimic the striped pattern, so I alternated strip of always artichoke, brushed gold and purely pomegranate card stock. I adhered these to the card base and then used the square stamp from Baroque motifs to stamp a pattern in versamark and embossed it with gold embossing powder. This was meant to be reminiscent of the gold stitched pattern on the stripes in the bedding. It might have looked a little better if I had used a stamp-a-ma-jig to line up that top image but, again, I was too lazy to get it out before I started stamping.

Which leads me to the lesson for the day. Make sure that when stamping a non-traditional pattern on a card you have the right tools for the job right from the start. That Stamp-a-ma-jig should have been on my stamping table before I ever opened the versamark pad. Now, as a result of my laziness, the card is not only weird, it's also flawed. I guess in a way this is a good thing, because I won't be tempted to send it to anyone, but still.

Anyway, I promise after this little fiasco I will stay away from bedding for a while. It shouldn't be hard, since I have to design some class projects for November and I don't want any of hem to look like sheets -- LOL! But next month, watch out! I think I already spotted my next inspiration in the Wal-Mart flyer (yes, Diane, you read that right -- Wal-Mart!). I bet you can't wait!