Bookmarks XVIII: For Telling Tales

I have got to get some detail embossing powder.

Click here to skip the rambling and jump straight to the project and challenge listing.

Sorting through my stamps in search of some inspiration for a group of black & white challenges, I settled on the ravens from an Inkadinkado mini-set. For a moment or two I couldn't decide which one to use, and then I realized, hey, here's an awesome inspiration for a pair of bookmarks! It's probably only been a week since I made a pair instead of a single bookmark, but it feels much longer.

With a pair, I can make one white bookmark with black accents, and one black bookmark with white accents. I also thought this was an excellent set to give another shot at the clean and simple style, which seems particularly appropriate for black and white.

Did I mention at least one of those black & white challenges was black & white & something else? I kept the amount of color small; I hope the crew at That Craft Place will forgive me -- theirs was a pure black & white challenge. I'll certainly understand if they'd rather disqualify me, though; no hard feelings, there's no question I've stretched the challenge a bit. (Just a bit, though: please don't be confused by the pink background in the picture, which is not part of the bookmarks. Maybe I should not have used that background.)

I'd like to point out that I cut the strips of pink, black, and white by hand. The craft knife, ruler, and I were in harmony tonight.

I'm so much happier with this attempt at clean & simple than the last one. Yay!

The name for this pair of bookmarks is a little out there: it's from a poem, Ode to a Corbie. I've reproduced the first two stanzas here:

My hero is the raven,
The raven and the jay,
The magpie and the jackdaw and the crow:
Trickster-god or world's creator,
Ravn, koras, corvus, corbie,
Stealing sun to light the world below.

Post-flood, the first to fly
(The dove gets all the credit),
For telling tales, Apollo turned you black:
Unhappy bird! or lucky bird —
Too smart, with human qualities,
And speech, one of the few birds with the knack.

(Ode to a Corbie, Bess L. Walker)

Unfortunately naming is a step that usually comes between making and blogging. So my bookmarks look more like a black raven has turned into a white one! If I'd thought of the name first, the colors would have gone the other way: first the white bookmark, with the flying raven in white, then the black bookmark. Oh well, I still really like them. I suppose if it bothers me that much, it would not be at all hard to make another pair!

I'm entering this pair of bookmarks in the following challenges:

• The Ribbon Reel Challenge #36: Black, White, & Pop of Pink
• That Craft Place Challenge: Black and White
• CAS-ual Fridays Challenge 69: Embossing (the ravens are heat embossed)
• Craft Your Passion Challenge 127: Blast From the Past (This fits #125 Emboss It, #120 Black & White + One, and, though I didn't realize until just now, #116 Things with Wings.)
• Simon Says Stamp and Show: Hero (first line of poem)

I'm also linking it up to DL.ART's 1000-post Linky Party.

Supplies: (The white cardstock is 110lb. from Staples, and the ravens are from a mini-clear set by Inkadinkado, but I can't find good references to get them into the widget.)