Bookmarks XXVI: Imperial Rabbit

Imperial purple, a.k.a. Tyrian red, is actually much more red than any of the purples I've used. In this case, a snappy name won out over historical accuracy.

There's a lot of rambling today, so if you like you can click here and skip straight to the final project picture and the challenge listings.

Or maybe the bunny actually is an empress or emperor. I don't know much about the governmental system of rubber stamps.

I've really been abusing my shoulder lately -- too much time using a mouse without good posture and too much time cutting around stamped images. So today I had two resolutions: sit up straight at the computer, and don't make any cuts that aren't long straight lines. This week's sketch from Sketch N Stash seemed perfect: lots of visual interest, probably adaptable to bookmark form, and all rectangles.

Of course, using the sketch is only half the challenge at Sketch N Stash. You also have to use some new or neglected stash items. Fortunately, that played into a couple of other challenges.

Color-wise, I chose to use purple. First, I have several colors of plain purple cardstock that I've not used at all since I bought the pack they're in. Second, purple meets two challenges: Allsorts's "Purple Passion" and The Crafty Bloggers Network's "Purple".

This also means you have to look at another one of my color tests, because a)I still haven't made a reference sheet and b)these mice from October Afternoon are great stuff and deserve to be seen.

You can see I was testing on the index card I used to record the information about the challenge at The Crafty Bloggers Network. And doesn't that rabbit stamp off beautifully? I inked it once for the actual image I used on the project and stamped it off repeatedly on this index card. I love how even the image is, no matter how light it gets! Is this maybe because it is such a solid stamp, and not a line-drawing type image?

The other challenge I had in mind for using neglected stash was My Craft Spot's challenge to use a wild animal. You have no idea how many unused animal stamps I have, and quite a few of them aren't even cats.

I just really like cats, okay? I should do some kind of use-all-the-cat-stamps collage, except I'm afraid then I would learn how many cat stamps I actually have, and then I wouldn't ever be able to get any more. I'm sure most of us have some growing collection like this -- if you don't, please don't tell me so, as I like this illusion.

Anyway, my first thought was to use the absolutely charming raccoon from October Afternoon's Woodland Park stamps. That raccoon was what tipped me over the line between "okay, that goes on my wishlist" and "take my money" for that set, and I still haven't actually used it. But when looking back at the design team samples for My Craft Spot, I realized that GiGi of The Cricut Bug had submitted... a purple card featuring a raccoon. (It's cute, go check it out.) Not the same raccoon, but still.

Needless to say, rather than submit something so very similar but not actually inspired by someone else's work, I decided the raccoon would have to wait for another project. Great minds think alike, I guess?

It's not like there aren't plenty of other wonderful stamps in that set that I also haven't used yet. I chose the larger rabbit. (I had already used the smaller one on one of the Popsicles in the Park bookmarks.) In retrospect, the rabbit is a better choice than the raccoon anyway, both for the sketch and for the bookmark form: the rabbit is taller than it is wide, whereas the raccoon is exactly the opposite.

I also grabbed the purple cardstock I mentioned. Now, these two purples are lovely and bright, but the third purple I wanted to use is very greyish purple -- despite coming from a pack marked "Brights". Then I went and sprayed it with pewter (previously unused!) and silver Shimmer Spritz, which didn't exactly make it a brighter purple, just more sparkly. I'm not sure what I was thinking there.

Edging all the pieces of cardstock saved me. The white cardstock, for example, looked horrible before I edged it in pewter. Then I matted it too, which didn't hurt.

Tip: Papers that just won't go together no matter how much you wish they did? Try edging one in a color that goes with the other. (Or edge both!) The amount of color in the edging won't be enough to go badly with the paper it's on, but it will be enough to make the transition between the two papers work.

So with everything edged and heat-set -- I only really own pigment ink, but decided to take a bit of a break from the embossing powder after yesterday's rather messy effort -- I began construction. At which point I accidentally got a shimmery fingerprint and a smear of glue on my nice pristine white focal point. True, it wouldn't have been that hard to re-stamp, but I wanted to be done! So I went with it.

Tip: Oh no, your clean surface got smudged! I'm sure you meant to go for the distressed look all along, though, right? So rub your fingers around in whatever caused the smudge in the first place and go to town! One smudge is clumsy. Lots of smudging is technique.

C'mon, you know your project needs some shimmery fingerprints too.

I did have some trouble with the criss-cross elements in the sketch; nothing I tried seemed to work, so I left them out. Of course, now I remember that I actually own many many colors of embroidery floss, which might have looked nice. Oh well.

I'm entering this bookmark into the following challenges:

• Sketch and Stash Challenge 96 (sketch & used a whole bunch of neglected stash: both stamps, the bright purple papers, the pewter Shimmer Spray, and the violet ink)
• Allsorts Week 172: Purple Passion (I don't know that it's passionate, but it's definitely purple!)
• The Crafty Bloggers Network Challenge #3: Purple
• My Craft Spot Monday Challenge #69: Wild About You (that's totally a wild rabbit, not a pet)
• Loves Rubberstamps Challenge 18: Make Your Own Background (I made three - one with spritzing, one with stamping, and one by rubbing a piece of paper around in the mess that was left over by the first two... Loves Rubberstamps doesn't seem to carry October Afternoon stamps, though.)
• Divas by Design: Lovely Layers (4 not including the base)
• Delightful Challenges: Distressed (smudged up the white paper)
• Top Tip Tuesday Challenge 85: Recycle It! (tips + used black scrap paper wiped in leftover mist & ink on craft surface to mat the rabbit)

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

Supplies: (white 110lb. cardstock is from Staples, but the widget doesn't like the picture Staples has)