Friday, September 21, 2012

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:

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)

14 comments:

  1. Adorable book mark, love the bunny and the color.....purple right? lol. Thanks for playing with us over at Loves Rubberstamps!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cute bookmark thanks for joining us over at the CBN Challenge this month
    Hugs
    Ang
    Crafty Bloggers Network DT
    My Blog: A Crafty Blether

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lovely bookmark like the tip regarding matching papers ... And of course it's passionate if your creating something you love

    Thanks for playing at Allsorts this week

    Emma xxx

    ReplyDelete
  4. What an adorable bookmark! I got the giggles when I read the tip on your "smudging technique" LOL! That was priceless :) Thanks for joining us at Loves Rubberstamps!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Giggles are definitely what I was aiming for! I mean, it works, but mostly it's funny.

      Delete
  5. A really lovely bookmark, I like the bunny,Thanks for joining in with us at Sketch N Stash, Good Luck.
    Kevin xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great bookmark! The shimmery paper looks fantastic! Thanks for playing at My Craft Spot!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fab Bookmark LOVE purple too! Great to see you at Top Tip Tuesday for our Recycle It! challenge this time, hugs Samantha :0)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the colour. Thank you for joining us at Sketch n Stash.
    Sarah-Jane xx

    ReplyDelete
  9. Another great bookmark - great colours.

    Thanks for joining us again over at Top Tip Tuesday for our 'Recycle it' challenge :)

    Carol x

    ReplyDelete
  10. Such a cute bookmark. Thanks for joining us at Loves Rubberstamps Challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  11. what a cute little bookmark
    Thanks for joining us at Diva's this week for our lovely layers themed challenge
    Lisa x

    ReplyDelete
  12. Great bookmark!! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Delightful Challenges. Hope you will join us again next week as well. joann sassy raggedy

    ReplyDelete
  13. Very cute! LOVE the sparkle! So glad you joined us this week at My Craft Spot!

    housesbuiltofcards@gmail.com
    www.housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete