TIME FOR A GOOD OLD LAUGH

Hi Everyone

I have taken a photograph of one of my "lovely" makes from my Stampalot workshop .. .. .. along with my reject of the weekend.

You know - that blasted brayered card that I am so ashamed of. I decided that you can't just share the good in this life .. .. you have to share the bad too. (Plus we could all do with a good laugh on a Monday couldn't we).

The first creation was made using a huge cutting template that fits into the Big Shot Pro machine. The die itself is about the size of one of the shelves from my oven!!!!

Once taken through the Big Shot Pro the die produces all three pages for this little booklet - including the little holes down the spine and the circular tabs.

We started off with plain cream backing card and clear embossed onto this. Then we used whatever distress inks we liked the look of and distressed the paper and stamped inked images alongside the embossed ones.

This was done on all three front sheets and these were stuck onto cardboard that had also been run through the Big Shot Pro too. On the reverse of each page I stuck backing paper - otherwise I would have been there all day just distressing all the pages.

My front page carries a lovely Penny Black sentiment that I might have to invest in one day.

The second page I though would be nice with a special photograph on it.

The third page is for me to write a special message - if I can ever bear to part with it.

My backing paper had a flower as part of the design so I ripped this out of the paper and distressed the edges along with the strip along the bottom and I stuck them on the back.

All the pages were then tied together with ribbon. It was really strange how all of us had exactly the same materials to work with and yet they all looked so different by the end due to different colour choices, stamp choices etc.

I am sorry but I do not have all the image makes and numbers etc.

Now this is something I was actually pleased with at the end of the day and doubt that I will ever part with. I had never done this resist embossing technique before but will definitely be doing it again.

But now to the thing I wasn't so pleased with - and something I am unlikely to try to do ever again. Just how hilarious is this .................................

LOL!!! Don't bother looking for the heart .. .. .. .. it didn't deserve one.

This was my second attempt at brayering the background - the first one went in the bin almost immediately as it had lines and repeat moons and all kinds of things wrong with it. Apparently I was too heavy handed. The technique is nothing like rollering emulsion on my walls!!

I did a bit of ink work to try and produce "mountains" and attempted to make the moon look a bit mystical but once the background was as good as it was likely to get I stamped onto the background with clearly the wrong images.

The first one was OK .. .. the one at the top .. .. but then the bottom ones went all wrong and I tried to hide my mistakes with another stamping session .. .. what a mistake. LOL!!

I then resorted to using a bit of ribbon to hide some of it.

Hardly any improvement at all .. .. and this is where I just gave up. I didn't even stick it to the backing card - I have just ledged it on top to take the photograph this morning.

Sorry I failed you Brenda .. .. I did try. Thank you for your patience in trying to teach me.

Well have you stopped laughing yet??? How horrendous is that?

Although I can just imagine showing it to my Mum and she would say "Well, a blind man would be glad to see it" - which is true!

I still have one beautiful creation to share - which isn't 100% finished yet and another one that is only 50% finished. I will hopefully get these completed and share these with you later this week.

Have a happy Monday everyone and from now on I will admire and appreciate much more any cards I see that feature the use of a brayer.

Thanks for calling by for a laugh. I hope I have cheered up your day.

Love Jules xx