Gallery Idol Top Twenty!

So the competition for Paper Crafts Gallery Idol starts TODAY!  You can see the top twenty and VOTE here. Our first challenge was to create a DIY embellishment.   I thought and thought and thought.  And thought.  Ate some chips.  Then thought and thought and thought.  Pinterested.   Thought.  Played fetch with the dog.  Thought.  Talked to Mr Corgi and of course Mr Corgi was talking about the last shuttle launch (sniff!) and finally it came to me!  I could make a space ship....

Out of a Coke can! I remembered seeing something about coke can flowers somewhere so I did a little google research and it seemed easy enough, since many of the crafts were recommended for elementary-aged children.

HA.  Maybe if you don't like elementary-aged children very much.  I'm not saying it was extraordinary difficult, but it was no walk in the park, either.  So I'm going to fill you in on all the ten mistakes I made so you can make your own metal embellishment with carefree ease.

1) Yes, these cans are sharp!  Especially when you first cut them (cut the two ends off with a utility knife, then you can use scissors to cut down the side and clean up the edges).  I never cut myself, but I'm pretty sure there are metal pieces floating around in me where they weren't any before.  Probably should have taken their suggestion to at least wear gardening gloves, except my gardening gloves are in the trash after a poison sumac encounter.

1A) BONUS MISTAKE!  Poison sumac does not always follow the rule of "leaves of three, let it be." Sometimes it can just look like a leafy vine.  You should probably not do any weeding in order to avoid it.

2) The embossing buddy is your buddy!  Don't forget to use it unless you would like a full embossed rectangle.

3) The can is metal. Metal gets hot when you heat it!  Adhere a strip of paper to the back (longer than your metal piece) to act as a handle.  Do this before you stamp it.

4) Even if you used your buddy, you're not going to get a perfectly clean embossing (or maybe you will and I'm just not lucky).  Use a small dry paintbrush to brush away excess specs. Use a black copic or sharpie after embossing to clean up any lines.

5) Cut it out before you color.  Depending on the size of your stamp, it may still want to curl.  I pulled it over the end of my desk and that helped a bit, then I stamped and cut out another ship from chipboard (aka cardboard from back of paper pad), then used glossy effects to adhere them and then sent them through the Cuttlebug.

6) A little glossy effects goes a long way.

7) Put some paper and blank chipboard (aka cereal box) in the Cuttlebug unless you want your rocket embossed with all the previous cuts on your B plate.

Doesn't this look like something you'd find in Dr Horrible's lair?

8) SHARPIE, not copic.  No, no, no copic.  Unless you're going for a distressed finish.

9) The flames are from ethernet wires that Mr Corgi was using to network the house.  They were different colors, though, so I used stickles to recolor them.  Curl the wires (I wrapped them around the paintbrush from mistake #4 and the sharpie from #8) before you stickle, otherwise the stickle comes off like a snakeskin.


10) Ok, not really mistakes but the rest of the stuff that I did: I accordion-folded a two-inch strip of paper and used that to attach the shuttle.  The letters I cut using the Silhouette from  DCWV metallic paper, and the background paper is October Afternoon Campfire collection.  The space ship is from The Cat's Pajamas.

11) BONUS MISTAKE:  FORGETTING TO VOTE!!  One mistake you DO NOT want to do.  :)  So go there now!

DTGD Day Four: You're Never Too Old for Space Camp!

Does anyone recognize that movie line?  It's from one of our favorite movies, Stranger Than Fiction. I have no idea why we are one of only 17 people that liked this movie^[1]; I think it's one of Will Ferrell's best.  So I got it in my head to make a space shuttle for DH, with The Greeting Farm's Space Ian as the star.  This would have been about 4 bajillion times easier if I'd had any sort of skinny canister around the house, but as it was, I ended up making my own cylinder with an inside layer of black and outside layer of white.  I also made the cone by hand, and the wings, tail (with moving rudder), and engines.  The easy part was coloring Space Ian with copics, adding some metal nailheads to his suit and glossy accents on his helmet.  I stamped another image, cut it out, and poked the wire through the back.  Then I adhered the two images together with scor-tape, sandwiching the wire between.  I also put a paperclip between the two at the bottom, in order to offset the weight of the glossy accents so he'd stand up float in space straight. 

I would have loved to fill it with Milky Ways, but that would involved buying some and that would lead to eating them.  I went with a Cookies and Cream bar, which DH likes and I don't. 

Close up on Space Ian adorableness:

I made another card yesterday before my engineering project, playing with some new paper, tools, and stamps. 

This is mostly Stamping Up! except for the button, thread, large polka dot paper (October Afternoon) and ribbon (PTI Scarlet Jewel).  I stamped and embossed the flower from Growing Green twice, cut out, and layered.  I ran some Cherry Cobbler through the Square Lattice embossing folder and distressed, added the Love Letters patterned paper, ribbon, and twine.  The sentiment is from Tiny Tags, punched with the jewelry tag punch.

Now off to get started on today's challenges!!  Wheeeeee!!!!
 
^[1]Shout out to Angela for being one of 23 people who liked Away We Go--I loved that movie!