Friday, November 21, 2014

Cards (and opinions) from a shop hop

Last week I went on a three store shop hop of scrapbooking stores. I knew one store would have good projects and was hopeful for the other two but they left much to be desired, for my taste at least. The fee for this hop was $12. Each shop hopper would have 9 cards or projects at the end of this. 

The first store had very limited work space. I wouldn't hold that against them except each person needed to get up at least three time to go to another area to heat set ink on glossy paper and to emboss gold powder. My strong objection came when I was almost done with the card done on glossy paper. After stamping and heat setting the cabin image, ink from a stamp pad was smeared onto the sky and water. This image is very pale, not by design but because the ink pads weren't very juicy. The upper image of pine needles was added after coloring, heat set and then we were to turn the image over, apply a tape runner and mount this onto black card stock, then onto a card. 
See the smudges along the left side and the big one in the sky over the cabin? Also the yellow cast in the center? That is all from the dirty surface we worked on. When the woman next to me and I both encountered this, we were told to look at this as a design challenge. I don't think so. I would accept that if we had done something incorrectly, but not because their work area wasn't clean. They could have and should have offered us fresh paper to start this again. 

The other two projects from this store are below. The trees are done as directed. I finished the dove card at home, using a Peace stamp and Wow glitter embossing powder. The blue area is a sheet of blue paper under a piece of called Vertigo by Tsukineko.
 
The second store had a small work area too, but once seated we were fine. I was disappointed in the supplies they provided for their projects. One project was a box card design. The second card in this post is an example of box cards that I have made. The paper they used was very flimsy and unattractive. So much so, I didn't even take a photograph of it, nor did I salvage any of the embellishments.  The second card wasn't much better. It came home unassembled, but this is the layout.
Are you wondering what those circles are supposed to be? They are supposed to be ornaments.  The third project wasn't a Christmas card (even though this was a holiday hop), but your choice of card kits that had been for sale. I won't say anything else, other than I didn't purchase anything at this store either.

The third store got it right. Their projects were much more creative and supplies were of good quality. First is a card that will hold a gift card or cash. The color is off a bit, the nose and bow are actually red, not pink.
When you open/tilt the reindeer's head, there is a piece of card stock that slides up which is where the cash or gift card would go. 
I think this next card is the cutest thing ever! I don't have the front finished yet (print paper cut to fit over the white card) because I haven't decided which paper to use.  I call this a magic card and my grandson is going to love it because he says "magic, magic, make {fill in the blank} appear" and this will absolutely work with that command.

I'll write about how to create this at a later date, but for now, here is the magic card. The snowman goes from uncolored, to colored!
  
The third project from this store wasn't a card, but greetings could be added to make this a gift presentation and card all in one. This is what I made in the store, complete with hot chocolate mix and a candy cane from them. 
This is very simple. A 12" sheet of double sided paper is all you need. No tape, no glue, no scissors. 
 
 First fold your square into a triangle.
 Bring one lower corner up to meet the opposite side
Then repeat with the other corner. I apologize for the photo, I was interrupted and started over, changing the sequence (you should have seen right over left here) but this is so simple, it shouldn't be confusing to follow. 
Fold one upper triangle down and you are done!

If you make this from a 8" square, you have a size that will hold a gift card. 

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