/* */ Beulah Bee

June 26, 2015

Celebrate!


Finally, a reason to celebrate! What's the occasion? No, it's not a birthday. Instead, it's the fun of using a favorite image from the Occasions Found Relatives photo pack to make this card.

It all started with Simon's Monday blog challenge where this week's theme is stamp and mist.  I'm not a big fan of the spray inks mainly because my workspace just won't accommodate the messiness so I used an eye dropper and made splatters on a black background with diluted white paint instead.

Click to Enlarge
It kind of looked like a party so I grabbed this very appropriate photo. It took a while to fussy-cut but the job was made easier by peeling off the backing so it wasn't as thick. I stamped the border and sentiment and added some dots.

Check out this close-up--the kid was caught making a grab for cake (his expression doesn't fool me).

June 23, 2015

View Finder


I misplaced a very useful, home-made tool today and had to make another one. I thought I'd share the idea as you may find it useful too!

I call it a view finder and in the example above, I've placed it over a paper with a random design to see what might look best and where I should cut it.



It's made from a transparent sheet of plastic (I used a printer transparency but clear plastic packaging would also work).

I drew lines on the plastic in the exact dimensions of my tag with a permanent marker.

But it could be any size.

Maybe you make a lot of 4" x 6" cards or work with a particular size of canvas panel.

Just draw lines for the dimensions you need.

I find having a neutral border really helpful so I place masking tape around the edges next to the lines.

Scrapbook papers with many design areas can make deciding what section to use a bit difficult.

So I just use my handy-dandy view finder and play around with all the possibilities and, when I find the right spot, I know just where to cut.

Besides framing the view, this tool is good for holding small bits in place while you make up your mind where to place them permanently.

I'd love to hear from you if you decide to make one--let me know what you think!

Observations


Do you ever have this nagging feeling that you want to be creative amd make something but you just can't get started, you don't know what to do and you lack direction?

That's been my dilemma lately, it appears my muse has taken a vacation and some say when that happens, the best thing you can do is just show up and begin without her.

So I hoped that making this tag (an exercise in image transfer) would help and I suppose it did.

My paying job was always fraught with pressure and deadlines and some say they work better under these conditions. It's hard to accept but I think this may also be true for me.