MY SCRAMBLE SAGA

This is an unusual - and lengthy -  post for me in the sense that it's not necessarily about sharing a card I've created, but more about the disasters that occurred while I was creating my card. Now that I'm over the frustration over it and can laugh about it, I thought I'd share my "saga" with you. So, here's how it all came down.......

I LOVE participating in the 90-minute Scrambles on the Hero Arts Flickr group. I hadn't been able to participate in any for a long time, so I was REALLY looking forward to this one! I even cleared off my work space in preparation so that I'd be ready to go when the 90 minutes started. Then, when I found out the theme of the scramble, I was UBERLY excited!! The theme was white-on-white, or a combination of any/all of the colors of white, black, grey and/or silver. Immediately, ideas for 2 different cards popped into my head, so I began to create.

I had never used this embossing folder and thought it would be perfect for my first card. So, I pulled it out and ran it through my Cuttlebug where it embossed beautiful. Now, here's where the problems started....

I thought I had butterfly punches that were the same size as the butterflies on the embossed image, but when I went to pull them out, I realized they were too small. So...I thought, "Well, I'll just use my handy-dandy Silhouette Cameo!". So I went "shopping" on their site and downloaded a couple of digital butterfly cuts that I thought would work well.I wanted to cut a couple "filigree" butterflies to apply white glitter to, then apply the glittered piece to a solid cut out butterfly. So, I resized the butterflies to what I thought would work. I had just purchased some Silhouette double-sided adhesive sheets which I thought would be quick and easy for doing what I wanted to do. So, after resizing, ungrouping, grouping, etc., I was ready to cut. I went to turn my Cameo on and it was dead! It appeared to be plugged in, but there was obviously no power to it. So, I had to follow the cord from my Cameo to my computer (I had to add an extension cord because my Cameo sits kind of far from my computer.) Having thought I was being so efficient at clearing my workspace, I had thrown a bunch of stuff, that was previously on my workspace, on the floor around my workspace. Well, following the chord looking for my disconnect meant that I had to MOVE all this stuff to clear my path to see the chord. I did finally find the disconnect spot, reconnected and got my Cameo running.

So, I sent my solid butterfly patterns to cut on white cardstock. That went well. Then, I put in my Silhouette double-sided adhesive sheets and was ready to go. I thought I'd use the cutting time to get ready for my next step. I wasn't paying attention to the machine while it was cutting, until I heard a funny noise. My double-sided adhesive sheet was sliding all over the mat!! So, that cut was a waste. Being as stubborn as I am, I thought, "This thing is NOT going to beat me!" So, I replaced the paper on my cutting mat and held it on with washi tape so it wouldn't slip and cut again. I was thrilled that the paper didn't slip, but after it was all cut and I tried separating the backing off my cuts. I discovered that ALL the adhesive came off with my backing sheet. I tried again on the other butterflies, and the same thing happened to all of them. So, since it was a Scramble, I decided to quickly try another brand of double-sided adhesive sheets. This one did the SAME thing!! So, I went on to a third brand. Once again, I held it on my mat with washi tape, and it cut perfectly! Once again, my excitement rose...until.....

Keep in mind that I had resized the butterflies BEFORE I ungrouped and separated the solid butterfly from the filigree. When I went to adhere my filigree cut to my solid cut, I discovered that the filigree cut was smaller than the solid and there was NO way I could make it work. Again, I was not going to let this get the best of me, so I re-cut the solid butterflies out of my double-sided adhesive and use glittered SOLID butterflies on my card. So, once they were all glittered up, I adhered them to my card base. In my haste, (I only had 90 minutes and still wanted to do a second card), I never checked the size of my solid butterfly cut against the size of the embossed butterflies on my card.) As you can probably guess by now, with the way things had been going, the size of the solid cuts did not match the size of the embossed butterflies!! I knew I was running short on time, so I adhered my disproportionately sized cuts to make them look the best that I could. I added the gems and then decided I wanted to add a sentiment. When I FINALLY decided on a sentiment, I decided to emboss it with holographic embossing powder, thinking that it might look kind of cool. Well.... it didn't!! I only had about 10 minutes left in my 90 minute time limit, so I quickly decided to emboss over the sentiment with silver embossing powder, which ended up looking okay, but not great. 

Once this was done, I knew my time was ticking away fast, and I still had to get a photo, download it to my computer, then upload it to the Flickr website. We were having a beautifully sunny day, so I decided to take the picture of my card outside in the natural sunlight, so I wouldn't have to mess with light adjustments before posting. I head outside, place my card where I want it for the picture and a breeze comes up, blowing my card away!! So I retrieve it, replace it, and try again. Again, a breeze blows it down, but not away. I ended up sliding the back of my card through a gap in fence slats to hold it in place and snapped away.

I did get my card done and uploaded in time, but I was a frazzled wreck!!! I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to make a second card!! Although this was an extremely frustrating situation, I did learn several lessons:

• When clearing off your workspace, don't throw things anywhere where it could cover your Silhouette cord!!
• Don't try anything new during a scramble (like double-sided adhesive sheets)!
• If trying to match a die cut to an embossed cut, make sure you check the sizing is accurate before moving ahead.
• Don't try to take an outside picture of your card on a breezy day!
• Spaces between fence slats can be a great source of stability for outdoor pictures of cards!
• Celebrate your achievement when you've overcome the obstacles!!

Well, after all that, I thought I'd better show you my card, so here it is:

Thanks so much for enduring my saga story!!! I am blessed that you did!! Please come back for a visit any time!!