Rudolph Day - November 2015 - LAST ONE for 2015!

Good afternoon, and welcome to the very last Rudolph Day for 2015! There's lot of flurry to get Christmas cards made - and this is a great challenge to join in to add some incentive to the effort. Plus a couple nice die prizes as well. So get a drink, pull up a chair, this is going to be a chatty post.

Last night, I had a first play with the Minc machine (a foil laminator) that is all over Youtube. After seeing in some videos, that the machine gets very hot, Mr. found a piece of wood for Minc to set upon, and we placed one of the hot oven mats over the wood. When I saw the machine heating up, a bit of smoke appeared (probably burning off the newness), so I was glad we had taken some safety precautions. The smoke did dissipate in a few seconds, but I also stayed right there with it. We have it set up so that once I'm finished with using it, it's unplugged, and I also made very sure nothing touched it after it had been used, and checked a bit later to be sure it no longer felt hot.

(Psst. nearly forgot to add in this pic!)

 

OK...here's the card created, using a background made here. The one used for this effort happened to have been done with glossy cardstock, 3rd small picture if you're checking the link, the sample on the left. As you can see, it's BLUE! Was made with the Tsukineko frost paint, that dried, resisted the blue product puddles when the Smooshing technique was followed. The earlier post describes how this background was created. This card is nothing like what I planned at the start!

A Jennifer McGuire Youtube showed using the Heidi Swap Minc toner ink pen, outlining the edges of a card with an edge of the Toner Pen, then place in the transfer sheet with the foil over it. (hope the video link works...Jennifer made a darling set of cards). Selected the previously created background, used the Toner Pen to draw an edge around the card. Let the Minc heat up (it took longer than I thought it would, but eventually the green light did come on). Gold foil over, into the transfer sheet, and Voila, there it goes. Let it cool, as it is quite warm when it comes out of the machine. Then removed the transfer sheet. Was expecting nice gold edging as Jennifer's card...but THIS is what happened. It looks like a pack of the Mercury Glass paper that I just bought! Very crackled. I'm wondering if it was the combination of the glossy cardstock, with the 'inks' I'd used to smoosh the piece??? It's called lesson learned, but I was pleased with the results, even though it looked nothing like what I had planned. If you look closely, the edges do show the effort!!! This is really a snippet card all the way!

- Peace Dove started the creative process. Had some tissue paper waste (?snippet?yeah) from spraying, and as the table was being (LOL) cleaned, thought the paper was too pretty to waste. Hunted up the MS dove punch, and found some spaces that had colors I liked. Punched 2, made a layer, and the wing lifts from the bottom layer. Decided Dove needed a twig, so more snippets from the crapalanche pile, with an MS twig punch. This stayed on the crapalanche pile for a while.

- a white oval in the same pile, embossed with a Taylored Expressions Lattice Folder, Mr. Dove gets adhered. (remember I said this tissue waste is what started this project!). The white did not look 'right' against the new foiled background, so what to do? A snippet of vellum from a failure - AH..how does that look? S/B Floral oval die cut the vellum, but still needed something. Just didn't look very good against that background. Another snippet of white, another Floral oval behind the vellum layer, I LIKED it! Nearly done.

- A WPlus9 Hand Lettered Holiday die set arrived yesterday, and have been loving this joy die as I've seen it around the blogs. Cut 3 layers from white snippets, Wink of Luna gold colored the top layer, and once it was adhered to the card, used glossy accents for some shine. Also the twig, and design in the Dove has G.Accents too.

Gosh I think I told you all the adventures in making this card. I love the process, but usually the results are not always something I'm happy with. This time it was.

Now for another card, that DIDN'T turn out so happily.

 

- first mistake: stamping, embossing on Coordinations cardstock. For me, it doesn't work. Second mistake, if you're gonna do it, make sure to use detail embossing powder. This was a WOW gold EP, and did not pick up the pretty lettering of the sentiment (from HLS Mixed Christmas set). This one nearly got the front removed, with an idea of using the back side for something. Mr. spotted the card when he was helping move some furniture around in the room, and commented on it, as in "Why don't you fix it?". So added the dimensional holly trim, and then remembered a Memory Box stitched holly die set. Snippets of white, colored with copics. That's the fix, and not sure if this still won't get in the trash, BUT if I get in a pinch...Mr's comment? "Send it".

 

So I hope all these links work, in case you want to see the products, the videos. Now: I'm off to link up to Rudy Day (again,... last one for 2015!) and also see if Parsnip** (at the Snippets Playground)  wants to hear the tale of Two Cards. If he's interested enough, maybe he'll let me come in and play for Week 204..I've been MIA at the Playground for a while. Gotta see what those Elves are up to..

**Edit: an Ooopsie...I didn't check that the Playground has Closed! Boo Hoo. I won't get to tell Parsnip about this card! Sorry folks! But Rudy Day is still open until the end of the month!

***Edit #2: My sweet little Parsnip sent me an email to let me know the Playground has opened again, so since I really been missin' him, I'm gonna go over & give  him a BIG HUG! Won't you come along? Parsnip likes Hugs. He is a good hugger himself too! Oh yeah, it's now Week 205!

Hope I didn't put you to sleep, and that perhaps you got a chuckle! It's a fun process, and it keeps me off the streets, outta the bars, as they say. LOL!

Thanks for joining me, and Happy Saturday. Hugs

PS...our local PBS channel is airing Seven Grumpy Seasons & Series 7, Ep 1 -  of Doc Martin tonight. Bet you know where I'll be..got the DVR set up to record too! Also I think it's Mr. Clunes' birthday today, according to a Facebook group I browse. Bye!