Metal Fatigue

It's Friday again, and you know what that means, don't you?

"Okay Everyone, it's time to move on to another Dare and now it's Saffa's turn...

This week's dare is entitled:

HEAVY METAL

..no I don't mean rock music! I would like you to make a card on any theme you like with the rule that it must include something metalic...thats all! You could use wire, charms, foil or even metallic pens."

This is my card. I really wanted to double-dare myself into doing something new, so on the way to this one I had a dabble with those alcohol inks that have sat on the shelf, still sealed in their packet for well over a year - more of that later, suffice to say this card does not use the stuff I made with the inks!

I fell back on an old favourite, but not one I use very often as it's fiddly and time-consuming. I only make short words with wire as I tend to get tied up in tangly, knotted wire after a while, so here you are, the word "Love" is hand made from a length of wire, some of the beads are threaded onto the wire and the others are threaded onto the metallic thread I use to sew the word onto the card. I added a double bow of red organza ribbon, two different tiny silver heart charms dangle on silver thread, and some tiny little silver brads. Then the black card was mounted first onto silver card then onto white before fixing to the gorgeous dark red "Stardream" card from pda - the photo doesn't really show how fab this card is - it's a lovely heavy card with a pearlescent finish on both sides.

At the bottom of the card I cut some slits to weave silver metallic ribbon through and added a metal heart shaped button tied with more of the red ribbon.

Please visit the DCM blog where you'll find all the cards for this dare and all the others we've done. If you're inspir4ed to join in the info on how to show your own cards is there too. You'll also find links to the personal blog of each member of the Design Team, with more info about all the cards and other crafty stuff we indulge in!

I thought I'd add a photo of the things I made using my alcohol inks. I'm quite pleased really - they weren't bad for a first attempt with the stuff. I love the paper and even the metal squares and flowers look pretty good - I went on and UTEEd some of these pieces and added a few extra bits and bobs in the hope that I'd have a brilliant (even mediocre would have been OK after hours of playing with them) idea for using them on a card. If you check out Lythan's blog you'll see that she made a beautiful flower with some of the alcohol ink background paper she's made - now why didn't I think of that? :-(

Anyway, despite playing around with them for DAYS, and almost pulling my hair out at the lack of inspiration I just couldn't work out how to use it all on a card - so I gave up, had a bit of a scream, banged my head against the wall a few times, made a cup of coffee then came back and made the wire word card instead.

Ah well, maybe if I look the bits of metal long enough some little whisper of an idea will work it's way through the haze. Fingers crossed, eh?