Friday, October 16, 2009

All Clear

Daring Cardmakers day today and it's Lythan's turn to set the challenge.
Lythan loves acetate and does wonderful things with it - not sure how much the rest of us like the stuff though and there were definite mumbles of panic and stress during the days leading up to today's launch.

This week's dare is
I can see clearly now
and I would love to see something clear on your card. It could be an acetate card, an acetate embellishment, a window cut in the card, clingfilm, OHP sheet, Mirror fragments - anything that shows that your card is clearly one of the best!

I have a love/hate relationship with acetate - I love what other people do with it, and I hate it that I can't get to grips with it!
Consequently I spent the whole week trying to think up an idea. Even when I sat down at my desk yesterday morning (Last Minute Minnie strikes again) with a sheet of acetate in front of me I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I wondered about putting a quotation on the acetate and framing it, but I've been using frames quite a bit recently so that would be boring. - plus I'm not sure about printing onto acetate.
I didn't want to make a Christmas card either, but in the end that's what I did.

I found this piece of turquoise snow mesh stuff when was looking for something else and thought it would look pretty on a clear background. Fixing it on was probably the worst bit - in the end I punched holes and tied it on with ribbon bows.
The snowflakes are mainly cut with the "Snowflakes 1" set from Spellbinders - the smaller plain turquoise one is cut with a Martha Stewart punch.
I've used plain card, glitter card and fancy sliver paper for the snowflakes

Inside there's a card panel for the message, which if I'm careful will be concealed by the quotation and snowflake on the front! I used the spare die cuts to decorate the inside, but I think it could use a few more.

Photographing acetate is a mare - even in the little photo-studio thing I use. The first efforts with a white background were a bit wishy-washy to say the least, so last night I had another go, this time with the blue background and whilst not brilliant, the card does show up a bit better I think
This dare marks a little bit of DCM history - it means we've completed a whole three years of Daring - how the time has flown! If you want to see how we've changed (hopefully we've got better...) head over to the Daring Cardmakers BLOG and check out the Blog Archive to see how it all started.
We're looking forward now to another year's worth of inspiring challenges, we hope all our fellow darers will be too.

15 comments:

Scrappy~Sarah said...

That is gorgeous. Worth the effort :)

Karen said...

This is so pretty Kathy!!! I never know what to do with it either haha XXX

Lythan said...

I think this card is so, so beautiful Kathy!

Lisa Hemmings said...

Kathy, I love your acetate card.
You should have more cinfidence in yourself! it's beautiful
xxx

Anonymous said...

well I think you did a beautiful job...have to agree with Lisa...you really should have more confidence!!

Terry @ Krazy's Place said...

It's beautiful! A great idea for the challenge. I'm stumped at the moment.

Lynda said...

It's fabulous Kathy - love the mesh it makes it look all frosty. Can't believe how well you've photographed it too. Brilliant!

Love Lynda xxx

Hazel said...

What a clever idea to use the snow mesh on the acetate - I've got some of that somewhere - would you mind if I copied the idea? The card is clearly fab!! x

Janice said...

I love your card, I think acetate suits you lol! Congrats on 3 years of DCM. It's nice to be a part of it on the 3rd anniversary.

Angelnorth said...

Love that pretty mesh on the clear base, fab C-word card!

Zoechaos said...

Beautiful eyecatching card love the mesh.

Traceyr said...

Wonderful Kathy - glad you overcame your fear of acetate - I have yet to use any myself. :)

Mel X said...

What great use of the mesh. Brilliant idea to combine with acetate. You are sooo creative!.

Mel X

having a {me} day said...

This is fabulous! The mesh works really well with the acetate, great idea! kxx

Leo said...

Just seen this on DCM it's beautiful!!