Tartan!

I think there was a collective gulp when we heard what Jo's challenge for us over on the Daring Cardmakers was going to be.

It's Jo here this week to set the dare, the design team may have groaned a little when I picked the theme, but I don't think that it is too bad :)

I would like you to use some sort of tartan on your cards, fabric, ribbon, paper, even a piece of an old tartan rug(!)etc.

Oh dear! Tartan is not my favourite pattern, it ranks along with that awful diamond Argyle pattern that just shouts socks and bad gold sweaters! Actually, now ponder on it, maybe tartan isn't quite as bad as Argyle because some tartan patterns and colours are more gentle on the eye than others.

Anyway, the only tartan stuff in the house that I could think of was a picnic rug given as a Christmas present by MIL some years ago, and with a bit of luck some tartan ribbon - I used to buy ribbon bundles from the market when I did more sewing projects and seemed to remember seeing some tartan stuff lurking unloved in the bottom of the messy ribbon drawer (I have a tidy ribbon drawer too!)
In the end, even though I was forced to tidy up that drawer full of fibres and bits of ribbons that get shoved in there all I came up with was a metre or two of the stuff I ended up using and a ready made bow which probably came from a jar of marmalade. I don't actually like marmalade so I guess it came in a gift box some time.

Despite those naughty fellow Teamies of mine shouting "cut the rug" I managed to restrain myself and instead made a double rosette type "flower" with my ribbon. I added a button to the centre and gave it a coat of Stickles.
I ran the card blank through the Cuttlebug using the "Flower Squares" folder and added another length of the ribbon down the side, along with an extra knotted piece.

I quite like the white flowers with the tartan centres - I wish I'd thought of that before I'd made the rest of the card, I'd probably ahve made something different if I had.

I glued a piece of ribbon onto thin card and when it was completely dry used the smallest of the Cuttlebug Scallop Flowers dies - they cut pretty well, I'd tried first with a Spellbinders die but that didn't work at all well.

You can check out (pardon the pun) all the ways the DT have used tartan on their cards by clicking HERE, and we hope you'll feel inspired to rise to the challenge and use some tartan on your own cards this week. There are a couple of places you can download tartan papers for free on the web btw.

A couple of people asked about the "homemade" rub-ons I mentioned earlier this week.
I saw this dry Rub Off Decals paper on the Crafty Computer Paper website when I was buying some of their pc printable Shrink Plastic/paper and thought I'd give it a try for making my own sentiments etc.
I made a Paint Shop Pro sheet of the right size and filled it up with loads of greetings. When you've done that you need to reverse it all - use the "mirror" command to do that, don't forget to save it for future use too.
You get two types of "paper" in the pack, one is a transparent sheet the other is in two parts - a sticky one with a backing sheet on it, so it's easy to tell which to print on.
You need to print it out on the rougher side of the transparent sheet - it's actually quite tricky to work out which is the right side - I found that feeling it with my nail made it more obvious than running a finger over it.
Anyway, print it out and leave it to dry for at least an hour.
The next bit is easier with two people - you need to apply the sticky side of the 2-part paper to the inky side of the print out so an extra pair of hands to help keep things still and lined up is good.
It's a bit like covering something with sticky backed plastic, and in the same way you need to get rid of any tiny bubbles by smoothing carefully. Once the bubbles have gone leave the two bits to "cook" for a few hours - I left mine overnight. After that they are ready to use. I left quite a lot of space around my words on the first one I made, but, as you need to cut them out quite close to the lettering (or pictures, patterns, whatever) you can actually fit loads and loads onto one A4 sheet.
This is the birthday greetings one I made yesterday
Imagine what that lot would cost to buy from a scrapbook place! To use them you just cut out close to the edge of the greeting or picture, peel off the backing and place on your project. You use a lolly stick or whatever in the same way you do on bought rub ons/transfers. I used my Christmas transfers on the cards I made for yesterday's Bubbly Scrumptious.





















I think they've worked out pretty well. I'm going to be adventurous next time and try some coloured ones and maybe some dingbats and what-have-you!

I was going to share the card I've made for hubby's aunt and uncles Ruby Wedding Anniversary, but I've waffled on so long I think I'd better stop right now!

Thanks for popping by, I hope you'll visit again soon