More Cuttlebug 'fun'

It's been a long time since my last post, and I apologize. I was busy doing all the necessary things a person dreads to do, but has to, when a loved one passes away....Being the oldest (cough, cough) daughter, I was the one that was left doing all the necessary paperwork, (actually, my brother lives out of town) contacting the 'appropriate' government agencies, etc...Can you believe this....Oh, I'm sure you can....I sat on the phone one day with various government agencies, informing them of Mom's death.... for 4 1/2 hours, and only talked to 2 human beings for a total of 5 minutes! lol... and of course, I'm a sucker for punishment....one agency had me on hold for 20 minutes (I kid you not), then a recording came on and informed me that 'the wait was too long that the 'system' was cutting me off.'..and the phone went dead. I was shocked! and thought....gee, no one would do that....I must have missed them telling me to press a number on the telephone....Get this, I phoned them back! Can you believe that??!!! I waited for another 20 minutes, got the recording again, ....and there was no 'button to push'.....they just cut me off again!
If it wasn't so funny (I couldn't believe that I was such an idiot and telephoned them back), I'd have been angry.....I must have been tired, as I just sat down at the table and laughed....What idiot phones back a number that cuts them off?! (We won't answer that one, lol)

Now for the good news!! Our daughter and her husband who live in Regina, Sask. had a gorgeous baby girl (this makes 2 girls and one boy)...A Girl.....Isn't that great! Boys are great, and Grandsons are wonderful, but they look rather funny in bows and ruffles! Their Fathers don't seem to like it when you try to dress their sons in lace and put ribbons in their hair!....
Our daughter emailed me and told me she'd like to do her cards in Brown and Pink....(the popular colors that they are...) Can you imagine 5 years ago if someone would have chosen that color combination for a Baby Announcement?!
She'd seen a baby card done with Provo Craft's Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls Embossing folder and loved it. She emailed me a picture of the card, and asked if I had any suggestions....well, you know stampers....give us a reason to play, ... you can't hold us back! I had some brown cardstock in the shop that I thought would look great with the 'swirls' embossing. One had a delicate filigree background on it, the other had a very light 'holly leaf' print on it. Perfect!....then I ran it through the Cuttlebug...I quit smiling!...The cardstock had cracked around the embossed areas, revealing the white core of the cardstock. What a mess! As you can see, it was awful!
It was after midnight and I was tired I tried the other brown cardstock that I had (holly leaf) and it did the same thing! ...I'd never had that happen before, but of course, it will happen when you're tired! I had a brain wave! I thought I'd just run Tsukineko's Versamagic Jumbo Java ink pad over. It's a chalk ink, with a great suede finish...I didn't think it would be that noticeable on the cardstock. It worked, but then I found that a lot of the white that was showing was also in the 'valleys', or low parts of the embossed design.
Hmmmm...I got a Q-tip applicator and using it, I colored the white areas. After an hour, I thought I was finished 'coloring' the 4 pieces of cardstock that I had done. I went to bed, and in the morning, I looked at them again, and realized I must have been tired, either that or I need new glasses....there were a lot of white areas still showing. In fact it looked as if I hadn't done anything at all! I had told our daughter that I'd send her enough 'Cuttlebug backgrounds' to do all her cards the next day! Yikes! At this rate, I'd be coloring for the rest of my life!...Then it came to me...If I padded the Cardstock front...Maybe it wouldn't crack so badly...So I tried at first with a piece of printer paper....Nope, still too many cracks!...then I tried printer paper on both sides...nope that didn't work!...I tried two layers of printer paper on the top....Nope! Then, I got it right! Cardstock!! Plain old 110# cardstock..I laid the cardstock (110#) on top of the brown cardstock and ran it through the Cuttlebug! It worked! Needless to say I was a happy Camper! I think that from now on I'll be checking to see if the cardstock has a white core, and if it does, I'll be using a piece of cardstock as a shim (cushion) to prevent any cracking. I took a Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid ink pad (which looks more pink than lavender) and ran across the embossed cardstock, highlighting the raised design to give a softer look to the brown. Then, I tried taking the ink pad and pressing harder, so some of the lower background area was covered. I liked it both ways. She's going to stamp her images of a baby's hand and footprint on a piece of white cardstock in pink and place it on the front. Now, just a little pink ribbon, or Prima Flower, and she's done!!... the only problem...sigh, our Daughter and her family are in Regina, Saskatchewan, and we're in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
If you are looking for cardstock, or ProvoCraft combos' (Cut and Emboss) Dies or Embossing folders, we still have a few left in stock! They sell quickly, and the Distributor's are constantly selling out, and so they are hard to get! You can visit our Photobucket site http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/integritydesigns/
to check out what is still left in stock. This is our temporary (had it for 4 years, lol) online catalog that we've been using while building our website.
Ordering information is on the main page of the site.
Or you may email me.
Thanks for visiting!