Gallery Idol Top Twenty!

So the competition for Paper Crafts Gallery Idol starts TODAY!  You can see the top twenty and VOTE here. Our first challenge was to create a DIY embellishment.   I thought and thought and thought.  And thought.  Ate some chips.  Then thought and thought and thought.  Pinterested.   Thought.  Played fetch with the dog.  Thought.  Talked to Mr Corgi and of course Mr Corgi was talking about the last shuttle launch (sniff!) and finally it came to me!  I could make a space ship....

Out of a Coke can! I remembered seeing something about coke can flowers somewhere so I did a little google research and it seemed easy enough, since many of the crafts were recommended for elementary-aged children.

HA.  Maybe if you don't like elementary-aged children very much.  I'm not saying it was extraordinary difficult, but it was no walk in the park, either.  So I'm going to fill you in on all the ten mistakes I made so you can make your own metal embellishment with carefree ease.

1) Yes, these cans are sharp!  Especially when you first cut them (cut the two ends off with a utility knife, then you can use scissors to cut down the side and clean up the edges).  I never cut myself, but I'm pretty sure there are metal pieces floating around in me where they weren't any before.  Probably should have taken their suggestion to at least wear gardening gloves, except my gardening gloves are in the trash after a poison sumac encounter.

1A) BONUS MISTAKE!  Poison sumac does not always follow the rule of "leaves of three, let it be." Sometimes it can just look like a leafy vine.  You should probably not do any weeding in order to avoid it.

2) The embossing buddy is your buddy!  Don't forget to use it unless you would like a full embossed rectangle.

3) The can is metal. Metal gets hot when you heat it!  Adhere a strip of paper to the back (longer than your metal piece) to act as a handle.  Do this before you stamp it.

4) Even if you used your buddy, you're not going to get a perfectly clean embossing (or maybe you will and I'm just not lucky).  Use a small dry paintbrush to brush away excess specs. Use a black copic or sharpie after embossing to clean up any lines.

5) Cut it out before you color.  Depending on the size of your stamp, it may still want to curl.  I pulled it over the end of my desk and that helped a bit, then I stamped and cut out another ship from chipboard (aka cardboard from back of paper pad), then used glossy effects to adhere them and then sent them through the Cuttlebug.

6) A little glossy effects goes a long way.

7) Put some paper and blank chipboard (aka cereal box) in the Cuttlebug unless you want your rocket embossed with all the previous cuts on your B plate.

Doesn't this look like something you'd find in Dr Horrible's lair?

8) SHARPIE, not copic.  No, no, no copic.  Unless you're going for a distressed finish.

9) The flames are from ethernet wires that Mr Corgi was using to network the house.  They were different colors, though, so I used stickles to recolor them.  Curl the wires (I wrapped them around the paintbrush from mistake #4 and the sharpie from #8) before you stickle, otherwise the stickle comes off like a snakeskin.


10) Ok, not really mistakes but the rest of the stuff that I did: I accordion-folded a two-inch strip of paper and used that to attach the shuttle.  The letters I cut using the Silhouette from  DCWV metallic paper, and the background paper is October Afternoon Campfire collection.  The space ship is from The Cat's Pajamas.

11) BONUS MISTAKE:  FORGETTING TO VOTE!!  One mistake you DO NOT want to do.  :)  So go there now!