Try Something New Tuesday!

My comfort zone is the tried and true method. I'm not really a girl that steps out of "familiar" mode very often. And this is especially true when I stamp. I don't try all the new techniques many of you do. Most of the time, they seem too complicated, just way too much trouble for what it's worth. This is the reason I started Try Something New Tuesdays. It nudges me to get out of my rut and give something new a shot. After yesterday, now I know WHY I stick with tried and true!

Ever since I saw Michelle's (Twisted Chick Creations)tutorial and card on the tie dye technique, I wanted to give it a try. Her card was amazing. This is a girl after my own heart. I look through her daily posts, and each and every thing she creates is amazing. Well, her tie dye card was what suckered me into stepping out and giving it the old college try.

First things first....here is Michelle's tutorial for the tie dye technique. It's relatively simple...you crumple up your wax paper, lay it on top of a piece of glossy cardstock, and then lay another piece of paper over the wax paper. Sounds really simple, right? Right. The next step is probably where I went slightly off course.....you are supposed iron over all three pieces. My problem? How LONG do I iron the piece of wax paper? I NEED SPECIFICS PEOPLE!!! I am anal when it comes to specifics. I cannot figure things out on my OWN!!!! Since I didn't want to burn my paper to smitherines, I more than likely took the iron off prematurely. There really wasn't a ton of wax that got transferred from the wax paper to the glossy paper. Dang. I tried it again. Same thing. Just a little bit of wax was transferred.

Oh well. I let it cool off for a little bit before I tried to ink it up and bring color to the piece. Michelle recommends rubbing the ink into the paper, not merely sponging it on. Here's another area where I went lacking. I tried inking up my sponge and then I applied it to the glossy paper, in circular motion, hard......and I got NOTHING! Nary an ounce of color transferred from my sponge to the glossy paper! What the heck is up with that? What was I doing wrong? I tried the sponge idea again, and got the same result. Next I took out my handy dandy brayer and inked it up with Pink Passion. Finally, color was transferred to the glossy cardstock and went only where the wax was NOT. Seeing as I probably didn't leave the iron on the paper long enough, I didn't get that significant amount of a wax pattern, but there was something there, so that was good!

Here is the first card I made with my tie dyed paper! I used it as a background to these beautiful flowers I made using a new flower punch from Martha Stewart! I have to say, I LOVE THIS PUNCH! I dug into my scrap stash for the designer paper I used for the flowers, leaves and "ground". The flowers are Basic Grey, and the leaves are from Chatter Box. The flower centers are from a piece of scrap paper that I've had for a few years! A bright pink bow and a sentiment stamped on top of a scrap polka dot piece of paper are the last things to go on. All in all, I'm pleasantly surprised with how the card turned out. My tie dye efforts are average at best, but the overall effect works! Let me just say though, Michelle's tutorial is GREAT, it was my execution of it that sucked:)!

Here's the second card I made using the second piece of tie dyed paper. I just wanted to get rid of it at this point, so I made flowers out of it using my Martha punch again. I hadn't used my Basic Grey paper in a long time, so I used that as the jumping off point for the card.

Really, how can you go wrong with Basic Grey paper. Any of it!!! The card is pretty self explanatory, so I won't go into details on how I made it. You gals are bright, you could figure it out if you need to!

I've rambled on long enough for today. I have an eye dr. appt at noon, and I'm afraid they will tell me I need the "b" word glasses (bifocals), and I don't like what that means. It means I'm getting old. And I don't want to get old. I'm much too young to be old. The other thing bothering me this morning is that I was having some dizzy spells last night, and have had a few minor ones this morning. So strange. I can't imagine where they are coming from. I don't feel sick, I don't feel like I have an ear infection, or a sinus infection. I might be dehydrated? I think I might ask the eye dr about it today. Probably won't be able to help, but I'll give it a shot anyways. Say a silent prayer for me today!