Cling Wrap Thanks

I have to say that I’m glad to say good-bye to 2024. I personally had some challenges in the year, not the least was a serious car accident back in February. And 2024 didn’t disappoint at the end either – yesterday afternoon (New Year’s Eve) I was hearing a funky sound from our heat system and I went into the basement to discover a puddle around the boiler. Thankfully, 2024 also reminded me of many blessings. I have an amazing husband who came home from work early yesterday and quickly figured out what was happening with the boiler. We have heat pumps, so we have heat until an amazing, local heating company can come to fix it on a day that won’t cost a fortune for Holiday rates. I have been blessed with amazing friends, family and caregivers that helped me recover and stay active doing the things I love while I recovered from the car accident. And I know how blessed that I am with the creative community that we are all part of. The people that I have met through stamping that I count among my friends are a wonderful, giving, supportive group. I’m so glad that each of you is part of my life!

I wanted to wrap up 2024 with a clean slate, so I created a batch of these thank you cards to send out to folks who had recently placed an online order. I had let this slip, so I had a fair number of cards that I needed to create. I have been watching a LOT of YouTube videos lately from different card makers and I was intrigued by one that I saw where the creator used Cling Wrap to create a multi-color background for a stamped panel on several different cards. It really is quite simple to do and I encourage you to give it a try. It is also really quick, so it is great for bulk creating. Here’s how I created the background of the butterfly panel:

• Pick 3 colors that coordinate
  • I chose a triadic combination from the catalog color wheel on page 132: Azure Afternoon, Melon Mambo, and Lemon Lime Twist
• Tear a piece of Cling Wrap and bunch up in your fingertips
• Dab the Cling Wrap on the top of an ink pad
• Lightly touch the Cling Wrap to Basic White cardstock
  • You get a little splotch of color where you dabbed
• Repeat dabbing several times using the same color on the cardstock leaving lots of white space and rotating the cardstock to get different directions on the splotch
• Tear a new piece of Cling Wrap and repeat with a second color, again leaving some white space
• And finally repeat with the third color; there should still be white spaces to allow the stamped image to be easily seen

I have to stress that suggestion to leave white space because I had gotten too aggressive with my first attempt and I didn’t have much white space left after dabbing the ink. I had to start over because the stamped butterflies didn’t stand out enough from the background. I suspect that if I had used lighter colors, then it would have been ok having less white space. The important lesson here is to not be afraid to experiment, don’t be reluctant to start over, and pay attention to your judgement on how something looks.

This is the inside of my card – I did a teeny bit of splotching and added a stamped butterfly to carry forward the feeling from the front of the card to the inside. I do like having a little bit of stamping inside to give a pretty place for writing the greeting that isn’t plain. It was super quick to do this little bit and I think it adds a little sumthin’ sumthin’.

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