Saturday 27 June 2009

Inch by inch

And now for something completely different. I was inspired to create this card by the not-so-new craze for inchies. If you aren’t familiar with inchies, they are exactly what they sound like – one inch squares of cardstock, decorated how you choose. People swap these – I don’t, as I’d just lose them – and they’re really popular, as are twinchies which are, you guessed it, two inch squares.

So I was testing my new cutting device which is supposed to help me seriously slash my workshop preparation time and wanted to see if it would cut down to one inch. I’m still learning so some of these are a bit wonky but I decided to use them anyway – I’ve given up on that fruitless quest for perfection as it just means you never get anything done. If you weren't testing a new cutting device, you could use scraps for this card - it would be a really great way of using up really small pieces.

I fell in love with a rainbow of inchies on someone’s blog but I’m ashamed to say I have now not only lost the link but forgotten the title, too. It was huge with lots of graduated colours and looked fabulous but I thought I’d better start smaller with a 4x4 formation in shades of pink and lilac.

But that’s still 16 lots of creating and it took quite some time – so I probably won’t be working my way through the colour palette after all.

I started by cutting the inchies, then stamped them with Pocket Silhouettes in Versamark. Then I stamped again in the relevant colour – or as close as I had as I still don’t have all the ink pads. I inked the edges of each piece in the same colour and then again, just slightly, in Basic Gray. I darkened the edges of the squares even more using Stampin’ Pastels, choosing shades darker than the cardstock. Then I doodled - I used Elegant Eggplant and Rose Red markers as these were the nearest I had to create the effect I wanted.

Finally, I stamped the white flower from Wild About You in white StazOn® but they didn’t show up too well (it works better on non-porous surfaces) so I went over them very carefully with white gel pen.

I stuck them down and then added the three words, popped up, just to give it a lift. Hope you like it!

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Fresh Cuts, Wild About You, Daily Flexible Phrases
Cardstock: Pink Passion, Pixie Pink, Orchid Opulence, Lovely Lilac, Confetti White
Ink: Pixie Pink, Orchid Opulence, Lavender Lace, Versamark, Basic Grey, White StazOn®
Accessories: Stampin’ Pastels, Elegant Eggplant and Rose Red markers, white gel pen

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.

11 comments:

  1. lovely card

    great use of your inchies.

    M.E. aka CMCMaryD@SCS

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  2. Cute card! I haven't gotten into the inchies craze, but love how you used them for this card.

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  3. Wow this is fab - I love the gradiant in colours - well done x

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  4. Gorgeous card. Love the shades.

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  5. I love the look of the inchie card and the colors you chose! Very pretty!

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  6. You have more patience than I would cutting and positioning all those squares. The colors and subtle patterns are pretty.

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  7. Really like this, I have loads and loads and loads of scraps!!!!

    Hugs

    Sarah

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  8. hi crafters i recentlky astended one of helens monday craft class's and can definitly reommend them great fun . bu she cant persuade me to do xmas in july. i m sure others of you will realy enjoy it. hope someone else fancies the scapbooking session. i subscibe to Papercraft magazine(before i got into stampin up) and this months page 9 features another stampin up online site with classes online if your not looal enough to get to Helens perhaps we can have a swops page?alionh

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  9. This is so pretty! And a great idea to use up lots of scraps......

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment.

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