CASE Time for a "From the Herd" Stamp Set - It's Pasture Birthday Etch-A-Sketch Card

CASE-ing, Copy And Share Everything, is a fabulous way to get the creative mojo going, so I'll be doing this regularly the rest of this calendar year as per my  2015 Let the Year End with Beauty Resolution.

I've seen this adorable Etch-A-Sketch card design all over SCS and Pinterest, so I just had to CASE it as soon as I got my From the Herd set a few weeks ago during the Retirement sale.  I've seen so many adorable cards with this set that I just had to have it.

This is just such a fun and nostalgic design for those of us that still remember what an Etch-A-Sketch is.

CASE Credit:

SU Demo Tami White - who features an Etch a Sketch card design using the SU Sketch a Birthday Set back in August 2014, which is the earliest date I could find.  {Thank You Tami!} 

I unfortunately don't know who it was that created the first Etch-A-Sketch card using this From The Herd set, or I'd for sure give credit here. 

Thank you to whoever it was that came up with this.  Here are my versions.

Attempt #1:  

• I eyeballed and trimmed out the inner rectangle from the front Real Red cardstock panel. But I just don't like it. 
• I also used Going Grey ink on generic gray cardstock scraps I had, and the imprint was really faint. Don't like it. 

Sigh! So I broke down and bought a die set while I was at Michael's today using a 50% off coupon. So this Becky Higgin's Project Life Die set came out to just $9.99.

PRODUCT REVIEW: I almost had a heart attack when I opened the package.  

• They're taped extremely well like the old Spellbinder dies, but the dies themselves are soooooooo thin and flimsy!! I thought I had bent and/or broke them just trying to get them out of the packaging. I should have just forked over $24.95 and gotten the framelits set from SU, but I gave in to both price and instant gratification.  

• They also didn't yield a clean cut as I had random stray shavings along the cut edges.

• These don't leave an embossed edge either.

• I'm not very confident that these will cut through thicker cardstock or specialty paper due to how flimsy they are. I may just return these and get the SU ones instead.  

• For my purposes below, they performed adequately, but I'd rate it a B-. Nothing for anyone to rush and buy immediately.

Attempt #2:

With the 3" x 4" sized inner rounded rectangular die in hand from the BH Project Life set from American Crafts, I was excited to make another version of the Etch-A-Sketch card that I just knew I'd be much happier with!

If you've ever wanted to know what 15 year old embossing power looks like, zoom in on my photo below.  I cried because the embossed greetings just did come out crisp like I remember it used to.  I did make sure to reink my Versamark pad generously and not to press too hard onto my cardstock with the inked up polymer stamp to achieve as crisp of an image as possible.

I'll have to crush and sift all of my EP's to make sure they're not all clumped together. I'm pretty intent on using my stash rather than tossing it to buy brand new. Ain't no one got that kinda money to throw around!

For the sentiment, I didn't like the SU Gold metallic because this particular one from SU looks dirty to me.  I was hoping for a brighter gold, so I switched to an opaque white so that the sentiment would pop more.

But I definitely liked the image when stamped in Momento Black ink on this Recollections metallic silver cardstock. The cardstock was slick, so the Momento was perfect for rich permanent color that dried pretty fast.

Finished them off by die cutting some 1" sized circles with one of my Spellbinders nested circle sets. I didn't realize that it would leave a nice embossed edge. Yup, first time using these dies since my punches are in storage. The white circular die cuts were pop dotted on the bottom inner corners for the Etch-A-Sketch dials.  Finally I whipped out my trusty old Creative Memories corner rounder on all 4 corners for the finishing touch.

Since these were so easy, I went ahead and made a handful of them for upcoming monthly Ronald McDonald House card donations to other hostesses located throughout the US.

I've committed to sending a minimum of 10 cards to each of the monthly hostesses so that each RMH location can be featured on a rotating basis.

CASEing is a great way of completing a handful of super cute cards for the cause.  If you'd like to donate some of your handmade cards to this cause, I am collecting throughout the rest of 2015 to donate to the Pasadena, CA location.  Click here for more information.


Thanks for visiting.



 


"It's Pasture Birthday Etch-A-Sketch"  Card CASE
Paper: SU Real Red; Misc Red CS; Recollections Metallic Silver CS
Stamps: SU From the Herd
Ink: Momento Black; Versamark
Embellishments: American Crafts Becky Higgins Project Life Die; SU Metallic Gold EP; Stampendous Opaque White EP; Spellbinders Standard Circles Large (smallest die); CM Corner Rounder; Pop Dots Dimensional Foam
Size: 5.5 x 4.25" rectangular