B and W Cindy Loo: Therapy?

Have you ever made a card that seemed to fight you every inch of the way? Meet my nemesis, the Black and White Cindy Loo.

 

In the end I was moderately happy with how it turned out, but it sure was a struggle getting there. I made this for a monthly mingle (a mingle is where you make and send a card to one person on a list, and they make and send to the next person, and so on, so you don't actually exchange cards with the person your card is sent to, but everyone gets one).

The theme was Black and White (having just made the similar-concept 65 - Bravo card, I figured this would be a cinch!) and you needed to use your Cuttlebug machine to either die cut or pressure emboss. I did both. I used one of the four bundled Cindy Loo Cuttlebug embossing folders:

 

This is a large format with a paisley border top and bottom and a square-ish frame in the center. (Neenah cardstock did not play nice with the folder. The embossing was so well defined the paisleys were cutting and dropping out of the sheet. I had to add text weight paper as a buffer to keep the embossing from being so crisp/sharp. It took me a few tries to get the right sandwich. I probably should have chosen a different cardstock for this. Grrr.)

I added pearls, polka dot paper, and strips of black burnished velvet glitter that you can't see in the photo because I then mounted everything on black glossy cardstock. (Yes, that sounds so breezy and easy, doesn't it? My ruler slipped, making the white panel crooked, meaning I had to keep trimming around to get it all squared up again. Hence the need for the black glitter strips to enlarge the sections I had trimmed away. Then the tape I used grabbed the black glossy when I wasn't looking, and I had to wad that up and try again. Hey, it's just paper, right?)

The center die cut (Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Eighteen) is stamped with one of the many labels in Waltzingmouse Stamps' Very Vintage Labels 18 set, black heat embossed (don't ask how many black inks and embossing powder combinations I tried in order to get that just the way I wanted it!), and the sentiment is from Fancy Phrases. I used Rangers Black Enamel to add raised pin dots around the circle that I cut out using Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Circles. I am enjoying using the enamel - it comes out of the bottle's small thin nozzle in perfect little dots, self-levels (no Dairy Queen curlicues!) and dries very quickly. So that's my little ray of sunshine in this card-making session.

I make cards for relaxation and therapy. Really, I do!