Learning from My Mistakes

    I used to teach ballroom dance, and one very common phenomenon was that when a student made an obvious mistake, they would usually dance brilliantly for about 10 seconds afterwards.  Having stumbled, or missed a beat, they would laugh at themselves, and I would see their whole body relax.  Then, smiling radiantly, they would glide like swans through the next several moves until the spell dissipated, concentration returning to their faces and all their muscles tensing and their breathing tightening. It was quite remarkable.  The mark of a more experienced student was that they could concentrate without allowing the tension that hinders.
    This is my goal in craft-making: to remind myself that a mistake is just about cutting a new piece of paper, or ending up with a card that is landscape instead of portait.  Not a tragedy.  As a matter of fact, the design I end up with might be just as nice or nicer than what I had originally intended.  So just smile, relax, and keep dancing!

Common Mistakes:

Inkblots!
You make a perfect card, only to end up with a thumbprint somewhere very obvious.  Rrrrr!  This is a very frustrating mistake, but there are things we can do.

Prevention:

•  CLOSE your inkpad!  Never leave an open inkpad lying around on your table.  You will get your cardstock in it, your elbow in it, your hands in it.  Close it every time.  
• It is too easy to dip your fingertips in your inkpad when inking your stamp.  Watch out for this.  Keep a paper towel on hand to wipe fingers, or just go wash your hands.

Cure:
Cover up.  The inkblot that is already on your card is precisely where a butterfly needs to go.  Or a button, flower, ribbon, banner, etc.

Is it part of the design?  Is it hiding a smudge?  Either way, it looks good!

Smeared Sentiment 
Your beautiful card is all done--after an hour of work, it only needs a "Thinking of You" stamped on before you put it in the envelope and mail it off to your best friend.  You line up your block very carefully, press, rock, press some more, and voila!  No, not voila.  Smear.  But, don't despair!  This is one of the easiest things to fix.

Prevention: 

• Especially with one-line sentiments, tiny or narrow images, rocking your stamp can cause smearing.  Some stamps need a bit less pressure.  Be sure there is plenty of ink on your stamp, and press straight down and lift straight up. A little practice, or doing a test image, goes a long way.

when doing a banner, stamp first, THEN cut

• Stamp the sentiment on a piece of scrap paper, cut or punch out, and tape it to the card with snail tape or pop-ups.  That way, you have the opportunity to try, try again without risking your card.

When doing a white card, keep your fingers clean!

• If you truly want to put the sentiment directly on the paper, stamp FIRST, and then assemble your card.  If the sentiment comes out crooked, just turn the paper over, and try again on the back.

Cure:
re-stamp the sentiment on a piece of scrap card stock.  Cut out with a punch or scissors, and layer it over the smear with snail tape or pop-ups (dimensionals.) Some common punches to use for this are the word window, the modern label, the large oval and scalloped oval.

On this card, did I pop up the sentiment on the corner just to give the landscape more depth, or am I hiding an inky smudge?  I'll never tell.  The middle layer of Christmas-trees-on-a- hill is popped up over the background as well.  (I didn't pop the trees up separately, though you could do that if you liked.)