Saturday, June 11, 2016

Frantic Birthday Card Making

It always seems that as soon as I have a block of spare time, there seems to be somebody I should be making a card for. Since I'm still learning, this takes me forever and I'm not clever enough to make more than one at a time (although I plan to change this in the near-future).



I originally wanted to make a pop-up card for my husband. He and I both work from home and it's hard to find time when I'm completely alone. I was also working at the last-minute, so I needed to find a technique that I could do in short bursts of time. I figured that a pop-up would require larger blocks of time and that I should make a card that lights up instead. Both of these things I plan on exploring more and designing my own, but time wasn't on my side and I had to get this done quickly without my husband noticing. At least I already had the supplies!

I did a quick search online to see if anybody had tutorials up since my last search half a year ago. And yes, Chibitronics had partnered with Lawn Fawn a few months ago and shared the results. The slide switch appealed to me because the lights wouldn't go on unless the card was pressed, so it won't drain the battery. Plus I wouldn't have to worry about building a sliding tab switch.

Then I went about looking in the Silhouette Store for a design I could use. I was this close to making my own, but it would have added anywhere between two and ten hours and I needed to get it done.

I managed to run my Silhouette Cameo while my husband was hanging around and he didn't notice that I was cutting a Birthday card. I then went to bed pleased with myself that I was a day ahead of time and that I could easily make the circuit the following day. I was seriously proud of myself.

Then the next day he was going to drive out of town on an errand. I waited. And waited. He left and for whatever reason I didn't get started. Which turned out to be a good decision because instead of being out of the house for two hours, he was gone for 20 minutes. He said that traffic was bad and that he'll try again the next day. Then he said he was going to do some sorting in the spare room. I waited. And waited. Never happened. He stayed in the office with me and declared at 11pm, "I'm not getting much done today. How about you?" I had to sifle a laugh.

The day I was going to gift the card, my husband leaves for his errands. I thought I could get the circuit done quickly, but drew it wrong and didn't realize until after I laid down the copper tape. And Oh no, I don't have that much time left! Quick, lay down the tape. Test the lights. Yes, they're working. Glue it to the base. Test the lights. The middle isn't working. WHAAAAT?! How do I troubleshoot that? Hell if I know. Just put the design on top and call it a day.

But oh yeah, it needs a greeting. Good thing I've been practicing a little (very little) with the Tombow brush pens. This is actually the main reason why I want to work on my hand. The calligraphy is Not Great. I had to define the letters a bit with the black liner. I guess I'll be downloading practice sheets later tonight.

I have a wedding card to make before the first week of July. I think I'll start on that this week. :heh:

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