Musings on Imperfection

As much as I admire perfection in other people, I have found it just about impossible to achieve both in my life and in my crafts. You know the saying "measure twice and cut once?" This doesn't work for me. If I measure twice, I get two different results. Which then, should I cut?

But I have learned to work with, indeed, be inspired by my imperfections! Last night, as I backed out of the impossibly small and crowded parking lot where I work, I managed to back directly into a parked car. As I heard the metallic crunch somewhere over my right shoulder, it occurred to me that I really should try the new distressed metal tile technique I had read about earlier that day at the incredible Mel Stampz blog!

I love this technique! It's actually not difficult. Start by adhering a piece of aluminum foil to a panel of cardstock - use a brayer to get most of the wrinkles out - then run it through your cuttlebug with your choice of embossing folders. I used "Textile Texture." Then turn it face down on your Scor Pal and emboss a grid on the panel to emulate tiles. Cool huh? To distress the panel, I brushed on a layer of gesso, then sanded it lightly when dry. To really make the texture pop, I lightly brayered some Timber Brown StazOn ink over the raised areas.

To assemble the card, I layered a panel of Basic Grey Sultry patterned paper on a kiwi card base. Then I matted the tin panel with dark brown cardstock and adhered it the centre of my card. I stamped the Wildflower Seed image from Inque Boutique on a scrap of Basic Grey (I think it was from the Wassail collection, then coloured with chalks and highlighted with an opaque white gel pen. I matted the stamped image on dark brown cardstock and layered it on an angle to a Spellbinders lable that I had die cut from a medium blush cardstock. This went on the card with foam adhesive and I finished with a couple of scraps of kiwi coloured ribbon, tucked under the edges of the patterned paper.

Quite frankly, I'm much happier with this bit of distressed metal than I was with the distressed effect I created on my neighbour's car last night!