Be Parquet
When I was nine years old, we moved into a new home – well, new to us. The yard was full of tall yellow wild grass and grasshoppers. So many grasshoppers! The house was built in the 80s, I think. It was a two story, white stucco house with a nice layout where the staircase was at the center. When you walked in through the front door, you were welcomed with a large foyer that was as tall as the two floors of the whole house! The large entry way was a great spot for happy hellos and long, lingering good-byes.
I remember skipping with my jump rope on that open foyer space. I played board games on that floor. I remember the comforting “click click” sound of dog nails on the floor as our small honey-coloured maltese/cocker spaniel made her way through the house. We raced around the staircase and would watch the floor flash past as it changed under our feet – beige carpet in the living room, linoleum in the kitchen, beige carpet in the TV room, parquet flooring in the foyer – carpet, lino, carpet, parquet, carpet, lino, carpet, parquet.
The parquet pattern was in squares. It has since been updated and now there is laminate wood flooring throughout the foyer, TV room and kitchen. My own kids have raced around the house when we visit my parents for Sunday dinner – lately it’s during a rubber band war.
Good times. Good memories.
My card design today reminds me of that parquet flooring. Instead of squares, I tried a herringbone pattern. Of course, it all begins with some prompting to get that creative mojo going. Here’s the assortment challenge from the As You See it Challenge blog:
I get pretty excited when I find a fun way to use paper scraps, especially with paper that I LOVE! The Wood Textures Designer Series paper is on the top of my list, so you you can imagine how satisfying it was to turn my scraps into something awesome!
The herringbone pattern is created using short, narrow strips of patterned paper and adhering them to a piece of cardstock. I used my Multipurpose Liquid Glue to adhere the strips (remember, less is more – nobody wants a sticky oozy mess!).
I started by scoring a line in the center of the paper and laying my first five strips down without adhesive first, so that I could use the line as a guide for straight placement. Then I was able to pick up and adhere one piece at a time until my piece of cardstock was full. Once full, I trimmed the paper to size and carried on with the rest of the card.
I trimmed my herringbone parquet into a square and then thought about something crazy – what if I used my Stitched Shapes Framelits to add a decorative stitched edge to this large square!?
I know – CRAZY!!
But it worked! And it wasn’t even that hard!!
I used the largest square from the Stitched Shapes Framelits and placed it, blade up, on my Big Shot clear plate so that I could see the cutting edges clearly. I placed my parquet piece right side facing down, so that the paper lined up in the corner of the framelit.
(Oh my goodness, I need to give you photos of this process! SERIOUSLY! … I’ll try to add them later)
I put my top plate over the corner that I wanted to cut (and ONLY over that corner) and ran it through the Big Shot. The Big Shot cuts when there is pressure, so where the top plate didn’t make contact with the die, cutting did not occur. I repeated this process three more times to make a border around my entire 3-3/4″ parquet.
So cool!!
The rest is detail.
I sponged Crumb Cake ink all around the edges of a layer of Crumb Cake cardstock, then adhered it to my Early Espresso card base.
It’s not super noticeable in the photos, but there is a piece of Night of Navy cardstock matting the upper left corner of my parquet square, which is adhered to the Crumb Cake layer with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals. The tree image from the new Rooted in Nature stamp set, is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock with Blueberry Bushel ink (new ink! new ink!), then die cut with the coordinating framelit. To make it pop a bit more on the card, I sponged the edges of the tree with more Crumb Cake ink.
The sentiment is also from the Rooted in Nature Stamp Set. I stamped it on Whisper White Cardstock with Early Espresso ink, then cut it out by hand to use the pieces individually. I adhered the tree and the sentiment with Mini Dimensionals, cut in half so they would fit.
The Copper Metallic Thread was looped and stuck on one of those Dimensionals before that tree was planted on my card.
The final step was to add a few copper sequin from the Metallics Sequin Assortment to the card front using Mini Glue Dots.
And there you have it! It has a tree. It has a square. It has woodgrain. It has blue. AND it is masculine! It has it all, Folks!
I think I like it!
What will you do with this assortment challenge? Give it a try and share it on the As You See it Challenge blog!
