In & Out of the Corner...

I have crafted myself into a corner again... and out and back in, and hopefully, out again. I am still contemplating easel cards and Que Sera/Cricut Flower Shoppe paper flowers. (I have made a lot of flowers. I am going to have to put some away).

Here we have an easel card base. The little orange tabs were the product of a desire not to have the ubiquitous brad or button on the bottom of the card that supports the back. However, as I looked at the card, the orange tabs looked more and more ugly. I couldn't think of a small embellishment that would work with the location, the size and the theme. (Now I am in a design corner) SO.... I punched a fence to attach to the tabs for the back of the card to brace against.

I liked the fence (out of the design corner for a minute), but the dark green wasn't doing much for the look of the card. I punched another border in vanilla card, added just a little TH distress ink and layered it over the dark green fence. Then I threaded a diecut vine through the fence here and there. Now I liked the fence brace and it laid flat under the card body when folded (or will the next time I make this type of card). The photo below shows the front of the card and what it would look like when folded (if it would).

It needs some Stickles in a couple of places, around the green button (to hide the hot glue leakage) and on the green vine on the fence (just to bling it up a little). I am still undecided about the treatment on the base of the card (back into the design corner) ...a mat, as in the photo below ... OR

...tied twine, like this photo. I'm leaning toward the twine (out of the corner?). Oh, and I need a butterfly or three on the top and some distress ink sponged on the edge of the orange base.

So, here we have an unfinished card, but it's close to done. I did this project because I wanted to find a different aparatus to brace the back of an easel card and, boy, did I learn some things. I learned that it is a lot better to have an idea of the steps I want to follow before I start (I'm pretty old, ok...upper middle aged; shouldn't I have figured this out before? ...well, truth be told, I have in most areas of my life, just not on fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants paper projects). I want to make this card again. I will think of this one as a template. I learned that when you add an element that folds back flat (like the fence), knowing what the element measures and making certain that the scoring/folding is extremely accurate is of utmost importance. "Almost" doesn't work out well on this project. The fence element is about 1/32 inch taller than it should have been, and the back fold is the littlest bit off of 90 degrees with the edge so the card binds in the back fold just a little bit (but not terribly). This card is truly a learning process and I am the lucky holder of a "Learners Permit".