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I will struggle mightily with something that just doesn't seem to be coming together, often for days. But sometimes it's a relief to just give up, throw the thing away and say "Wasn't meant to be."
How often do you do this, if ever?
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
I can't say I have ever done that. If I get stuck, I walk away until the next day when I almost always finish it. Sometimes I will look in the gallery or on Pinterest for inspiration if I am really stuck but I never throw it out.
__________________ Patter
Mom to Adult Identical Triplets--a police officer, 3rd year medical student, and special education teacher
If I'm on a deadline (card drive, swap etc.) I will walk away, look online or on Pinterest for ideas, and then come back fresh in a few hours or the next day.
Most of the time though, I work on card fronts to experiment, and if I do my best on the technique and it doesn't look good or doesn't turn out, it goes into my miscellaneous box and I just move on. I can usually trim it or cut it out and use it on another card later. I don't sweat it! The time at my craft table is supposed to be fun and satisfying and enjoyable. If a technique or design isn't bringing me pleasure, it gets thrown in the box!
That said, my time struggling with a design has taught me a lot about how to zero in on what is not working, so that's valuable and I try not to give up too soon. It's a balance...
I do this a LOT! I try not to get too much time into it before I decide I just hate it. If it's just a background, I put it in a heap of backgrounds I have but if I really trashed the artwork, time to toss it. Nothing worse than coloring something for hours, then having a mess! Thankfully we have Hollo's here ( a paper surplus store) for cardstock at 1.50 for 40 sheets.
guess what...I do it all the time! I start making a card and hate it or stamp a bkg that I don't like and can't come up with anyway to make it work. What I do is put it away and start again. I keep the rejects in a bag and often come back to them and either cut them up or reuse them in another way on my card.
The flowers on this card was a terrible looking bkg I made using Brushos but looked so pretty made into the flowers...
Totally agree with Karen when it comes to backgrounds. When ever you are playing with different media the chances are pretty high it will take a turn for the worst. I always keep my mistakes uglies in a box of backgrounds because like Karen you can often use just a bit or break it up and it looks fantastic. As for the card that turns out a disaster or just dont work right, sometimes I throw them away, other times I retreive what I can to use on something else and sometimes I put aside to look at on another day and try again.
I definitely trash things that are just unsalvageable - but I have a pretty big "UFO" pile of backgrounds - sometimes die cutting or punching them give them a proper life. But I made one card today and before I got it right threw one away - so today I'm at 50%. Probably 10% overall.
The MISTI has helped me do this less - I used to have a higher trash rate before I could get my sentiments straight because I tend to make one layer cards, so I only got one chance. Now if I make garbage it's because I made a coloring or technique error only.
Only occasionally - but only when I've finished it! I'll keep on going despite misgivings and only then go, naaah, don't like that. (I'm not counting the cockups which happen while a work is in progress; I recognise that ooops moment pretty quickly)
Very rarely have I actually tossed a card into the trash - but it has happened.
My cardmaking style is usually card fronts with patterned paper or maybe layers of cardstock, so I have quite a bit of leeway when I'm making the card.
I get all the elements ready, cut cardstock to layer, colored stamped image, embellishments, etc. Then I play around with arranging it. Sometimes changing it from vertical to horizontal will work the best. Sometimes reversing the colors of the layers makes a difference.
I don't adhere anything until I'm satisfied with how the whole thing looks.
__________________ Bugga in OK
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama
Rarely do I trash a card. I am too frugal to do that .
I, too, am one who loves layers and "junk" on my cards so it is easy to hide elements I am not happy with. Plus, I know that even with the cards I absolutely can't stand, there is bound to be someone who would love getting a handcrafted card with a long, handwritten message inside, no matter what it looks like.
I also find it helpful to never glue anything down until I am sure of it all. On the other hand, when pressed for time (like VSNs, or needing a card NOW) I do just glue as I go along because I will waste time overthinking things.
Who knew this hobby could have so much strategy involved...
I was just chatting about this very things with a friend last week. I'm bad about pouring more time down the rabbit hole. I normally don't throw something away. If it gets bad, I will morph/die cut it into something else. There have been about 2 cards where I toss the whole thing.
I make card fronts and stage most of my layers. There are backgrounds, die cut panels, embellishments/flowers, etc - and if one is just too ugly to be released into the wild, I cut it up or do mixed media/Gelli over the most offending parts and it gets tossed into a different bucket.
Very rarely but just threw one out last week. My mother will be 100 on Nov. 21 and has been in a nursing home for almost 10 years after a massive stroke. It affected her speech, movement and to top it off, her vision is extremely poor since she has double vision and had the stroke 2 days before her scheduled cataract surgery. The cards I make for her have lots of dimension and bright colors and I started a card using every candle stamp I own to make 100 candles; colored them, Stickled them, popped them up and looked at the card and it was so ugly I threw it out and made another with large balloons and hanging strings. When my husband tells me the card is ugly you can believe it since he loves all my cards! And it took me forever to color and Stickle 100 candles!
I never throw them away, but there are a few that I should have... I tend to agree with SkyBlueSky - it's all part of the process and education is ALWAYS valuable! (On a side note that's kinda, sorta related - I don't cut my ex out of photos, either - he's part of the story even if he's not in the current chapters...)
Very rarely but just threw one out last week. My mother will be 100 on Nov. 21 and has been in a nursing home for almost 10 years after a massive stroke. It affected her speech, movement and to top it off, her vision is extremely poor since she has double vision and had the stroke 2 days before her scheduled cataract surgery. The cards I make for her have lots of dimension and bright colors and I started a card using every candle stamp I own to make 100 candles; colored them, Stickled them, popped them up and looked at the card and it was so ugly I threw it out and made another with large balloons and hanging strings. When my husband tells me the card is ugly you can believe it since he loves all my cards! And it took me forever to color and Stickle 100 candles!
Big birthday wishes for your mother. One hundred years is a really big deal! I'm sure she will love your balloon card with the hanging strings!
__________________ Bugga in OK
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama
Not often enough! Instead of just saying, "Ugh! I don't like this!" and tossing it, I obsess on the darn thing for days! I drive myself crazy, and it sucks my joy out of making the card. It's ridiculous, because I have mountains of DSP, CS and supplies. I'm working on getting over that though. I set the pieces aside and start another card. Or, I give the cards I started and got nowhere on to Mom. She whips something up in no time flat with them, and they look lovely. lol
I've tossed quite a few after trying too hard/too long to get it to work. But I was inspired by a comment on SCS recently about watercolour backgrounds - someone said they use watercolours that don't work out to die cut things like butterflies. So I'm going to try and salvage any disasters from now on and see what I can make out of them - who knows, I may come up with something brilliant!
I toss them every now and then but only after I've worked it to the point of being just plain butt ugly. If possible, I save the pieces in my scrap paper drawers because often I find just the right piece for a different card. I figure all it cost me was a few cents in paper and my time, so throwing them away is no loss.
I have a stamp that says, "Art is knowing which ones to keep." If I'm not happy with a card I don't want to send it to someone so I don't keep it but I will donate the ones that are acceptable but don't fall into my love fest category.
It's rare, but I will toss them once I can't stand looking at them any more. I'm working on some cards right now (I make multiples) that are salvageable, but they may not be rescued until next year because I have no incentive to pour more valuable time into them.
__________________ Debbie "Make it work, people." - Tim Gunn My Gallery
Yesterday it took a whole 30 minutes before I tossed the card in the trash.
It has been a while since I have done this, but if there is no way I can work with the card out it goes. I took off the card what I could save and the tossed it.
I don't save what I can't use, just makes more of a mess if I save these items.
__________________ The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable. Practice safe eating always use condiments
I've been involved in card making for about 12 years. Early on, I'd either obsess for days trying to make something work or throw it away at the first sign of a problem. Now I think I have a good balance. I will try to make something work, like layering on a sentiment strip if I messed up stamping it directly on the card front, or adding an embellishment to cover where I dropped the inked stamp onto the card.
But as another poster said, time at my craft table is to relax and have fun. If I try something and it's just ugly in my opinion I will trash it. I usually will cut the back of the card off and put it with my scraps to use as a layer on another card and just trash the front I don't like.
My two sisters and I stamp together when we can and there is always much laughter and craziness as we work and it is never out of the oridinary to almost finish a card with an "oops" sentiment stamped upside down or worse. Then, sometimes months later, I will receive the "oops" card in the mail from one of my sisters with a note and I have to laugh as I remember the fun we had stamping. And sometimes I mail them an "oops" or "this is so ugly" card just for fun. We enjoy our mistakes....
I am trying to become a reformed perfectionist I used to struggle over card designs till they were just "so." Now I try to keep going and for some reason, that makes the design even better! I find when you agonize over things, it gets in the way of the creative process.
That said, if you really dislike it, chuck it or leave it for another day!
I think that when you stamp alone, (and I have always stamped alone) it's easier to get stuck inside your head and drive yourself crazy over a card.
Even though I'm the one that asked the question originally, in truth I actually rarely totally chuck a card. I usually rip off anything I might reuse and save it. But a few times, when I've become completely frustrated, I have ripped something into bits just for the "that's the end of that!" feeling of it. ;)
__________________ I have come to the conclusion that buying craft supplies and actually using them are two separate hobbies. RachelRose Designs by Robin... GALLERY
Location: along the bluffs of the Upper Mississippi River
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Rarely, if ever.....but I don't make that many cards and I case them so really someone else has done all the hard design work. If I made all from scratch....gosh I'd be trouble often!
__________________ All I want is the chance to prove money won't make me happy!
I don't very often. I can't really remember throwing any away. Usually they are passable and I know someone will like it so it goes in that pile for when I just need a card. Like a few others mentioned I don't usually glue/adhere things together until I like what I see. Sometimes I even take a picture of what I kind of like and then play more with the option to go back to the picture. . .
Stamping is just too much fun to fuss over too much. I have thrown a few elements away that just didn't come out right and are not workable anywhere else. I like the suggestion to keep the mistakes and use when you die cut flowers and butterflies!! Will keep that one in mind.
Mahalo for a fun thread!
Every time I sit down to stamp, I have some ideas in my head that may or may not lead to a completed card. About half of what I start with end up in the trash. Sometimes I get frustrated but then I remember that Edison threw out 2000 failed attempts at the light bulb until one worked.
Mary Beth
Every time I sit down to stamp, I have some ideas in my head that may or may not lead to a completed card. About half of what I start with end up in the trash. Sometimes I get frustrated but then I remember that Edison threw out 2000 failed attempts at the light bulb until one worked.
Mary Beth
Once I've designed a card, I like to make a dozen of them and keep them in stock. If I end up with 10 or 11, I call that successful.
__________________ Debbie "Make it work, people." - Tim Gunn My Gallery
If I make a card and it doesn't look ok, or if I mess it badly enough, I toss it. I keep parts and backgrounds . I have a stack of Gelli pages that never worked themselve into something. Along with brushos and bisters, etc. I keep everything until it I have too much. Then I'll cull the things I don't think I'll every use. It's just paper and ink and paint, I have more.
__________________ Denise
"If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.�
― Spider Robinson
I will do what I can to rescue, cutting images to remove it from a misbehaving background, gently lifting images of patterned card stock that are screaming 'why did you think we would work well together', adding a random accent to cover an oops.....but just every now and again,if it goes horribly wrong or it just frustrates me to the point of it causing angst and stress...see you later alligator and in the bin (garbage) it goes.
My crafting is a stress reliever and I will not allow myself to be stressed out by making a card - I can be challenged but when it frustrates me and I can see no out or I just plain hate the thing out it goes lol!
Yes I have thrown it away and will continue to do so. This is a hobby and its supposed to be fun. As others have said, if it is causing me too much stress I put it away till later and try again but if I still am not satisfied, it will be pitched. I try to save what I can from the card though, paper or embellishments to reuse. I don't necessarily through things away if they are not perfect, i.e a a smudge here and there, things not being straight, etc..... Obviously if they are too messed up I wont send it, but my cards go to my mom and elderly aunts as well as other crafting friends who I know appreciate the thought and don't scrutinize the cards as we card makers do.
I have a special card I made for my son 4 years ago. I've never given up looking for it in order to mail it to him. Does that count???
But, yes, I have definitely given up on many cards before. Just paper. And I'm not giving the fiendish little devils that much power over me.
__________________ Linda E
Caution: You are entering an artistic zone. This is not clutter - this is creating. These are not pajamas - it's my work uniform.
How often do you give up on a card?
