SOS239: fantastic plastic

i love acrylic elements in cardmaking. i know they can be challenging to attach (more on that in a bit) and don't get me started on photographing them without a big giant light bounce. (arrgh!) but i still love them. which is why i'm pretty psyched that this week's challenge at shopping our stash is called "fantastic plastic" and we want to see (i expect you've already guessed) something plastic on your project, whether that be the window in a shaker card, some old (or new) plastic alphabets or flowers, or even the ultimate plastic-based endeavor... a card built on a transparency, like mine is:

pink grid transparency: hambly screen prints (out of print, alas); pink acrylic letters (embellished with beachy rub ons): heidi swapp; beachy rub-ons: fancy pants; sea shore and shell corner brads: eyelet outlet; patterned paper (scraps): recollections, doodlebug, fancy pants; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine

i used some of my sadly dwindling supply of hambly* transparencies as my card base. at some point i may start to actively hoard these, but i love clear cards (and also clear pages in a journal or travel book!) and i am most fortunate to have a lovely friend called stephanie who on my behalf snaps up any hambly she finds, so at this point my motto is, "use 'em 'til they're gone". i will admit to using them judiciously. ;) i've also employed some of my favorite eyelet outlet brads (sea shore and shell corners) to attach my clear pink acrylic letters to the beachy faux polaroid, thus:

which answers part of the question i get asked most often when i post a clear card, "hey lauren, how do you keep the adhesive from showing through on the other side?!" there are a few answers to that one, including, "i use adhesives (like a tape runner) that don't show very much" OR "i use hardware like eyelets, brads and staples which provide an additional design element" OR "i machine stitch so that it looks cool on both sides" but my ultimate/favorite answer is, "i make the adhesive as low profile and tidy as possible, but it does show a bit, and i don't worry about it." here's the inside view of my card to illustrate what i mean:

yes, i know the color's awful; see "arrrgh" above about photographing clear stuff

you can see that i backed the polaroid with a leftover piece of sky to hide the multiple brad legs and thread tails. the surfboard rub-ons don't have a pattern on the reverse side, but they're a cool shape and re-iterate the beach idea, as does the sunshine. i did use (neatly cut and placed) pieces of foam tape to stick on the sunshine and the faux polaroid and yes, they're white and visibile. and i'm ok with that. if it really bothered me, i suppose i could cut two of each element and attach the second one on the inside and make it into another decorated element. for that matter if you really reallllllllly look for the evidence of elements attached to a transparency with tape runner, you can usually find it. again, i'm fine with that. i do take a little extra care to apply the adhesive neatly around the edges, but that's pretty much the extent of my concern. life's too short to obsessively worry about adhesives, imo. especially in an election year, but that's a completely different issue that i refuse to address on a papercrafting blog! :0

meanwhile, over at SOS my lovely design team sisters will be happy to provide you with further evidence that plastic is indeed fantastic; you need merely to hop over and confim that, darlings! ♥

*yes there are plenty of brands of utterly GORGEOUS transparencies being sold for papercrafting. however, i've yet to find any which are as strong as the hambly ones, and thus suitable for making a layery, laureny, loads-o-stuff-piled-on-there cardbase. alas. on the other hand, when hambly was still plentiful i had not yet heard of glitter embossing paste. the gods of craft take away, but they also give...