More beachiness...

...beach balls, in fact.

Actually, they started out as ornaments. Remember these?

Angie will show you how to make them if you're not sure...

Yes, the glitter didn't quite reach the top. Poor old ornament - he didn't think he'd be on show for the whole world when he first came to life.

So the ornament concept can be used on cards too. I started by making the sun ones first and then moved onto the beach balls second.

Decided to put the beach balls first because the cards are smaller. It's all about visual weight, even on the blog...

This beach ball's got five folded sections with the red one being in the middle. Red's always good in the middle.

And note the background? It's the same Lines and Circles Sizzix embossing folder from yesterday...and yes, it's upside down. That is, it's de-embossed, rather than embossed. It wasn't a mistake.

Okay, it was a mistake on the yellow card below, but it wasn't a mistake on this one. I decided when I noticed I'd done it the wrong way that it was, in fact, the right way, so I went with it and did it again.

You can't make a mistake in card making unless you deem it to be so. And we know what happens when that happens...you chuck it in the old bin-o.

Here's another beach ball card. Spot the difference?

Bahama blue background (Bazzill card) - check

Lakeshore blue scallop square (Bazzill again) - check

Paper Crimper background (Marvy) - check (and it's so fun)

Yep, the beach ball has six sections instead of five. I think five sections look better because there's a middle one. Your thoughts?

Here's the mistake card.

The de-embossed card if you will.

I deemed it not to be a mistake because when do you go to the beach and not see anything de-embossed in the sand?

Exactly!

You can't really tell, but I used two different colours of yellow (Beeswax and Candle from Bazzill for the sun - it's a sun on this card).

And here's another, but with a couple of differences again.

The very fun Paper Crimper (or Corrugator) background and you can just see the thin line of Crystal Stickles around the edge.

A note on the Corrugator...

I herefore and hencewith state that I will be calling the Crimper by the correct name of Corrugator from now on.

This is for two reasons:

1. It's called a Corrugator

2. I'm Australian and if anyone knows anything about corrugations it's us Aussies! Corrugated iron, corrugated roads...

Andrew and I must be very Australian...we have a corrugated iron roof and two corrugated iron water tanks. No, we don't live in the sticks, we live in the city and that's what's so good about it. You can live in the city and have corrugated stuff and people don't bat an eye. Actually they give you the nod for keeping the dream alive.

Okay, enough cheese, but seriously, we have corrugated stuff all over the place. The chook shed is made from it too. That's expected though, what else do you make a chook shed from?

Just so you know, the tanks and the roof are made from a premo product called Colourbond - it's corrugated steel (yes, Andrew? I don't know all this stuff...he does) and it comes in nice colours. Our roof is cream and our tanks are dark blue. That sounds a bit weird, but it's not. They're nice.

Summary of this blog post?

1. The Corrugator from Marvy is a fun tool.

2. We Aussies know a thing or two about corrugations.

3. Craft is a launching pad for interesting discussions about the geographical and cultural similarities/differences of our time.

4. (another point that came out of this blog post just now as I was typing the summary) Anyone who thumbs their nose at craft is....well, sad. We, as a response, say nothing and just sit at our desks surrounded by fun papers, tools and bits and pieces and smile to ourselves and know that we are rich because of how we choose to spend our time. And we also know we live calmer lives because of it. And we also know we don't talk about how much it costs. We know that, don't we?

Summary of the summary?

1. Corrugator rocks

2. Australia rocks

3. Craft rocks

4. We don't mock anyone who doesn't get that.

If you've made it to the end of this blog post, I congratulate you!

(And I appreciate you because you rock too)

Bye now,

Debra the Corrugator?

Debra the Cheese-in-ator?

Hmmm, okay, just Debra.

:o)

Edited to add: You won't believe this, but I just pulled out my postage stamps to whack one on an envelope and guess what they were?

Corrugated Landscapes!

Yep, that's right. Amazing, hey?

The booklet was called Corrugated Landscapes (20 stamps) and the pics were of an old shed, an old water tank, an old building and a new building - all corrugated, of course. Well, it was just weird is what it was...but cool too.