Friday 26 March 2010

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 11 - Peel Offs

Most crafters I have spoken to will admit that their initial tentative journey into cardmaking probably started with a few bits of different coloured cardstock, some stickers and those good old essentials - the peel offs.
**It's also worth adding that the majority of us would inwardly cringe if confronted with one of those early cards now ... and I definitely include myself in that statement.** 
The thing we must remember is that the supplies which we find just a click or a telephone call away from us today, simply weren't available to homecrafters then and ... probably more importantly ... none of us wanted to be spending large amounts of money on fancy products and gadgets that we may or may not use. 
Peel offs and stickers were one of the cheapest and easiest products to use ... so we bought them and fearlessly used them on everything. 
Nowadays we have a multitude of gorgeous products and clever gadgets which help us to achieve a more professional finish on our projects - but the peel off still has it's place in your stash and there are some fabulous designs and wonderful colourways available - in fact to tell the truth, we are positively spoiled for choice.
Our Bah Humbug! Challenge  this week is for you to show us what you can do with yours and feel free to be as basic or creative as you like.
These days the majority of my own peel offs are simple greetings, messages, borders and frames.  They are particularly handy if I need to make a quick card and don't have time to stamp or emboss a greeting or can't be bothered printing one from the PC. 
Just strip'n' stick and it's job done! 
However, 
I also have a few more elaborate designs tucked away that need to be stitched or built into a 3D embellishment for instance ... I somehow never quite get around to using them. 
On this card I have applied simple holographic peel off borders to frame this vintage image before adding adhesive gems which cleverly hide the non-mitred corners.
I scored parallel lines onto the blue backing card and then ran more of the same peel off between those lines to act as a division between the image and the tartan ribbon.  Finally, I randomly attached silver star peel offs to the ribbon and mounted it all onto a white DL card blank.
Not the most complicated thing in the world to do but quite effective just the same.
I'm sure you'll have far more exciting peel off ideas
tickling away at your grey matter, so why don't you share them by joining in our Bah! Humbug! Challenge? 
Who knows?  We may even start a mega-revival of the humble peel off and discover that it can be a far more exciting and versatile product than it looks.  Like so many other things in craftland ... you simply need to know what to do with it.

6 comments:

Claire said...

Gorgeous card Max, those borders really bring the image to life. looks like I'm going to have go and rummage for me peel offs this week
Claire xx

the crafty duck said...

Beautiful card Max, the peel offs finish it perfectly.. I though I was the only one with a guilty peel off stash!!! lots of love Steph

Susan.... said...

Beautiful card Max ! love that image and the ribbon too,nicely finished off with borders and stars !
Hugs
Susan X

ThePurplePlace said...

Hi Max,

Thanks for the information on Peel Offs. I thought you meant stickers, but I can see that Peel Off's are different, and I do NOT have any, so I will have to pass on this Challenge.

I'll be back to try again next week!

Thanks,
Lisa

Rita said...

Wow Max, I can see I'll have to put my thinking cap on for this one. I rarely use peel off's. Hugs Rita xx

KraftyKoolKat said...

A really lovely card Max and a very good use of peel offs. Cathy xxxx