Our theme for February here on the Scrap Happy blog is Try Something New. “April, it’s March.” you may say. Well, February was a short month so I’m going to continue trying new things.
One of the new things I’m trying is our Calvinball challenge. Calvinball is a FREE event which originated in the Get It Scrapped community. When that group was shuttered the Calvinball torch was passed to Alice Boll of Scrap Happy. I’ve known about Calvinball for many years but I’ve always been a bit intimidated. Just like the Calvinball played by comic strip characters Calvin and Hobbes, the rules of Calvinball are ever changing, no two games are ever the same. I decided that THIS is the year I will jump in and play Calvinball.
Calvinball has permanent rules and temporary rules that can change from day-to-day. You create things to earn points and hope to find yourself at the top of the leaderboard. My aim is to try new things and have some fun. Calvinball welcomes all kinds of crafters. I thought I would share with you my first ever Calvinball creation and then I’ll make it again and show you how I did it. If you want to join the challenge click the Calvinball image at the top of this post to sign up.
Calvinball is hosted in Scrap Happy’s private Circle Community. Each day I log in to see the creations of fellow ‘ballers and check the current rules. This is the card I made for day 1.
Points for this card were calculated as follows
one card = 1/2
Permanent Bonus Points
date your project = 1
stamping = 1
Temporary Bonus Points
Green = 1
Gold = 1
By my calculations this card was worth 4.5 points on the day I made it so I entered that into the points calculator and watched my name creep up a little higher on the leaderboard.
There are additional point opportunities for participating in the Calvinball community and sharing on social media.
Now I will recreate a version of this card in order to share how I did it. The new things I tried were using Nuvo Galcier Paste (because I could get a point for gold) and using Pixie Spray on a stencil.
I sprayed the back of my stencil with Pixie spray and set it aside for a few moments, then the back of the stencil was tacky. I placed my cardstock pieces on my media mat then stuck the stencil to the cardstock. I applied the glacier paste and spread it over the stencil using a Catalyst spatula and scraper. I then removed the stencil, cleaned everything and set the panels aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.
When I made the green card I did not use pixie spray or the catalyst tools. My stars were not as crisp on that card because some of the paste got underneath the stencil. The pixie spray sticks the stencil down and prevents that. It was much easier to spread the paste and there was less waste using the Catalyst tools instead of the palate knife and old credit card which I used on the first card.
To created the shaker I used two heart dies and taped them together to cut the framing element. I taped them together with low tack tape and cut them multiple times. I glued several frame layers together rather than use foam tape to create the height of the shaker well. I also cut a frame in gold to go on top of the acetate window.
Next I used a cloud stencil and blending brushes to create fantasy rainbow clouds.
I cut the pieces with my dies and assembled with Art Glitter Glue. Here is the finished card. The words inside the shaker heart say, “A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles.”
The sentiment on the inside of the card says “Love you, Happy Birthday, Fly High & Dream Big.”
Calvinball points for this card calculated as follows
one card = 1/2
Permanent Bonus Points
date your project = 1
stamping = 1
Temporary Bonus Points
Gold = 1
Sharing points = 1/2 x 5 = 2.5
Write a blog post about a project you created = 1
By my calculation this card is worth 7 points.
Sign Up for Calvinball for FREE HERE
*** Updated Supplies June 24, 2022****
Supplies Used
The A1 Heart Flip It Die that I used to create this card has just been released at The Stamps Of Life 6/24/22
Dotted Hearts (Love You drop-in) from The Stamps of Life
Dream Away Stamps and Dies are also now available from Catherine Pooler