Character Swap - Progress Thread - COMPLETE & FINISHED

[Mischief_Managed]

I can add jewls to the crown but i can't think of any other ways to embellish the stuff without making it look tacky or over kill.

I thinks that's one of my concerns too. Recently, all the swaps have been to embellish two ways - but they haven't always been. I'm a swapper that likes clean cuts, clean pieces, clean everything. Inking and tearing has its place on certain themes (like Pirates or boy things). And stickles looks good on girly things. But when we are embellishing things two ways just to make the quota, and not taking into consideration what actually looks good, I think we are defeating the swapper's artistic license and creativity.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, but never brought it up. I probably should have started my own thread to discuss this and not hijack this one. But I think Disney_Rider made a good point about the tackiness of some double embellishments.

NOTE: I make my comments the nicest way, and I am not looking for any justification here because I don't want to put you on the spot, DIT. Like I said, I just wanted to make my comments based on Disney_Riders' concern. Sorry if I offend anyone - I don't mean to.

 

[Disney_rider]

I thinks that's one of my concerns too. Recently, all the swaps have been to embellish two ways - but they haven't always been. I'm a swapper that likes clean cuts, clean pieces, clean everything. Inking and tearing has its place on certain themes (like Pirates or boy things). And stickles looks good on girly things. But when we are embellishing things two ways just to make the quota, and not taking into consideration what actually looks good, I think we are defeating the swapper's artistic license and creativity.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, but never brought it up. I probably should have started my own thread to discuss this and not hijack this one. But I think Disney_Rider made a good point about the tackiness of some double embellishments.

NOTE: I make my comments the nicest way, and I am not looking for any justification here because I don't want to put you on the spot, DIT. Like I said, I just wanted to make my comments based on Disney_Riders' concern. Sorry if I offend anyone - I don't mean to.

Thank you. I concur you and I must have similar scraping styles.

 

[DisneyIsTerrific]

I thinks that's one of my concerns too. Recently, all the swaps have been to embellish two ways - but they haven't always been. I'm a swapper that likes clean cuts, clean pieces, clean everything. Inking and tearing has its place on certain themes (like Pirates or boy things). And stickles looks good on girly things. But when we are embellishing things two ways just to make the quota, and not taking into consideration what actually looks good, I think we are defeating the swapper's artistic license and creativity.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, but never brought it up. I probably should have started my own thread to discuss this and not hijack this one. But I think Disney_Rider made a good point about the tackiness of some double embellishments.

NOTE: I make my comments the nicest way, and I am not looking for any justification here because I don't want to put you on the spot, DIT. Like I said, I just wanted to make my comments based on Disney_Riders' concern. Sorry if I offend anyone - I don't mean to.

I agree that sometimes embellishing two ways without making it look tacky can be a challenge and I've had trouble coming with ideas on my things as well. Some pieces are harder than others to embellish, like shapes. If you are doing 4 shapes as one of your elements and can only figure out 1 way to embellish without making it look tacky, then check with me to see if I'll agree to you doing more shapes (like a total of 6 instead of 4) to compensate for only embellishing 1 way. I will work with you, just ask me if you aren't sure or if you want to do something a bit different.

AR, AWM had some good ideas on embellishing your pieces and making the Aurora into a tag. For the Mickey Mouse set, since it will be hard to embellish those shapes, why don't you cut out the letters MICKEY with a shadow to go with that group. That will be extra pieces and I will accept it as a complete set with that addition.

I'm sorry if I seem to be too hard on this or being too picky, but I want everyone to get even sets of pieces when they get their swap back.

 

[hopemax]

I can only speak for my own swaps, but the purpose of the requirements, I thought was, so that each person receives a quality item. It doesn't really happen now, but when I first started doing swaps, you could tell which pieces were put together with not much thought or care and at the last minute. The requirements help alleviate that. And I think people generally know when they are slacking on an element. But not all "quality" elements fit into nice describable boxes. That's why when questions arose on my flock swap thread, I posted the questions: Would you want it in your book, do you think others would want it, etc. If you can honestly answer yes, than that is what is important to me.

Again, for my swaps, I would consider some of the Cricut embellishments almost as mini-paper piecings, and as such, paper piecings don't need embellishing. They take work to cut out, and assemble. It's not like the previously mentioned early swaps, where some pieces were little more than 2 rectangles glued together. But because they are small, and have less layers I would say you need more than just one or two to equal an element. Before I owned my own Cricut, and I did that surprise swap where I remade my old pieces, I traded for several pieces and those smaller elements, I traded 3 3" pieces for one element. That said, however, I prefer when people do something besides than just make the Cricut embellishments, because, frankly, I have a Cricut of my own. How did they take that Cricut piece, many of us have, and make it unique? Did they mount it on a tag, turn it into a journal box, add stickles or something to make it pop, etc. I would have considered the 4 pieces in the Mickey group as enough, but I think I would have liked to either have seen the Princess pieces embellished more, or additional pieces made.

But this isn't my swap, it's DisneyIsTerrific's and she is free to interpret the requirements as strictly or lax as she is comfortable with.

 

[Disney_rider]

I am going to do 2 additional peices for the Sleeping beauty set and I'll be adding a bunch of jewels & inking the bottom Layer od the title (even though it looks horrid).
But I did ink one of the extra mickey shoes I had and I have to say I wouldn't use it in my book. And I put some clear stickle on it and it looks worse.Oh well
And I do understand why this was put out there...it's to get keep a standard of good swap stuff and to keep the sub-par stuff out but there is a point to where you have to say that's just too much.But I've never been told my stuff was bad and I only use Bazzill in all my scrapbooking and I rarely use my printer for anything.This is the first time I've ever come to this sort of road block...but I'll get though it I'm a little Martha Stewart-ish in my perfection so I'll let it go and move on.
I'll just be more careful in the future

 

[123SA]

I am going to do 2 additional peices for the Sleeping beauty set and I'll be adding a bunch of jewels & inking the bottom Layer od the title (even though it looks horrid).
But I did ink one of the extra mickey shoes I had and I have to say I wouldn't use it in my book. And I put some clear stickle on it and it looks worse.Oh well
And I do understand why this was put out there...it's to get keep a standard of good swap stuff and to keep the sub-par stuff out but there is a point to where you have to say that's just too much.But I've never been told my stuff was bad and I only use Bazzill in all my scrapbooking and I rarely use my printer for anything.This is the first time I've ever come to this sort of road block...but I'll get though it I'm a little Martha Stewart-ish in my perfection so I'll let it go and move on.
I'll just be more careful in the future

Surina -- are you in a postion to hold off for a day on finishing this? No one wants you to make a piece that you are not proud to submit. I'm pretty sure Stephanie is not a night owl like me and is probably in bed at this point.

 

[Disney_rider]

Surina -- are you in a postion to hold off for a day on finishing this? No one wants you to make a piece that you are not proud to submit. I'm pretty sure Stephanie is not a night owl like me and is probably in bed at this point.

I'm working on my Darby stuff right now so I'm just gonna leave it alone for tonight.

this what I've done for her I braded and inked

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

This is not my swap, but it clearly states in the sign ups - embellish two ways. If this is going to be a problem, then think about what you are going to make and how you might embellish it before signing up. All my swaps will say - embellish two ways- I am totally okay with any one not wanting to sign up because of it.

It has been up to each hostess to decide how to enforce the two way in her swap if she choices to use that rule. Which of course can lead to some confusion. I think Hope's questions; "Would you use it, are you proud of it, would you want one like it in return for your items?"; is a good starting point.

If something can't be embellished more than once, every hostess has accepted an extra piece or two to make up for it. With the die cut icons, they are cute, but like Hope said, most of us can make them ourselves now. For the surprise swap, someone took those very same Mickey icons and put them on triple matted squares. They looked adorable. And they were embellished two ways - extra layer on square, shadow on icon - two ways and not icky or forced looking.

This isn't the place to hash out our ideas and different opinions. DIT interpretation stands. This is her swap. Her rules.

PS-the brads look like they belong on those elements.

 

[SusieStone]

I'm working on my Darby stuff right now so I'm just gonna leave it alone for tonight.

this what I've done for her I braded and inked

That is so cute. I love the colors. The ink and brads on the title really set it off.

 

[DisneyIsTerrific]

I am going to do 2 additional peices for the Sleeping beauty set and I'll be adding a bunch of jewels & inking the bottom Layer od the title (even though it looks horrid).
But I did ink one of the extra mickey shoes I had and I have to say I wouldn't use it in my book. And I put some clear stickle on it and it looks worse.Oh well

Now you know that the point of the embellishing is NOT to make something look, as you say, "horrid." You've been given some great ideas in other posts in this thread and if something doesn't look right to you, then don't do it. Try something else. You don't need to add a "bunch of jewels" to embellish. 1 small jewel in the "I" in the title and 1 jewel on the crown would look pretty. If you cannot come up with anything that "works" to make you happy, then get with me and we can discuss adding a piece or 2 extra to make up for it.

If you feel you can't follow the requirements that were posted at sign-up, then now is the time to back out and I'll do the groups. My goal here is just for everyone to be happy with the pieces that they receive back in this swap. If you aren't happy with what you send, then chances are the person receiving them isn't going to be happy either.

As for the Darby set, I love it!

 

[estherhead]

OK, this is my thrid swap and you guys have so super confused me! LOL. I may never be the same. Now I'm wondering if my last swap I embellished enough or layered enough or what not. I know they are all different but still...

For my own use (not to get involved in whatever it is that started the conversations) but: If I make a 5" Beast from my Cricut that counts as 1 element, right? Then if I make 1 title with double layering (not in the directions but I think fairly obvious) and the little ivy with Mrs. Pots on it in the corner that says "Be My Guest" have I fulfilled the requirements because this is what I was pondering doing for Beast but now I'm wondering if it isn't something that people would think they could do on their own?

 

[DisneyIsTerrific]

OK, this is my thrid swap and you guys have so super confused me! LOL. I may never be the same. Now I'm wondering if my last swap I embellished enough or layered enough or what not. I know they are all different but still...

For my own use (not to get involved in whatever it is that started the conversations) but: If I make a 5" Beast from my Cricut that counts as 1 element, right? Then if I make 1 title with double layering (not in the directions but I think fairly obvious) and the little ivy with Mrs. Pots on it in the corner that says "Be My Guest" have I fulfilled the requirements because this is what I was pondering doing for Beast but now I'm wondering if it isn't something that people would think they could do on their own?

esther, you did a great job in the school swap and I'm sure you'll do a great job on this one too. For your Beast, yes, the 5" Beast will count as 1 element since he's a paper piecing and will be at least 4". And, yes as well on the title box needing to be double matted. Your idea of putting the ivy with Mrs. Potts on the title box and the word "Be My Guest" sounds really great. I can't wait to see it! And, yes, those 2 pieces will meet the requirements.

 

[Arizona Rita]

And for those of you who are wondering, there are people like me out there who still appreciate any and all Cricut pieces because we dont all have cricuts or havnt progressed to doing characters yet!

 

[estherhead]

Thanks for your quick reply! I may actually get to work on these today so it's nice to know. I may make the title not the traditional 8x2 also as I think a rectangle might look better with the bowing Beast.

And yes, Rita, I know what you mean about the Cricut as I don't have all of the cartridges and really appreciate getting pieces from the ones I don't have like Tink or Lightening McQueen. Unless they get REALLY cheap I probably won't get them so it's nice to get stuff from them for doing stuff from the ones I do have.

 

[Disney_rider]

Wow ok I didn't mean to start a firestorm.
But I can and will finish my groups I'll just make more stuff.I'm not one to give up.
I have done other swaps this year and no-one has called me out on anything so i guess I'm doing something right.
And even though I have a cricut and all but 3 of the carts I love getting cricut stuff it's less work for me.
But just to clarify sooo if I put a shadow mat that counts as an embellishment? so anything about 2 layers? Honestly I've never known that...
I've never been one to do Qoutes or songs but I have to admit the one I did for Darby was super easy.
And I know I come off brash and hard but none of it's aimed at anyone it's just me I guess.Please don't think I'm copping an attitude I just come off like that in e-mails, I type the same as I talk. So I'm sorry if I got anyone mad or ruffled feathers. I just needed the clarification. And guessing from the number of PM's I've gotten it looks like people were pretty happy that I brought it up.
At least I did one thing right (i think)
But I will be very careful in the future what I choose to do, And I hope this doesn't hurt my chances of being in other swaps in the future.

 

[SusieStone]

You are welcome to swap with me any time.

Wow ok I didn't mean to start a firestorm.
But I can and will finish my groups I'll just make more stuff.I'm not one to give up.
I have done other swaps this year and no-one has called me out on anything so i guess I'm doing something right.
And even though I have a cricut and all but 3 of the carts I love getting cricut stuff it's less work for me.
But just to clarify sooo if I put a shadow mat that counts as an embellishment? so anything about 2 layers? Honestly I've never known that...
I've never been one to do Qoutes or songs but I have to admit the one I did for Darby was super easy.
And I know I come off brash and hard but none of it's aimed at anyone it's just me I guess.Please don't think I'm copping an attitude I just come off like that in e-mails, I type the same as I talk. So I'm sorry if I got anyone mad or ruffled feathers. I just needed the clarification. And guessing from the number of PM's I've gotten it looks like people were pretty happy that I brought it up.
At least I did one thing right (i think)
But I will be very careful in the future what I choose to do, And I hope this doesn't hurt my chances of being in other swaps in the future.

 

[missesdisney]

Checking in! Have done nothing but not forgotten. Have to get my flock and paper piecing out the door with the quickness then can look at these.

 

[123SA]

Wow ok I didn't mean to start a firestorm.
But I can and will finish my groups I'll just make more stuff.I'm not one to give up.
I have done other swaps this year and no-one has called me out on anything so i guess I'm doing something right.
And even though I have a cricut and all but 3 of the carts I love getting cricut stuff it's less work for me.
But just to clarify sooo if I put a shadow mat that counts as an embellishment? so anything about 2 layers? Honestly I've never known that...
I've never been one to do Qoutes or songs but I have to admit the one I did for Darby was super easy.
And I know I come off brash and hard but none of it's aimed at anyone it's just me I guess.Please don't think I'm copping an attitude I just come off like that in e-mails, I type the same as I talk. So I'm sorry if I got anyone mad or ruffled feathers. I just needed the clarification. And guessing from the number of PM's I've gotten it looks like people were pretty happy that I brought it up.
At least I did one thing right (i think)
But I will be very careful in the future what I choose to do, And I hope this doesn't hurt my chances of being in other swaps in the future.

A few hostesses are going to discuss some of the issues brought up here so that we all know what the expectations are. Surina -- rest assured, asking questions is a good thing and we like to swap with you!

Stephanie is a new hostess dealing with a tough issue here and has sought advice. We are working on it.

 

[hopemax]

Here's another idea that I thought of, after talking with DR about the upcoming DL swap.

For me, I am thinking that the embellishment does not necessarily have to be attached to the piece. So, you could: cut a small Cricut icon piece, but not attach it to a title. Or, on many titles, people will put brads in the corners. So instead of putting brads in the corners, then just include 4 brads, or a yard of ribbon/fiber, or a few buttons, etc.

So as an alternative, when someone thinks all other ways of embellishing would decrease the quality of the piece. Not as a first choice of doing things.

 

[AlexWyattMommy]

Hope, now that you are here, I'm going to be sending an email so we, as hostesses. can figure this out. Its too hard to reply to all on the boards.

Whatever is decided, will be for future opened swaps. What is current, it is up to each hostess to decide. That is the only fair way to do this.


PS-Surina, hee hee, I bet you are hoot in real life. I would love to hang with your attitude.