Coping with Mistakes While Using the Jack of All Trades Add-On Wild Joker

Hello crafters! Joan Bardee here having fun using the new Wild Joker die set, an addition to the amazing Jack of All Trades Collection by the even more amazing Jaycee Gaspar. The set consists of dies that form a large Joker image and a Joker sentiment. You can use all or part of the joker image on a card, or even some of the smaller elements on their own. Went through my usual angst making this card – second guessing color choices, worrying about the details, making mistakes, etc. Follow along with me and decide whether my mistakes are deal breakers or not worth thinking about.

WILD JOKER

I love how this turned out. The Wild Joker Etched Dies steal the show and I bet, looking at this photo, you can’t see any of the mistakes. We’ll get to that. In the meantime, here is how I made this card.

• After playing with my swatches of ColorWheel Cardstock, chose Oceanside, Cascade, Windy, and Indigo with a touch of Poppy and Mirror Gold. Oceanside is a fabulous dark blue-green, and Cascade, Windy, and Indigo are true blues, but I loved how they worked together. By emphasizing the darker shades, Indigo and Oceanside, the card has a dramatic feel. Use more of the pale blue Windy, and you will get a softer look.
• Inked up the gorgeous Deluxe Deck Press Plates with dark blue ink.
• Ran the press plate the through the BetterPress LetterPress using Oceanside ColorWheel cardstock. Trimmed to an A2 size (5 and ½ x 4 and ¼ inches).
• With my Platinum 6, Die cut all the Wild Joker pieces in a variety of the colors in my palette. You will see later that I switched out some of the colors.
• Built the joker following the Spellbinders sample. Almost all the pieces of my joker are double, or triple, stacked using Bearly Arts Glue. This gives a beautiful heft to the joker but reflects the fact that I changed my mind on where which colors looked best in different parts of the joker. It happens, but it caused one of my mistakes.
• Adhered the Wild Joker to the Oceanside panel with foam tape. Dimension is something I add to almost every card.
• Trimmed and scored Oceanside cardstock to make an A2 side folded card and glued the panel onto the card. Trimmed a smaller white panel for the inside of the card.
• Adhered a few Gold Mix Color Essential Gems. Love a good sparkle.
• Forgot a sentiment. This is a rookie mistake, but it happens. Die cut the Joker sentiment in Poppy and lined the back of the letters with Mirror Gold cardstock. Luckily, the sentiment snuggled right into the left corner. Not my usual spot, but it worked.

TIP: Stretching your supplies stretches your wallet, and who doesn’t love that? Check out the small dies in every set. In Wild Joker, there is one die that cuts out 3 tiny cards. You can use these tiny rectangles to form an awesome colorful background on another card. That’s on my to-do list.

DEALING WITH MISTAKES

Suspect that the way each of us makes cards reflects our personalities and how we approach everything else in life. When I was working, I edited everything I wrote multiple times until I was happy, and I still worried about it. It’s hard for me to let go of a final product. I re-made portions of this card when the mistakes ruined it for me, but I left a few in. See what you think.

• Check out the tiny red card with the gold heart. The heart is not centered. It’s off to the left. Minor infraction.
• Next up is the Poppy cuff on the sleeve. The sleeve was originally in Windy (pale blue) and the hand was in Oceanside, but I decided the change both to create more contrast. Changed the sleeve to Poppy, but I didn’t glue it carefully enough and you can see the Windy peeking out. Not happy, but I can live with this.
• Finally, the Indigo portion of the pointy color beneath the joker’s smile has some white flecks on it. Glue got on my hands and transferred to the cardstock. I tried to remove it, but it didn’t work. On the scale of card crimes, this really bothers me. I should have remade this piece.
• Showed the card to my husband and asked if he could see any mistakes. He examined it like he was looking under a microscope and that perfectionist didn’t notice anything. So -- just maybe -- we can be too hard on ourselves.
• Bottom line - some mistakes are deal breakers. For example, a crooked sentiment is unacceptable. Others are ok. You are the maker. You get to decide. It’s a hobby. Be kind to yourself.

Tip: To save time and avoid mistakes, assemble everything without adhering any of the pieces. Then take a photo. There’s something about seeing a card through a photo that makes my color choices and any mistakes more apparent.

I hope you enjoyed this visit with the Wild Joker! Thanks for reading along and thanks to Spellbinders.

Other supplies

Dark blue ink