Hello!
[warning - lengthy computer rant follows. If you want just the stampy bits, scroll down to the picture. If you want to read modern-day David and Goliath story sprinkled with techy-sounding words, read on.] I said I'd be back with something stampy, and I really did try. I tried to scan in a lovely card I made yesterday using only scraps, but my scanner refused to cooperate. Allegedly some other program was using it and I was to wait and try again later. Now I know this to be untrue, as I am the only one using it and there are no other scanny programs running. I am certain that it is a diabolical plot on the part of Paint Shop Pro to come up with new and different ways to torment me each time I try to scan and save a card. I don't want to do anything fancy like do digital collage or photoshop a politician's face on a pumpkin. No, I merely want to scan and add my 'watermark' and possibly enhance the colour, if I can bear the tortuous procedure to do so. Despite my troubles learning to use this sophisticated, and undoubtedly marvellous in the hands of the competent, software, I do harbour suspicions that the real villain might be our operating system. It's a very common OS, and I suspect that this OS or its evil overlord and parent company has cunningly and knowingly designed their software to thwart the use of competitors' product with its operating system. This is possibly groundless paranoia. However, we have been having trouble with our video camera and uploading movies. DH has been unable to upload videos off it with our new system. The operating system people claim that it's not their responsibility, that it's to do with the computer settings so they don't provide a patch. However, we had been able to upload our home movies with earlier versions of this company's operating systems on other machines, including our very elderly and unreliable computer. Arrgh. This has occupied DH for several evenings now, which might not sound like much, but he is normally pretty quick about fixing things of this nature. Sadly, he is but one man, working against the combined might of the overlord's XXIVth and XIIIth Legions stationed in Seattle, with only the clandestine whispers and murmurings of internet chat groups to support him in his struggle. He thinks that it's because the latest version of this OS can't recognize big USB drives. Odd in that storage devices like this have been increasing in capacity in past years, so it seems reasonable to expect that to continue or at least maintain the current capacity. This is why I was reluctant to get into blogging. The least thing goes wrong and I'm completely thwarted. What irks me the most is the mendacious dialogue boxes that pop up and tell me what's wrong. At least the programmers could have had the decency to tell the truth there: "You are getting an error message because this computer hates you and has decided that you should be doing something worthwhile like laundry or cleaning off your dresser top. This scanner will work when it is good and ready and not before. Ok?"
....next day... [basement, scene fraught with tension and (occasionally) suppressed fury. Blogger enters stage left.]....
DH got the scanner going and I was able to load up this card (on the fifth attempt, five different things going wrong, grrrrrrrr), which I made yesterday out of scraps from my stash. I had the black and white background rejected from another project, but it is stamped with a Heather's Stamping Haven stamp (a ship's record), ginkgo leaf (Old Island Stamp Company) and large flower (The Stamp Barn). The black ginkgo panel was a reject from an afternoon spent trying to fake yuzen paper for a class. It's tissue paper glued to black paper and stamped with gold ginkgo leaf. (It looks exactly like ginkgo leaf stamped directly on black paper - hence its arrival in my reject bin.) The hearts are from a scrap of glossy paper coloured with alcohol inks, which I cut out in various heart shape sizes on my Cricut (George cartridge). They are stamped with some Tim Holtz stamps (Stampers Anonymous) using Stazon. The only piece that was a fresh cut was the mustard fleck mat for the white piece. Everything else, even the card base, was from another project. Nice to have a home for all these pieces! Inside I stamped it with my sentiment stamp (Paper Inspirations) that says "Life is the flower of which love is the honey. Victor Hugo."
I'm going to try to use more scraps. I will try to photo the scrap pile before it becomes a card, since I always enjoy those photos on blogs. However, if it adds an additional step that causes the whole effort to fail, I won't bother.
Thanks for stopping by!
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