Week 3 - Learning from Mistakes!

This weeks goal: Use a Pre-Made Design from Cricut Design Space

This week I set out to try something new. Last week I used a Youtube tutorial video to guide me through the Cricut Design Space. So, this week I decided to check out a creator account and make a card from a design they made and posted on the design space. The creator I chose goes by "Toko Craft", they had some really cool looking card designs. Once I narrowed it down to three different designs I began to look through my materials and pick out what I wanted to use for my card this week.

Once I decided on my design I resized it to the size of my card and picked out the materials I wanted. I decided that I wanted to give the sparkly sticker paper I had a try. This was not something I have used before so I thought that it was a good idea to challenge myself! Little did I know I was about to get myself into a very frustrating card making experience.

I failed... So many times...

That's right, you read that correctly. I totally failed this week... four times... and wow did I ever get frustrated. The first time I cut out the design it came out perfectly, I was so excited and happy with how it looked. I figured it would be super easy to just pull the sticker backing off and apply it to the folded card that I had ready to go. However, I learned quickly that it was not an easy task to apply such an intricate design onto the card. The sticker ended up getting stuck together and I was unable to salvage it. So, I grabbed a new sheet of sticker paper and tried again. Only this time the cut was not perfect and I had to cancel it half way through because the sticker paper got caught up in the machine. So, once I pulled out all the pieces and cleaned off the cutting mat.. AGAIN, I grabbed some of the sticker paper and tried again. However, this time I did not measure the paper correctly and the cut did not come out the right way. So, there I am... frustrated and ready to just give up  because I had tried THREE times, but I took a deep breath and tried again. Only to fail... AGAIN! This time the cut came out perfect, I had measured the paper correctly, the paper did not lift while it was being cut in the machine, it came out just the way I wanted it to. But, I struggled again with applying the intricate sticker to the card stock, I tried to slowly peel and apply instead of taking it off the sticker sheet all at once and yet, NOTHING, it still got all tangled up. So here I am sitting with a garbage can full of material that I had to scrap, feeling frustrated and defeated and seriously questioning my creative vision.  But, I told myself something that I tell my students all the time... it is OK to make mistakes because they help us learn. So, I re-evaluated what I was doing and problem solved. I cut the design again, and this time instead of using it as a sticker I used my double sided tape and glue to attach the sparkle paper to my card.

So... What Did I Learn This Week?

This week I learned that even though I have experience with using a Cricut I still have A LOT to learn. I also found that some materials work better than others. It is safe to say that I probably won't use this sticker paper for this type of project again. It could be more beneficial for little designs like shapes and symbols but not for a full card design like what I was trying to attempt. I learned that sometimes something can look good in your head but don't always turn out the way you plan. That does not mean that you give up though, it just means that you need to take a step back, re-evaluate what you're doing and try approaching it in a different way. My card may not have turned out the way that I hoped but it was still a cute little card when all was said and done. This week was a trying one, but I am glad I had the failures so that I could go through this type of learning process.