DEM DARNED DINGBATS

if you've ever seen a 'DINGBAT' font, you'll know there are several different styles.  what fun!  although some are quite easy to use, others are a little more tricky.  i like to challenge myself, mostly because after all the teeth gritting, mumbling choice words under my breath and scratching my head wondering what the.......they really are nice when all is said/done.  before you even get started, do you like putting puzzles together?  that's exactly what you'll be doing if you've chosen one like this with all its' bitty pcs.  so let's have some fun!

if you have alot of small pcs, i would suggest making it large enough without it tearing when being cut. i made mine large enough to fit on an 8 1/2"x4 3/4 card.  i love the black cardstock from walmart.  when placing your cut, give yourself at least 1" on all sides of the cut so it looks like this:

carefully remove the negative, leaving your cut on your mat.  you may have a few rips and tears, but this is probably the hardest part getting that off without pcs coming with it..just pay attention to your pcs and where they are.  once your negative is off your mat, you'll have this:

next i get the piece i'll be putting the cut on... ready by just tacking it down so it won't move on my workspace.  then, lining up your negative straight over the top and using removeable adhesive, tack that down as well.

 
don't let this scare you off.  it isn't as bad as it looks.  

start taking your pieces off the mat, (i always start at one end and go as much in order as i can) and with a glue pen start 'putting your puzzle' together.  as i go along, i'll start snipping away at the neg. to get rid of paper in my way.  just be careful to 'not snip away' what you'll still need. 

you may want to gently keep lifting your neg. every so often to make sure it isn't getting glued down.

once all your pcs are glued in place, gently take off the rest of your negative and rub away any temporary adhesive.  now you're ready to place your mat onto your card base. 

now it's time to embellish.  

i wasn't for sure if the cross part was negative or positve, so i took the pieces and put them on the inside. either way i think it would look ok.   this also give a little  'extra' in the card.

unfortunately, when you download a dingbat font, the name of it doesn't come along...when i open mine, i get images of the alphabet.  this is some asian one, i don't know.  but it has some really cool dingbats!  i 'think' these are the letters T-U-V.  play around and have fun!  i think the dragon at the top might be a letter K.

just don't let these cool images scare you.  i really like them!  there is a really nice christmas dingbat that when you put some of the letters together, make nice borders.  another dingbat has childrens heros...too cool!  best of all!  they're free at  www.dafont.com 

thanks for visiting.

(((hugs)))