New card scraplift time and copyrights

Hello-

I am doing OK, other than my usual allergies.   A couple days ago, I was thinking of the cards that I would make for my mom.   In my last post (or somewhere in there), I stated that I had a project.  Mom wanted some Thank You cards, and some Thinking of you cards.  I made the thank you cards, and gave them to her (why I did not take a picture, I will never know), anyway, I took a picture of the first batch of TOY cards (Funny how the acronym spells toy, LOL.) Any way, it is a scraplift card.   A scraplift is project previously made by someone else.  You like it so much, until you have to make one of your own, sometimes in your own interpretive way, because you often do not have the exact materials that the original person used for the project.  At least that is my way of thinking about it.    I am going to let you ponder that for a moment, as I will get back to the subject later on.

Original card, Copyrighted by Papertrey ink

This is the original card, made by the blogger at Papertrey Ink.  I like this card for its simplicity, but the card looks complicated.  First of all, the card has a white card blank, with a Kraft cardstock mat. On the mat itself, the design was done with this technique:   The person took a mask, and dabbed white ink on it, so the mask can act as a stencil.  When the mask is lifted, it reveals an imprint.  Next the person edged out the mat with the same white ink, to soften the edges.   For the sentiment, it was stamped in black ink, and there are actually six different cardstock papers in a block formation.   The papers were first cut in strips, and glued to the back of the foundation paper, which I assume was white.  That made one sheet.   Then that sheet was cut into strips to make the blocks on the paper.  
There are other ways to achieve this look.  First of all, you can stamp color ink on the white strip.  The problem for me is this can get a little messy, and you have to wait until the other colors dry completely, before applying the sentiment.  Doing it this way is also time consuming.  You can always use a heat gun to dry it, but that may make the paper curl up, or holding it too close to the heating gun may cause it to burn.  To make time go faster, you can always digitize the whole thing.    In other words, use the computer for the blocks of color as a background, and the sentiment.  This is nice if you are in a hurry, and you do not mind making a hybrid card.   Hybrid cards combines the use of both traditional and digital scrapbooking and card making.  It also is great for people who do not like the look of their own handwriting.
The final step for this card is to place the strip in front of the stamped image, and rounding the corners.

Now for my version of this card:

My version of this card.

I usually have mats on my cards, but for this one, I decided to go "Au Natural" with it.  I want to start by explaining the strip itself.  I did the same thing, except I cheated.  I printed on separate sheet of paper, "Thinking of You", instead of doing it on the strip itself.   On thing that I am learning how to do (but have not quite mastered it yet) is where to print on the paper.  It can be done, but at this time, I am chicken, and I have messed up some perfectly good paper for that cause, too.  For this, I use a cheater method for printing on paper.  Sure, I could have used vellum, but I was not thinking about that at the time.  Oh well, next time, I have some strips left (four cards worth.).   Next, I enlisted the help of my Cricut E2 machine, and used the preloaded cartridge Cricut American Alphabet for the image, and I just glued the die cut to the card, but not before I split it in half.  I put both halves on the card, and positioned the strip just like the original card.  To raise it, I put pop dots behind it.

Now for the Materials:
 On the original, all materials used for this project was by Papertrey ink.   Go here to look at all of their products.   I love their products, and I highly recommend this company.   For my materials, the card blank is from Stampin Up!, and the strips of color paper is from a stash pack purchased at Pizazz-It, a LSS whose last day of business was Sunday.   I will truly miss them.   All but 3 LSS have closed up, and now the Central Ohio community is left with just big box scrapbooking stores (Mike's, Joann, and Archiver's.)
I recommend that you give Scraplifting a try.   If you are hesitant, don't worry, read on...

Copyright

This is my opinion, and my opinion only.   If you still have doubts about Scraplifting, please research, but what I am about to say is true and just:   For you own personal scrapbooking and other paper-crafts, when you are stumped for ideas, it is OK to use someone else's work, IF it will stay within your personal space to be shared with family and friends.  Many companies with angel policies state this on their websites.  Also, this is where your personal research comes into play.  In the case, between me and my mom, she wanted me to make her some cards, and she is family, for her to give to the rest of the family and her friends.   That is as far as it gets there.   I put up a disclaimer on this blog, stating that these designs are my designs alone, unless I scraplift.  When I scraplift, I give credit where credit is due, in this case it is Papertrey Ink, and I do my homework, BEFORE attempting anything.
For example, Provo Craft has an angel policy which allows a crafter to sell their creations 200 times per image, per cartridge a month.   This does not mean you can take a cupcake die cut image and make 200 pillows out it, then 20 cakes, then 100 cards with that same image.   It means 200, period.   Now, the Cricut police probably will not be on my doorstep if I do 201 images per cartridge, per month, but still it keeps me in check. (At least they did not when I cranked out 400 + tags over the Christmas holiday for a client who ended up not paying for them.) Also stated in that angel policy is where you can sell your creations with their die cuts on them.  You cannot sell that item in retail stores, but you can sell on places like Ebay, Etsy, and craft fairs.   You also cannot sell the images themselves, anywhere, and you cannot rent out the cartridges for profit.   I know of a couple of LSS who were issued warning letters from PC.
My motto is "when in doubt, check it out."  It makes me feel better when I am able to share with you .   It also makes me feel better when I start my own stamp line in the future.
Well that is it for today.   Take care, and God Bless You.