Sunday, August 4, 2013

Moody

Moody.  The word describes the weather today and how I've been feeling.  I went for a walk with some friends this morning, and though it was sunny and very hot, there was a kind of brooding in the air, the kind that signals a change. When I got home, I felt sapped of energy.  I feel like I've accomplished next to nothing. But I guess we all have days like that.

I went online to find some moody pictures and I was hit by a blast from the past:  The Moody Blues!  One of my favourite 70's bands!  Remember Nights in White Satin?  So that cheered me up a lot!

I've been working on remastering some old cards for my Technique Nights coming up.  My Stamp Club ladies wanted to do some cards that involved making different kinds of flowers and they had some favourites from my display board.  But I wanted to update them with current products.  I've got two to show you, one today and one tomorrow!

This is the first one.  The original design was created not so long ago, but all the colours and DSP retired, so I had to redesign a bit.
  Here's the original:

This one was hard to beat.  The colours and the background DSP are so perfect.  I tried substituting Blushing Bride for the Regal Rose, but it had nowhere near the vibrancy needed.  It's a much more subdued pink.  Strawberry Slush was over the top in the other direction - just not fragile enough for this stamp set, Everything Eleanor. 

So I went with Crisp Cantaloupe, and it worked well with the Crumb Cake.  Then I went looking for some DSP to put on the side panels of this gate-fold card.  We have many gorgeous Design Series Paper using Crisp Cantaloupe, but they all had too much colour for this design.  Here was one attempt:

But you can see that the background is just too busy, and it competes in an unhealthy way with the floral focal point!  Sigh!  So I went with just Whisper White cardstock.  By itself it was much too stark and made the card look harsh, but when I added some of the flourish in Everything Eleanor stamped in Crumb Cake, I found the Ta-da!  It softens the white without overshadowing the flowers.
Here's the inside of the card:


I went through this process with you today, to give you some idea of the way I go about designing a card. As you can see, there is definitely some trial and error happening.  I'm a very visual person, so I have to see how things look, to know if they are going to work or not.  In the end, I usually get that, "Yes!!" feeling inside when something works well.  It's a very satisfying process!



Starting in August, I am offering a series of 3 classes called DESIGN 101, and it is for stampers who want to take their card making to the next level and start designing their own cards.  I didn't always create original projects.  I started out going to Stamp Club once a month and doing what I was told!

From there, I branched out into CASING designs I found on the Internet.  When I didn't have a stamp or a colour or DSP like the sample I was CASING (CASE - copy and share everything), I would look for alternatives and then I started making my own changes on purpose.  Only when I was confident doing that did I start to make my own designs.  I tell you this because Designing is a skill you can learn.  If you're at that point, ready to step things up, then I recommend that you register for this class.  Check out the information in my new Class Schedule.  You can register for DESIGN 101 here.

Thanks for dropping by on this moody day!  Happy Stamping!


Stamps:  Everything Eleanor (w131987; c124164); Express Yourself (w130336; c130339)* Hostess set only
Paper: Crisp Cantaloupe (131298) and Whisper White (100730) cardstock
Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Crumb Cake (126975) and Crisp Cantaloupe (131176)
Accessories:  Pearl Basic Jewels (119247)
Tools:  Top Note BigZ Die (113463), paper snips (130579)
Everything Eleanor Stamp Set
Pearl Basic Jewels
Paper Snips

Top Note BigZ Die



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