My third card challenge (first challenge that’s not a sketch challenge) comes from Casology, http://casology.blogspot.com/, Week 329: TURN This one’s about keeping it clean and simple; the rules being:
1. One main image 2. Lots of open space, uncluttered 3. Limited layers & embellishments 4. Quick & easy to recreate (Note: It may take a while to create a design you like, but once you have that design, making more should be a piece of cake!)
I already had the Lawn Fawn “hello” cut out, so I went from there. The challenge was in what to add or how to accentuate the hello, as by itself was just way too stark. Clean and simple, yes, but it just seemed too little. Almost like cheating? I don’t recall all my thought processes in this but at some point, I think while looking for a color combo to go with the blue hello, I happened upon the light blue piece of scrap I had. I went with the band in the middle under hello and I think it was just right… what do you think?
To get some more practice and try some new things, I thought I’d start participating in some challenges. I’m starting with the Paper Players PP426. This one’s a sketch challenge, so it’s pretty straightforward. I’m still learning my style and what works well for me. While I’m enjoying exploring ‘mixed media’, I still also like a very clean and simple design. However, I like to think of ways to be unique about what I’m creating, so with the basic layout of this sketch challenge I’m looking to add a twist.
This one started with thinking about the circle and the banner. I didn’t know what I wanted it to say or what colors to start with. As I looked through our supply of dies I found some circles, the medallion, the word Love and then a stamp set with a phrase I thought would fit well with ‘love’. It was beginning to take shape in my mind.
I tend to find myself going to the paper remnants and supply I have immediately at hand, rather than looking through pads. I have this sense of not wanting to waste what we have, while at the same time not wanting to use paper that hasn’t been used yet. In part, I guess, because I feel like I’m still experimenting. At any rate, I found the red & beige diamond pattern paper I wanted to use as the base. I played around with some color combinations, then the bear fur looked like it matched and would serve as the background medallion, and then the grid paper looked like it matched, as well, and would be the inner circle. I had a red paper in mind for the banner but it was a different red than the background paper red, so I didn’t like that. I stuck with just the gray by itself; gray seems to go with a lot of paper.
I cut out ‘love’ and stamped the sentiment phrase. Once the medallion and circle were cut and I laid it all out, Ira mentioned the bear fur medallion seemed to get lost in the diamond pattern. She was right… so I thought I’d try using some distress ink to give it some shading, and while I’m at it, shade the circle and the card. That made a big difference. I then thought to raise the banner. Add some glue and some foam dots, and there you have it!
Love in the Stacks 