Friday, October 2, 2009

Mark It on Your Calendar! She Used a Colored Card Base!



Bwwaaa-haaaa-haaa! I feel like all I've done lately is OLCs and white-on-white layering. As you saw in the pictures of my paper storage, I have lots of colored cardstock, so I decided to use a bit of it on this card.

CAS Design Tip: Contrast today's card with the first card on this post. The single ornament is lost in too much white space on the earlier post. The scale is wrong, and to fix it in that case, I added another ornament, which filled the space better. Another solution is to eliminate the expanse of white by using a smaller panel and mounting it on colored cardstock, as with today's card. Easy peasy. Keep this in mind for smaller images that need a little tighter focus than an OLC allows for.

I can't tell you the number of times I set out to make an OLC and end up with a colored base. It's all part of feeling my way toward a finished card. My process is rarely straightforward. I stamp something, stare at it for a while, stare at supplies for a while, decide to try something, decide that didn't work, or maybe it did, think a bit, do something else...etc. Eventually, I realize it's done (Woohoo!) or it didn't work at all (salvage the pieces and start over). I used to get frustrated and mad at myself when a card didn't work out; now I laugh, learn, and move on.

It's just paper, after all.

Art is messy, nonlinear, loose, and most of all, FUN! It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure this out because I'm just a teeny, tiny bit AR/OCD (ha!), and loose and nonlinear and messy aren't in my character. But then, I am starting to believe that the most important part of growing up is not taking myself so seriously. It feels pretty good.

Supplies
stamps: SU Tree Trimmings, PTI Signature Christmas
ink: Palette Noir, Versacolor Atlantic
paper: PTI white, SU brocade blue
accessories: silver metallic pen, dimensionals, silver half-bead

10 comments:

  1. I love this! The blue background is perfect. I'm really loving the projects I've seen with your ornament set and the handwriting set. What a great start to Friday!

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  2. susan,
    thanks once again for a beautiful card. thanks also for the thought provoking parts about fun, growing up, and being happy. it is such a pleasure to visit your blog everyday. have a nice weekend. marty ferraro

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  3. Great card. I love how it changed by adding a colored base.
    I forget that it is only paper sometimes, I treat it like gold. I guess it is okay to 'wreck' a piece now and then.

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  4. Dear Diary,
    Today Susan used a colored card base...LOL! Your card is beautiful!

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  5. Great version of the ornament card! I love reading your about your thought process! Have a great weekend!

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  6. Lindsey aka Cricketeer on SCSOctober 2, 2009 at 4:04 PM

    Your card is so pretty! I have made 15 Christmas cards so far... one has an off-white base, one has a blue base, and the rest? White, of course! tfs your card and commentary.

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  7. Wow, she used a coloured card base and she did it so well.
    I love navy and white Christmas cards.

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  8. Beautiful! Love the colored base...great color combo for this wonderful ornament.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!