Mind. Blown.

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Note 2: Please check out Cheryl's One-Layer Simplicity Challenge: Fabulous Flowers...a perfect challenge for the month of May!!!!


Okay.

When things start getting a little too routine, a little too pat, a little too comfortable, I start getting what my grandmother called "ants in my pants."

Sunday, I took my children to the library and sat fidgeting while my 14-year-old looked for a rated-R movie I could say no to and my 11-year-old looked for Thomas the Tank Engine movies to torture me with because autism does this to parents. Suddenly a light bulb came on over my head, and I decided it was time for mama to check out the design books for a little inspiration.

I found this on the shelf: 1,000 Greetings. It's by the same publisher who brought us 1,000 Bags, Tags, and Labels that inspired me so much a few years ago.

Mind. Blown.

It was just what I needed to blast me out of my complaisant little rut. It's full of cards designed by professional graphic designers for companies to send to clients and customers, and most are not your single half-sheets of standard card stock folded in half. These cards use interesting fold and cuts and textures that got me thinking outside the rectangle and seriously winging off in some wild flights of imaginative fancy.

Oddly, some of the work looked a tad dated, which made me check out the publication date (ten years ago), and the fact I spotted that made me pat myself on the back. The datedness, however, factors not one tiny bit into the quality of inspiration provided by the book. It's sublime!

And here's the first card I made under its fabulous influence.

Close to Eye Level to Show the Design

From Slightly Above to Show the Fold

When smooshed flat, the card is standard 4.25" x 5.5" and will fit in a standard American A2 envelope. It's based on a number of different cards in the book, especially some that used absolutely fabulous black-and-white line drawings with a hint of gray shading for dimension. I'm nowhere near artistic enough to pull  off more directly inspired cards from them...and didn't have stamps to make them work either, but dang, they are awesome.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Grunge Me
Ink: Memento, Hero Arts
Paper: Papertrey white
accessories: Doodlebug enamel dots, Scor-Pal