Thursday, May 1, 2014

Mind. Blown.

Note 1: There is a known problem with FeedBurner email subscriptions. If you are not receiving your Simplicity or OLS Challenge emails, please know that it isn't my fault! FeedBurner may or may not be fixing the problem, and Yahoo and Gmail may or may not be fixing the problem. As soon as I hear something, I will pass the information along.

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

11 comments:

  1. Awesome!!! I have that set and never know how to use it!! Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love that fold and your stamping, Susan!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah for fabulous inspiration!! Looking forward to more of your C&S work, which in turn inspires me!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, lovely, and totally inspired me as I have my sister in laws birthday card to make and brother in law too!! Think I'll do a CASE of this for his card!

    ReplyDelete
  5. fun card...
    I am also getting messages from some of my followers that they are not receiving updates either. I have absolutely no clue how to fix it so will just have to let it be for now. Hopefully they will get on top of this and get it all worked out.
    Have a great wknd. mf.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love it! "It" meaning: the card, and how you found the book just when you needed it, and then you shared with us.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Way to knock it out of the park!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, my mind is blown, too! I've never seen the word complaisant before. I was picturing the spelling as complacent, so I had to look it up. Apparently complaisant means eager to please, which is quite different than complacent. No wonder people say English is difficult! Well, I've already learned something new today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, English IS difficult. I try to avoid feeling complacent (conceited, smug) at all costs, but complaisant comes all too easily to me.

      Delete

Thank you so much for taking time to comment!