Playing with a Design Idea: Three Variations

A reminder to winners Janet and Jeanne H....please send me your snail mail addresses so I can send you the cards you won! susanraihala at roadrunner dot com

So occasionally, an idea comes to me (directly or indirectly) that begs to be played with it. Sometimes, my first effort is...inadequate? slightly off? weird? Whatever words you use, it just doesn't work. But if I believe in the basic design idea enough, I'll start riffing off of it, messing around until the results justify my initial excitement.

A key element of creativity is PLAY.

The first card today reflects that initial "meh" effort of a color-blocking idea I had after seeing a pin that I failed to pin and now cannot find. Oh, well. This card is far from the original anyway, and definitely not a winner.

Meh. A.K.A. What Not to Do
Stamps: Papertrey Grunge Me, Clearly Besotted A Little Sentimental;
ink: Hero Arts cornflower, green hills, Memento Luxe black

This ended up being a mess. The spatters in two different colors are sloppy looking, not at all artsy. The solid block stops the design on the right, which to my eye pretty much kills the energy of the splatters.

As design goes, it just does not work.

So I switched things around, went for a monochromatic green with soft, watercolor effects, and switched the solid block to the left. Much better!

Much better!!! Stamps: Hero Arts background, Gina K sentiment; inks:
Memento markers, Memento Luxe dark cocoa

For a static, color-block design, this has so much movement, from the white flourishes to the flowing green faux-watercolor wash. (These stamps were inked messily with sprout and bamboo Memento markers, spritzed with water, and stamped. Easy peasy!)

While the soft watercolor looks great, I wanted to try again with a crisper image and a funkier placement of the color blocks. Here's the final variation:

The sentiment on a thin white panel works much better than the solid panel did (wish I'd taken pictures before tossing the solid panel). The white panel lightens everything up. This arrangement gives an asymmetrical interest to the combination of large and thin panels that feels fresher to me and certainly clean and simple!

So there you go. Three variations of a single idea...and two of them actually worked! Give this process a try, if you haven't already. See how playing around can get your creativity flowing!