IC553 Black and White Flow

oh, me.

oh, my.

oh, heaven.

oh, me.

oh, my.

oh, so much fun!


I'm lovin' Audrie's Inspiration Challenge IC553 this week. It's Black & White, based on this pinterest board. In just a few hours, I made SEVEN cards and love them all...for very different reasons.

In the process of doing this challenge, a few things occurred to me. First, black and white can be bold and dramatic or soft and subtle; fun and whimsical or elegant and formal. Second, that level of diversity really, really, really appeals to my creativity and gets my flow going.

Let's just say my flow has been dammed up this past week. But it's flowing again, thanks to Audrie and IC553. I'll share the results over the next few days.

Today's two cards show the more formal, elegant appeal of black and white.

Inspiration Source

First up, a very simple, straight-forward square design with a round focal point. Remember that angles love curves. Or curves love angles. Anyway, the dramatic tension between the roundness and squareness adds interest to this super-simple card. It hits the bullseye of symmetry and balance.

Sort of literally.

Next, we take the same basic idea up a level of complexity and give it a funky twist.

Inspired by a number of feather pins like THIS and
art displays like THIS

Here, I've stamped the three smaller feathers from Waltzingmouse's Funky Feathers and punched them out with different positions on the squares: offset to the left, centered, and offset to the right. There's still horizontal symmetry, of course, around the line of the center feather, but it's thrown ever so slightly off by the denser feather on the left and the open feather on the right.

Also, the tri-panel strip is placed low on the card, creating vertical asymmetry. Note that the strip has equal white margins on the left, right, and bottom, but there's lots of glorious white space above it. Ahhh.

These cards are made possible by Memento Luxe tuxedo black ink. Having a super-thick black ink makes all the difference. The key is giving each stamped image a few minutes to dry completely. I start a new card while the previous one dries, and there's a wonderful rhythm to the creative flow.

Flow, baby. Flow!

Supplies
Top Card
stamps: Papertrey Mendhi Medallions

Bottom Card
stamps: Waltzingmouse Funky Feathers

Both Cards
ink: Memento Luxe black
paper: Papertrey white, black
accessories: craft foam, glue, square punches