Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Fall Whimsy

The leaf and acorn stamps on these cards are from an old retired set from StampinUp called Fall Whimsy. I love this set, but it's sort of hard to work into my style, and the jury's out on how I feel about these two cards. I thought I'd share my thoughts on them anyway.



First up, the leaves. I adore the ruler-drawn boxes (bet you knew that already) but I'm not sure it works with this sort of loose line drawing. It works great on this card with the classic line flower from PTI's Friends 'til the End set, though. Here, I started with the one large leaf on the left, stamped the sentiment (hero arts) and drew the lines. Wow, it looked boring. So I masked the lines and started randomly stamping more leaves. I really can't decide if the contrast between the straight lines/right angles and leafy curves works or not. What do you think? You can be honest and not hurt my feelings.



I love this little acorn. I think its jaunty dots and feathery looking leaf make the image so appealing to me. It's a HAPPY acorn. The sentiment is, I think, too big for the card, and a smaller script autumn would make for better balance. The scallop circle is just a bit too far left, don't you think? I tried scooting it a bit more right but then autumn was squished. A possible fix would be to put the same design on a long, thin card, rather than the standard to make the proportions work out better.

If you like the images, the colors, and such on these two cards, the design flaws might not bother you at all. I see cards all the time on blogs that have design flaws but, for whatever reason, I simply ADORE them anyway. There's just no accounting for taste, is there?

18 comments:

  1. I think the first one look great just as it is! The second card is fine too but you are right, it would look even better on a skinny card!

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  2. I love the cards, the acorn card is brilliant. I really like the leafy card. I wonder wether curving the corners of the box would help link the curviness of the leaves? Love the blog, thanks for the inspiration. Heather

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  3. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm not sure about the top card. The bottom one I really do like a lot. I love the dark scallop behind the acorn. But it would be fun to see a long skinny card, too.

    Yes, it's funny how sometimes we like something even if we think we wouldn't and vice versa.

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  4. First card:
    I like the combination of the swirly lines and straight border box on the first card, but think having just one leaf that crosses outside the border looks a little off. Love how the border joins up with the sentiment!

    Second card:
    Love it! It could all stand to be scootched over to the left a little so the whole thing is centered, but in general I think it's a really great design.

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  5. I like the top card, perhaps I like the novel way you have paired the whimsical images with the ruler line. The same thing that is bothering you is the thing I find so fresh about it. I really do love those leaf images!
    As for the acorn card, I like it, but your thoughts about a long note card may be the fix.
    Thanks for sharing these.

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  6. I love the first card! It works really wel together! Gorgeous sentiment stamp!

    Larissa

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  7. A thought I had for the first one is to stop the border lines at each edge of the leaf that touches it so it would look like the line made the leaf - not sure if you know what I mean. The way you did the border and leaf on the left - if you did that with all the leaves touching the border - it would look like one continuous line.
    I love the second card and think a long card would look really cool!

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  8. Love them both! I have this set and have been frustrated with something clean to do with it that wasn't "dated" KWIM? Now you have given me hope!

    I wonder what the first one would look like with a broken line...lines and dots...hmmm.

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  9. I like them both! I loved the fall whimsy set. I liked the way some leaves were contained in the box and some weren't.

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  10. To me, the top card seems a bit 'off' because all 4 corners of the box are not square. The sentiment is a tad too long, so it swoops right into the corners, keeping the angles from being 90 degrees. Perhaps if the layout were flipped 90 degrees so that the sentiment is a smaller percentage of the bottom border? Then there would be room to connect the ends of the sentiment to the box, and have all four box corners be square.

    I do like the idea of your card. I like the second card too. The circle felt okay in it's current position, until you pointed it out! LOL

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  11. I love both cards. Maybe the lines are too straight for the fall whimsy leaves? I will be CASE-ing this idea!

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  12. I like the simplicity of both cards. Less is more.

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  13. wow, look at all the great comments!! My 2 cents...I love them both but I wonder if the fact that your leaf on the left (the one you started with) is not contained by the lines but the rest are. I guess that is what is confusing my eye when I look at it. the rest is perfect...and thought you had actually done the handwriting yourself, til I read otherwise!! The acorn is the cutest image (only you can make inanimate objects... animate ... what is that called again .... personification). Thought an English major would love that little comment :D
    I love it.

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  14. adore the top card. please leave as is!!! LOL

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  15. I like how the leaves are kind of peeking out from behind the lines. And even though the sides and top are straight, the sentiment gives the right amount of curvy-ness. I like the size of the sentiment with the acorn too. I think it has just the right balance with the size of your image.

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  16. I love both of these cards...it's funny how we all see them differently. After I make a card, I tend to be so critical of it. But that's what's so neat about making cards...there's always another one! I love how the whimsy leaves are swirling all around, and I must get out my sentiments like the second card and make some. Will be casing these...TFS...as always!

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  17. Here's my two pennyworth ....
    1st card
    I was a bit unsure about the 'out of the box' leaf when I first looked but then it made me think of leaves swirling 'off and away' - just like Autumn leaves do so how clever are you!!!
    Like the idea Harriet voiced about the outer lines connecting to the leaf outline.
    2nd card
    Love the acorn image but like others have said using a dl card might give a more balanced design.
    TFS and pleased to see you back online ;-)

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  18. I scroll through my Google reader very quickly... and your cards always make me pause. I love this card with the autumn leaves and the hand drawn border. Awesome. I'm gonna have to lift it! Thanks for the inspiration.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!