Wednesday, December 29, 2010

One Stamp, Two Ways, and a New OLW Challenge!

For the OLW Challenge, please visit Jennifer's blog HERE. (You can also click the link in the sidebar for OLW34.) By coincidence, my first card today meets the challenge to use just one image stamp and one sentiment on a one layer card.

The small chandelier stamp from Hero Arts is such an elegant shape and design, but it's not small. My cards yesterday and today are standard 5.5" x 4.25" size, and as you can see, that chandelier takes up a lot of space. Today, I want to show two different uses for a largish image like this one.

First, a totally flat, one-layer card. Yesterday's cards used ribbon and smaller sentiments, but to achieve balance with the larger image and just a sentiment, I looked for a sentiment that had nearly as much weight visually as the chandelier. To anchor the chandelier so it wasn't just floating around, I stamped it so the top runs off the card. The sentiment is an old PSX stamp, stamped in Memento London Fog.


While this looked simply elegant in real life, I want to add Stickles to my computer screen. Which would be bad for my screen, don't you think?

Well, the second card actually photographed better than it looks in real life, so I guess it all evens out in the end.



Here, I used the chandelier to make a background for a popped focal panel with a sentiment. The background is slightly asymmetrical (on purpose, to keep it interesting), and when I first added the sentiment panel, something looked wrong. The sentiment was nicely centered but looked too even against the background, so I added the half pearls to give a little more asymmetry to panel. I think it worked nicely, and the pearls, from Hero Arts, are a dead ringer for Memento New Sprout...the green I used.

Design Discussion: Random stamping on backgrounds is an art unto itself. If you stamp truly randomly, without thinking about what you're going to put over the background, you'll often end up with awkward gaps or crowding when you place your focal point over the background. For this background, I planned a visual triangle around the center, so you see most of three chandeliers, all slightly running off edges and all off-set from each other. Then, I stamped just a bit of the bottom of the chandelier in the big blank space at the top...not enough to register as a whole chandelier, but enough color to create three largish blank areas in a nicely asymmetrical triangle behind the sentiment panel. Also, there is no trapped white space, which I'll talk about in detail on another post. In short, trapped white space is an area of white space that can't get off the page and creates an unpleasant hole in your design.

On another note, if I'd had teardrop pearls rather than round ones, the green card would look EVEN BETTER. But alas, I don't have teardrop pearls and wonder if anyone makes them. With all the chandelier stamps out there right now, that would be a popular embellishment, I think. Plus, you could make flowers with the teardrops as the petals and leaves, rain drops of blue ones, and fun corner embellishments combining teardrops and round ones.

Oh, my gosh! Someone make teardrop pearls RIGHT NOW!!!!! I will buy them in every color. I promise!!!!!!

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for explaining trapped white space. I've had that before, had no idea why it looked 'off'...now I know...it's because it can't run off of the page...gee..makes sense but I wouldn't have figured that out.

    Also I have learned to plan where to place things when I stamp a background for a card...as you say truly random stamping can leave you with awkward gaps or crowding.

    Thanks for all the design help. Teaching it in context of an actual card makes it easier for me to understand. I must be a visual learner.

    And I love the way these cards turned out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. O yes - teardrops for me too! Love your two cards.

    ReplyDelete
  3. beautiful cards! thanks forthe tips on "random" stamping! a technique that i struggle with... and i am totally with you... teardrop shaped pearls, please!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gorgeous cards, Susan! I really love your one-layer one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, yes, teardrop pearls, please! I didn't even know I wanted them until you mentioned them, but now I want them bad.

    Lovely cards, the green one is my fav.

    ReplyDelete
  6. These are fabulous! Never heard of tear drop pearls, but now I think I need them. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you for a wonderful blog! I really enjoy your cards, I like clean and simple :) I love how these two cards turned out, and I find your design discussions very useful. They make me think before I stamp :)

    As for the tear drop pearls; I saw it on Jennifer McGuire's blog. You can make them yourself with the pearl-pen-thingies (Perfect Pearls? in The Netherlands we have Perlen-pen). Just squirt a tiny round pearl and then release pressure on the pen when you draw it away from the pearl. She made them on freezer paper I think, so that when they're you can take them off and keep them for when you need them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beautiful cards! I also saw the do-it-yourself type that Brechtje mentioned by Jennifer McGuire. I haven't seen teardrop pearls but have seen teardrop rhinestones. Check it out here.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Teardrop pearls - oh, yes, I want some now.

    Thank you for the design lesson with your second (beautiful) card. It really helps me as I've never been happy when I try to do a random stamped background. I'm looking forward to your lengthier discussion of trapped white space.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I saw some teardrop pears here: http://www.waligaimports.com/Plastic-Teardrop-Flatback-Cabochon-Pearl-p/18x13%20teardrop%20cab.htm but they are only in cream and white.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I totally agree about "random" background stamping. I have wasted so many card bases this way. I quickly learned that my random never looked right, so I always plan. Thanks for explaining why it never worked.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I do love that chandelier stamp. I think I must get one! Love the first card. It's just elegant! The second card is definitely well balanced, and teardrop pearls would be lovely on it...but my fave is definitely the first card. Great job on the challenge too!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love every card you've made with this stamp but the last one, the green, really made my heart go thumpety thump. Love. It.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I really like that chandelier - so elegant. Both cards are great! I think the second is my favourite.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I really love your mini tutorials. They are so helpful and often pinpoint exactly what it is that's wrong about a card that I just can't put my finger on. Keep 'em comin', girl! :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Both cards are beautiful! I wish I had more of a sense of balance like you do!

    ReplyDelete
  17. *Sigh*. Simple, elegant, stunning!

    Love it!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for taking time to comment!