Thursday, July 17, 2014

A Question of Scale

The wonderful snowflakes in the Hero Arts set I bought a while back inspired me to make a couple of cards that explore the concept of scale.

First up, what do you do with a rather large image? Well, spreading repeats of it out on a large space in a nice visual triangle works well.

3.75" x 7.25"

The large snowflake is so pretty in Hero Arts Soft Pool ink and the red sentiment pops right off the card...a very fun--and different--color combination! There's plenty of restful white space, and the asymmetrical triangle keeps your eye moving nicely across the space.

I deliberately overlapped the sentiment and bottom snowflake, and was surprised at how, ahem, awkward the thin lines of the sentiment look over the thicker lines of the snowflake. I really thought the red would be bright enough to compensate, but if I remade the card, I'd space them out without the overlap. That really shouldn't have surprised me, though. In retrospect, it's pretty obvious.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

But what do you do with smaller images on the large space? Well, you could add them to the card above, allowing for a nicely varied flurry on the card. But I wanted to see how just using smaller flakes would look on that large of a space, so I made this card.

3.75" x 7.25"
There's still white space here...those flakes aren't crowded. I very carefully didn't overlap the sentiment with them because the small flakes would be very busy behind the red, and after making the first card, I realized that soft pool isn't a pale enough color to make the overlap work.

Which do you prefer? I (big surprise) lean toward the trio of large images...more peaceful to me, and more white space always makes me happy. But the second card implies LOTS of blessings represented by lots of snowflakes...a symbolism that works for me. And there's nothing overlapping the sentiment, which I prefer.

Yes, you'll be seeing more Christmas cards over the next few months as I'm getting my stash together to send to Operation Write Home, as well as cards for my own use. But do remember that you can always substitute other themes for these layouts and color combinations. Flowers would work great, for instance, with both of these designs!

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts
ink: Hero Arts, Memento
paper: Papertrey white
accessories: rhinestones, corner rounder

3 comments:

  1. So classy and elegant. Beautiful.

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  2. I appreciate you making Christmas cards now, it reminds me that I need to get into gear. I prefer the first card, but both are beautiful. Thanks for continuing to share your artwork with us!

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  3. Both are lovely, but I prefer the second. I love the movement of the small images.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!