Birthday Card #9

Today I will show you card #9 in this series.

First, I have been asked how do I start by making a card. What gives me the inspiration for each card. Well, there are so many sources of "sketches" out there. If you google "card sketches" or "scrapbook layout sketches", you will receive millions of hits to great sites that have these basic blueprints for you. You can then change them up to suit your taste and needs. I haven't yet used one of these sketches, which are usually done by people with a lot of design experience and knowledge. I have none of that. I have just seen things that I like as I am blog hopping or watching videos. I watch for color combos that I really like, for example in today's card with the yellow and gray. I try to push myself with my style, techniques, and layouts, so I don't do the same thing over and over. I am sure a graphic designer could pick apart my cards and tell you 1000 ways they are wrong in terms of design, but they looked good to me.

My biggest advice is to choose colors or paper that you love, pick out some coordinating embellishments, and choose a layout either from your imagination or from a layout/sketch source. What I did, for these 12 cards, was to sketch the design on a piece of paper for each card. I sketched where the sentiment would go, where the stamped image or patterned paper would go, and where the ribbon or embellishments would go. I even marked what colors each item would be. By sketching it first, I saved all that EMPTY planning time that happens when you have all your supplies staring at you and you can't figure out what to do with them. Doing it this way took about 15 minutes of sketching and gathering supplies. I spent about 10-20 minutes per card, most were 10 minutes. Then I started creating. Every single one of my card sketches worked except for Card #3, which didn't work because of the clock I had planned, but the sketch and design were still good without the clock. (See that post for more info.)

So the next time you need to create a card or scrapbook layout, start with a sketch..either yours or someone elses! You can even look at someone else's card and make a sketch from it! Keep your sketches, so you can use them again!

So, here is the card for today and good luck making your own cards! Again my camera spazzed out and didn't show the colors well at all! This is a basic gray color with Crushed Curry cardstock. Very bold, modern, and masculine.

The plastic embossed piece in the center was packaging from a Tim Holtz package. I used my Treadplate Embossing Folder I got from Michael's to give it the texture. I added the eyelets to hide the glue dots that I used to attach it. Yep, I could have used the eyelets to attach it, but that was an after thought. I used linen thread to tie on the tag that is made from metal from a soda can. You can see a video on how to get and use this metal in the Videos category in the right side panel. I punched 2 circles from the metal, one I embossed with the same embossing folder, and the other I stamped using Staz-on ink. Be careful, it took me 5 times to get the stamped image clearly stamped. The stamp will slip with you. Straight down and straight up…and do not have 3 cups of coffee before you do this. Finally, I glued the two circles together and used my Tim Holtz distress tool to distress the edges.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Leslie