Today, my inspiration was from color. I wanted to create a project with Wisteria Wonder. I've tried to use it on a few earlier occasions, but could never seem to get it to work. This time, I got it.
From a plain sheet of Wisteria Wonder cardstock and the Chalk Talk Stamp Set (which was still on my table from yesterday's post), my project was off to a good start. I thought I would go a little Vintage with it, so I pulled out my Everything Eleanor stamp set. Not quite Vintage, but the background stamp from Everyhing Eleanor was perfect. The decision for the center was either the bird from Everything Eleanor, or a quick punch with my Elegant Butterfly punch.
The butterfly won. Now for color? A few posts ago, I punched some butterflies with patterned paper, so I didn't want to do that again. After sampling a few colors, Coastal Cabana won, hands down!!!
If you remember a while back, I posted some card design tips and talked about "color saturation", or the intensity of color. The Coastal Cabana cardstock has the same color saturation as the Wisteria Wonder cardstock. They work beautifully together, and that one pop of color adds so much.
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In my past several posts, I've been showcasing lots of flowers. I do have a bit of a flower fetish, but it's more contained than my patterned paper fetish. Thank goodness, I'm not sure I could handle two full blown fetishes!
Today, I thought I would get a little graphic design going with no flowers or patterned paper. It's no secret that I've been learning a little more about "color" and sharing much of that with you here in my blog posts. I promise I'll continue to share as I become more expert. We can take our card designing journey together. I don't mind if you don't!
Today's card is my latest experiment with color. My inspiration for this card came from Laura Bassen. Of course, I switched the design up a bit. This is another Quick & Easy without a doubt. Just punch some squares, round all the corners or just two, and place your "art" wherever you please. It'll be beautiful, I promise! Give some color combinations a try…it's fun!
COLOR DESIGN TIP: Black is "the presence of all color" and white is the "absence of all color". Neutral colors are made up of whites, browns, greys, and blacks. When using blacks, whites, and neutrals, they can stand alone or you can add "color" and your color balance will be fine. The neutrals can accent, balance and/or ground your colors. In the case of my "Happy Birthday Graphic" card, the neutral is both balancing and grounding my colors. Cool, isn't it?…but my colors are warm. We'll talk about color Temperature next time.
Take a look at my card below from a past post. This card is quiet and sophisticated, and technically has no color!!!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: Cardstock – Basic Black, Whisper White, Sahara Sand, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette. Stamp Set – From My Heart. Ink – Jet Black Staz On. Tools – 1 3/8" square, 1" square, and 3/16" corner punches, Stampin' Dimensionals.
Been feeling a little under the weather lately so didn't do much stamping the past few days. I'm back to my healthy self and had a great Sunday afternoon stampin' away!
Here's a very pretty "Quick & Easy" for you. "Hello, Hello" is from Stampin' Up!'s Single Stamps. The Single Stamp promotion was supposed to end March 31st. Because of its huge success, Stampin' Up! decided to keep them available for us. The Single Stamps are very budget friendly and the variety and quality are Stampin' Up! standard, which is second to none!
I stamped the beautiful and "happy" "Hello, Hello" in Island Indigo ink, added a few flagged banners from Sent With Love Designer Series Paper, and there's a small strip from Tea for Two. My Little Butterfly is punched from Calypso Coral card stock. I added a few pearl embellishments…
Color Design Tip: Saturation - The colors for today's card are called Complementary Colors. They stand opposite each other on the color wheel and compliment each other. Island Indigo and Calypso Coral are hues of blue and orange. I spoke about Complimentary Colors a few posts ago.
Complimentary Colors will always work well with each other as long as there is saturation balance. Saturation is simply the intensity of the color. If you can imagine this card without the Calypso Coral butterfly, it would be pretty, but because the Calypso Coral butterfly has the same color saturation as the Island Indigo sentiment, that little pop of butterfly color completes the color balance in this card.
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: Cardstock – Whisper White, Tea for Two and Sent With Love Designer Series Paper. Ink – Island Indigo. Embellishment – Pearl Basic Jewels. Tools – Bitty Butterfly Punch.
Stampin' Up! says… "Say hello to playful whimsy. And then say hello again! With this trendy little stamp you can connect with an old friend, brighten someone’s day, or leave a note for a loved one".
I tried something new in today's post. I created patterned paper with my totally clear photopolymer stamps. My inspiration came from Stampin' Up!'s new Photopolymer Stamps Video. Take a look and you'll see Stampin' Up's version of this card.
I used the photopolymer Designer Typeset stamp set, and with the flagged banner stamp, I was able to easily duplicate the pattern illustrated in the video. You can see exactly where you're stamping, and…it's fun!
Design Tip Review: In this card, I again used my imaginary grid to place my elements (The Rule of Thirds). My Sweet Spot includes three clustered elements (the embellished flower, the circle, and the arrow).
Although there is no sentiment (by design), my Sweet Spot is on an imaginary intersection in my card design composition, and includes my Focal Point.
The Melon Mambo flagged banner at the top of the card is simply doing a bit of a balancing act…adding balance to the card composition and color, and it's also placed on a segment of my imaginary tic tac toe grid.
For my color choices, I followed Stampin' Up!'s Sunshine & Sprinkles Designer Series Paper color combinations: Basic Gray, Melon Mambo and Lucky Limeade. The Designer Series Paper always gives my creativity a jolt!
Stampin' Up! just came out with another photopolymer stamp set called Bombs Away Birthday. The sentiments are humorous, catchy, and cute!
I created this card for this week's Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge # 287, and it has a very "happy" vibe. The colors are bright and cheerful, and really pop against the quiet Whisper White.
This is a really neat sketch. I liked it so much, I created a second card with a totally different feel.
Take a look at the card below. It's a CASE of my original version above, but with a totally different message….a little more subdued and much more quiet than my original. BY DESIGN, there's no sentiment on either card and the embellishments are identical.
I wanted you to see how color affects mood. I bet your mood changes when you go from the first card to the second. Try it…Isn't it cool?!
DESIGN TIP #5 – COLOR – There's much to say about color. It's a discipline all its own and believe me, it has a lot to do with Physics, and that's way out of my sphere of reference!!
Personally, I operate from the right side of my brain, so I like the idea of feeling when I look at "color": Happy, Peaceful, Warm and Cozy, or Cool and Crisp. I make it up as I go along, and if it doesn't "feel" right…I go to my Color Coach or my Color Wheel to get some "expert" help.
So here's some simple information on color.
There are three basic categories of color theory that are useful: The color wheel, color harmony, and the context of how colors are used.
"Colorfulness" is the opposite of gray. It includes topics such as Chroma, Hue, Saturation, Depth and Brightness. There's enough technical information about color to fill more than a city library, so for now, if you're not a "feeler" like me, always keep a color wheel nearby when deciding on your color scheme, and keep Stampin' Up!'s Color Coach handy.
Stampin' Up!'s Sunshine & Sprinkles Striped Designer Series Paper (which is used in the first card) has a very pleasing "color harmony"…it's pleasing to the eye, color saturation goes from deep to light and it flows easily. There's color unity. This DSP has a nice "color balance"…not too stimulating and not too sleepy. Just enough to make you smile and feel good.
Contrary to the Sunshine & Sprinkles DSP, the Basic Gray DSP from the Neutrals Collection has no "color". I added the pop with the Melon Mambo ribbon and flower which took this very quiet card and gave it a pop for a little stimulation. The result is not too sleepy at all….still peaceful and quiet, and very pleasing to the eye.
I will talk more about color in future posts, but for now
HAPPY STAMPIN' AND DO IT "BY DESIGN"!
Now, I have some celebrating to do!
Today, Mary Fish, my "Fearless" Pals Leader! notified me that I was a Pals Paper Arts Design Team Pick for last month's Pals Paper Arts Sketch Challenge.
WHAT A HAPPY DAY!
MY MOST HEARTFELT THANKS TO YOU, MARY, AND THE PALS DESIGN TEAM!
here's my design…
I LOVE WHAT I DO AND LOVE TO SHARE WHAT I LOVE…
…I LOVE STAMPIN' UP!
JOIN MY TEAM! WE HAVE A GREAT GROUP…LAUGHS, STAMPIN' FUN, AND STAMPIN' FRIENDS EQUAL LOTS OF STAMPIN' HUGS!
I am Debbie Crowley and welcome to my blog. Here you'll find fun projects that are sure to inspire you. I hope you'll stop
by often and leave a comment or two. To contact me, you can email me at: expressivelydeb@gmail.com
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The content of this blog is the sole responsibility of Debra Crowley, expressively deb.com, as an Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator. The use of and content of classes, services or products offered is not endorsed by Stampin' Up!
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