The Evolution of a Card

I haven't made any cards for almost a month so I thought I should get off my lazy butt and get to work.

I needed a little inspiration this time around, so I decided that I was going to try out my first Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I ended up going through a bit of a card evolution with this sketch. I had to try three different times to get it right :). Here is this week's sketch



I have hope that someday, in the cold frozen tundra that is Canada, that there will be spring, and in turn some flowers. We haven't had much of a spring yet, and its almost May. We've had snow and rain, and sleet and driving winds, and not much sun. So I decided that I was going to go with flowers for my theme just to bring a little bit of light to a rather dreary month.


So my first attempt at the sketch I decided I would go bright and cheery to drown out the dreary, and use yellow. I wanted to use my copics and I find yellow one of the easiest colours to use and to blend. I also wanted the smaller piece of patterned paper to be a bit monochromatic and not too crazy. So here's what I came up with:

Its alright but I knew I could do better. I didn't like the boringness of the one colour thing going on, and I didn't like the way the stems and the leaves of the flowers turned out at all. So back to the drawing board. The one thing I knew I would keep was the embroidery thread and the button.

Second attempt resulted in me trying out a two tone card. I decided once again to use bright cheery colours, and went with pink and orange. These were the colours that I used in my garden with all my annuals last year and I really love the look. I also decided to go with a bit more of a dramatic flare for the side piece of patterned paper and found the perfect paisley pattern with the colours I was looking for. I also decided to colour in the leaves with my copics.

Again it was alright. The leaves and stems were much better this time around, and the brighter more dramatic paper looked much better. I screwed up the stamping a bit though and there was too much white space at the top of the flowers and I didn't like the way the patterned paper looked a little boring and blank on the one side.

So off to try my hand at the sketch for a third time. This time I decided to stick to the two tone colours, but went with more of a contrast. I decided to use a light pink and a springy green. Again I found another version of the paisley paper, because I really loved the pattern. I fixed the problem with my stamping and leaving too much white space at the top of the flowers, and I decided to add a little bit more to the patterned paper I would do a zig zag stitch around the whole thing just to make it stand out a bit more. And of course I stuck with my original button and embroidery thread.

And you know what I really think the third time was in fact the charm. I'm really happy with the way the last card turned out. Now i just have to come up with a reason to send it to someone :)

Stamps: SU In Full Bloom

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics (YR15, RV14, RV29, YG17, RV13, RV02)

Paper: I have no idea because I accidently threw out the stickers, or cut off the label a while ago :)