So lucky......before and after

Let's do a little before and after card makeover today. First, let's take a look at this card below. The background is of the card is one of my new favorite layouts, I love it! Again, I get the most out of that full 12 x 12 piece of patterned paper by cutting 4" x 4" squares, thus getting 9 pieces from one sheet. Gotta love that! But let's talk about the focal image in the before card below. It's stamped and then cut very closely around the main image. It's okay, but it's kinda boring. I know this is how a lot of us cut our images too...we cut right up to the focal image, leaving no white space or a place for a sentiment or any other design elements. I think we can add a lot of interest to our cards if we think about a few things before we make that first cut. Let's take a look at the after card I made. I just love it so much better than the first sample. First, I looked at all of the stamp images that were in the set and decided what sentiments I wanted to use for this card. I was able to use three sentiments simply by adding two more to my main image. But after I had those sentiments stamped next to my cute little stick couple, there was a LOT of white space in the upper right hand side of the main image. So I did a little creative thinking and made a heart template by cutting out a card stock heart with my Cricut machine. I used the negative image as a template and airbrushed a light tan color over my main image. Isn't it just the cutest? I think it adds to the feeling of *true love* without overpowering the stamped images. If you use a light enough color, you don't even have to mask over the colored stick people.
Sooooo, put a little creativity into your cards. Think about layout and placement of images, think about composition or how all of the elements of a card fit together, think about the mood you want to convey, think about using all of those tools and supplies you have sitting around. If you want to see some more great samples, two great stampers come to mind: Valerie Stangle because she leaves a LOT of white space around her images. Just peruse through her blog and you'll see what I mean. And Julie HRR (Julie Ebersole), she is the queen of putting together little scenes by using lots of images on her focal points of her cards.


Now, who is this card for? Well, I originally made this card for my husband for our anniversary coming up on the 15th. And I know how busy our weekend will be and then my DH leaves on our anniversary day to go out of town for a few days for work. So instead of my DH having to go shop for a $4 card or make one on the computer like he usually does, I'm making a card for both of us. Huh? Well, what I've done is cut 2 white mats for the inside of the card. One for the top and one for the bottom. I'm going to ask DH to write a message on one and I'll write a message on the other one, then I'll adhere them to the inside of the card. I'll put the date on the card and then I'll have a nice memento for our anniversary this year. I already got my gifts....a shopping spree to Archiver's last weekend! Woohoo.


Supplies: SU! solid card stock, Cosmo Cricket Gretel patterned paper, Copic markers and Airbrush System(from Ellen's store), Rubber Soul Love Collection Set, Martha Stewart ribbon from Michael's.