When things simply go wrong
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| Inspiration Piece |
There are times when you are so excited to create a project, and when you are done all that’s left is a sad deflated feeling.
You chalk it up to a learning experience, but you still feel as if the time spent in planning, buying, prep work and assembly was a waste in time.
That’s what happened with one of my recent project.
While visiting one of many scrapbook blogs and galleries sites I came across yet another card that struck my fancy. I believe I saw this card within http://www.whimsystamps.com/ gallery.
I was really excited to begin this new card. I review my personal inventory. I have a new stamp I received from my sweety for Christmas, and I have tons of paper. There’s very little I actually have to buy.
After studying the inspiration card, I took note of all the details. Obviously there’s the center piece stamped image. Other details entail: Punched butterfly with gems, a secondary butterfly print image, flowers, tulle, a lacy strip under the images and flowers. Tickets, pearl pins, hearts, corrugated paper, and pearl swirls.
With all the planning done, materials pulled, supplies ready, off to work I go.
I never anticipate my finish products to look like the inspiration piece. For me, inspirations pieces are a spring board of a challenge to create the piece with the tools I have, plus little tweaks in the design concept. I use the layout as the pattern to begin my inner creativity.
So I tweak away. I begin with my stamped image, hand paint and add dimensional texture.
I love creating my own 3D flowers, so a-punchin’-I-will-go.
I have beautiful garden fairy stamp sized images from Graphic 45 http://www.g45papers.com/ . I’ll use these in place of the butterfly print and the two tickets.
Since I’m punching away, I create a double lace strip, giving it a clean finish with ribbon.
I add two heart punches with a jeweled detail. I have peachy tulle, so I add the tulle with a flower feature.
I even tried my hand with a few swirls. I free-handed two swirls on scraps of paper. When I was happy with the image I transferred the image via dots. I placed the pattern on top of the card and poked dots thru the paper with a mechanical pencil. The pencil dots represent where I need to lay down each clear gem.
After hours of work, we have a completed card.
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| Finished Product |
So why am I not excited over this card?
I think the answer is simple. The inspiration card is breathtaking. Whereas my card is simple, almost amateurish.
First, the card is too big. There is simply too much void space within the card. All of these details needs to be tight within the tableau.
I love the fairy stamps, however they feel as if they don’t belong. Like they are out of place, as…Why are they on the card?
I was bent on using a pretty print I had with dainty peach flowers. I then picked the fairy stamps with peach accents to match the peach flowers.
The mistake there is I had it backwards. The dainty peach flower print is mostly hidden, thus has almost no visual impact. It was foolish to make it a focal point for the color scheme.
The fairy stamps consume more upper landscape on the card, thus has more visual impact. I should have chosen the color palate from the fairy stamps so as to anchor their presence on the card.
In hind sight I can see I should have used a darker green card stock and focus more on the sage color background, in oppose to the peach. The darker green would have made the fairy stamps feel as if they belong on the card.
This would mean the green print backdrop print I used would have to be dropped since it had too much of a green-blue hue. A different print would have been needed instead.
This speaks to an issue I encounter very often. I find a pretty print I just adore. I want to use the paper as a backdrop to a card but I have a difficult time finding complementary prints to accentuate the original print or I can’t find solid card stock with the right color tone/hue. Prints or card stock I find draws away from each other in oppose to marrying the design together.
It’s the hunt for the right paper match that can be a big consumption of time.
Back to the project:
The large “S” swirl lack umph. The bottom swirl needs to be a tad fatter. Perhaps a tiny swirl branch at the top of the “S” swirl would have been a nice touch, too. Though the free-hand sample looked good, when adding gems, the line becomes thicker, thus the design needs to be bigger.
The tulle is placed in the wrong direction. The cut sides were gathered and covered/hidden by the flower feature. If you look at the inspiration card, the tulle is displaced with the cut side fanned out.
In the end, this project is not my best piece of work, but I learned volumes.
Since then I have found a brass stencil swirl plate. http://www.thestencilcollection.com/ I will use the plate to draw future jeweled swirls on my cards! I’ve never been good at free-hand work, so I think this is a great solution.
I would never sell this card, but I have friends and family who do look at my work with a less critical eye, so I’ll find a nice home for this card one day.
