Red Birds and Heart with Gingham Ribbon

A pink and red love card for Paula's "balance" card design bootcamp lesson for Operation Write Home.  I used symmetry for balance with evenly spaced ribbons, a centered heart, and a pair of birds.

But my design also has asymmetry, with its vertical weight toward the bottom of the card and its angled sentiment. The birds' positions and the ribbon lengths are also different; to my eye, everything lined up and centered would look too static here  

Thanks again, Paula, for your lessons!  I can see them all in this card - white space, variation (not all hearts or all birds), repetition (ribbons and red shapes), odd numbers, rule of thirds, color harmony (monochromatic), relationship (birds and heart grouping), major-minor-accent colors, and focal point.  It's fun to learn the theory of what makes a design more eye-appealing.

Card details:

• Card stock is Paper Source blossom (pink),  Papertrey Ink (PTI) pure poppy (red), and stripes print from PTI sweet blush (pink) pattern pack.
• Pink-and-red 1/4" ribbon is from my local scrapbook store.  I don't know who made it.
• Dies are PTI heart-2-heart #9, the inner heart from PTI framed out #11, and Elizabeth Craft love.  
• I used a Copic cool gray multiliner to draw the birds' eyes.  Black seemed to be too strong a contrast.  

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (326)

Purple and Lime Green Hello

Something different after making a lot of "love" type cards.  A bright and modern feeling with lime green (it looks less yellow in real life) and purples.  Plenty of texture in the shadow effect on the sentiment and the lime green showing through the dots layer, plus a touch of baker's twine and embossed dots.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) limeade ice (lime green), plum pudding (medium purple), and lavender moon (light purple.)
• Embossing folder is Cuttlebug swiss dots, only on the right-hand side of the card.
• Twine is The Twinery honeydew.
• Dies are My Favorite Things peek-a-boo dots and PTI wonderful words: hello.  
• Technique: I cut the word twice, one purple and one green.  The green word is placed a bit higher and to the left of the purple word.  I used Glossy Accents to adhere it, so the green is not sticky on the back where it slightly hangs off the edge of the purple.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (325)

Hearts on Banners with Tan Stripes

Just a few hearts, left over from other projects.  Love using my leftovers to make something nice!

I like the alternating pink and red colors, with a bit of embossed texture and two kinds of stripes (paper and twine).  Simple design, but interesting to look at.

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) pure poppy (red), berry sorbet (pink), and stripes from PTI fine linen (tan) pattern pack.
• Die is the inner heart from PTI framed out #11 (pink hearts).  
• Punches are 1/4" hole punch (dots) and EK Success 1" heart punch (red heart).
• Banner notches are hand cut. 
• Embossing folder is Stampin' Up square lattice.  
• Red baker's twine is by We R Memory Keepers.  I pierced my banners right at the top of the hearts, and pulled the twine through to the back of the striped A2, so it wouldn't be bumpy under the hearts.  The striped A2 is adhered to a sturdy white card base, covering the twine.
• I popped up the outer part of the hearts with bits of Tombow power tab - not as thick as foam tape.  

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (321)

Winter Snowflake in Blues

A large blue snowflake, inlaid in deeper blue. A wintry "subway art" panel, courtesy of Paula. 

Click here to see her beautiful card and the generous offer to use her graphic.  I printed it in a bit smaller size and trimmed it with a narrow white border, then matted it on dark blue.  Thank you, Paula! 

I'm always happy to use up my scraps, and this inlaid layout worked beautifully for me.  I cut the large snowflake from two pieces of A2 card stock - one light blue and one medium blue.  Then I turned them face-down and reassembled the puzzle pieces.  I adhered them in place with strips of 1" Scor Tape on the back.  Then I had two inlaid snowflakes - one light blue on medium blue (as shown) and one medium blue on light blue.   The card front is adhered to a white card base so all that Scor Tape is hidden. 

Card details:

• Card stock is Ellen Hutson white linen, Paper Source cobalt (discontinued color - dark blue),  Papertrey Ink (PTI) spring rain (light blue) and blueberry sky (medium blue.) 
• Dies are PTI fancy flakes.  In addition to the large snowflake die, I used the center cutout from the small snowflake die for my dark blue star shape.  
• The dark blue dots are from a 1/8" hole punch.

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (322)

Love - Pink with Gray

A bit of drama with swirls and rectangles.  I like the strong colors and the contrast of curves with straight lines in the sentiment, the layers, and the patterned papers.  The pink and gray layers reinforce the line under "love."

As I designed the card, I first tried a gray bitty-dots pattern, instead of gingham.  But the gingham won out with a fresh and graphic effect. 

Card details:

• Card stock is Papertrey Ink (PTI) berry sorbet (pink), smokey shadow (dark gray), and prints from PTI pattern packs: smokey shadow gingham and berry sorbet leaf.
• Die is PTI one-liners "love."  Note: the line is cut as part of the word. 

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (320)

Turquoise Arrows and Asterisk on Gray

Bold graphic shapes with subtle background colors.  This card is for the "white space" lesson in Paula's Design Boot Camp on the Operation Write Home blog.  I used white (empty) space to draw attention to my focal point with the sentiment circle and the plain gray above it.  At first, I was tempted to do more with the background, but once my circles and arrows were strong enough, the plain gray looked just right to me.  Thank you so much, Paula, for your monthly design lessons!

Edited Dec. 31, 2013 to add:  My card was chosen as the model for this week's Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge #205.  I'm enjoying all the variations as OWH card makers interpret my layout! 

Card details:

• Card stock is Paper Source peacock (turquoise), Papertrey Ink (PTI) stamper's select white, aqua mist (light aqua), soft stone (light gray), and bitty dots (aqua mist) and stripes (soft stone) prints from PTI pattern packs.
• Circle punches are EK Success 2-1/4", 2", and 3/16".
• Dies are PTI get to the point and Avery Elle icon fill-in-the-blank.  I used partial die-cutting to lengthen the shaft of the arrow on the left. 
• Sentiment "Love you miss you" is computer printed in turquoise ink with Footlight MT Light font. 

Created for Operation Write Home, "supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them." (319)