OWH Nov Design Bootcamp

The November Design Bootcamp lesson is on Texture and how it adds interest to your cards.  I learned there are two types of texture and for my card, I went with the tactile texture by embossing this background stamp in black:

I colored in the flowers with Smooch ink.  The sentiment is actually covering up a boo-boo, but it was a happy mistake since I wasn't sure where to place a sentiment anyway!  I can rub this card and feel the embossing on it, so I believe it fits the lesson.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Catching up with OWH Design Bootcamp lessons

Yesterday, I blogged that I had finished most of this year's OWH Bootcamp lessons, but after checking, I saw that I missed two of them.  So, here's my catch up on those lessons.

 

May - Variety is the spice of life

 

I used two patterns for this card - the cupcake top is much smaller in pattern but the color matches the circles in the background pattern.  I embossed the bottom of the cupcake (for a bit of variety) and kept the banner and sentiment simple to stand out against the pattern.

 

October - All things being equal

This card was made from some old paper in my stash - some of the first scrapbook paper I ever bought.  I tried to balance the larger house image with a smaller sentiment for an Asymmetrical effect.  The red layers help break up the busy background. 

 

Now I really am caught up with the bootcamp lessons! 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 



Saturday card making

In between chores and shopping, I found a few minutes to make some cards.  The first ones are from the 2013 Holiday Card workshop at Online Card classes . We learned how to make inlaid die cuts and I cut the word "Noel" and used the positive and negative pieces to lay the word within the card.  It makes great one-layer cards:

 

 

 

I also made a catch up card from September's OWH Bootcamp design lesson on Drawing a blank :

 

 

I had a hard time getting a good picture of the card, but I embossed the sentiment in gold and scored a line above and below it.  I finished it off with a holiday sticker from K&Company. 

 

We've got one more bootcamp lesson coming and I'm pretty sure I've participated in every one this year.  Paula's taught us several design concepts that are great to learn, especially since I do computers for a living and have no formal art training.  Thanks so much, Paula!



OWH Aug Bootcamp - Relationship advice

Before I dig into this weekend's OWH VCMP, I wanted to submit a card for the August Bootcamp lesson - Relationship advice.  Paula's homework was to re-do a card from the past and apply the techniques we've learned.

 

I'm not afraid to take an epic-fail card and re-do it!  Here's a one-layer card I made using with a floral stamp set.  I thought that the flowers were supposed to be stamped together, which I tried along the bottom and side of the card:

 

I colored them with Inktense pencils and then watercolored them.  Every time I looked at the card, it just seemed off to me.

 

After reading the lesson, I realized that I didn't group the flowers together and the sentiment seemed to just float by itself.  For the lesson, I dragged out the stamps again and tried to group them together - it just wasn't working.

 

I was forcing the flowers to have a relationship, so I chose one flower and a sentiment and stamped them together.  Here's my re-do of the card:

I took inspiration from the latest Muse challenge - #32 - to make the flower and sentiment "relate" to each other.  I used the Muse card sketch for my version:

 

 

I enjoyed the chance to fix a card and Paula's lessons have helped me along the way.

 

Now, on to the VCMP!

 



OWH Design bootcamp

I'm pausing during my Summer Card camp class to make a few cards for OWH's Design Bootcamp - Get Your Priorities straight!  Paula puts together great tutorials for us and this one teaches us how to select colors.  She's got lots of color combinations to choose from, but I used the papers that were on my craft table to make these cards:

 

The three colors are teal, white, and yellow. 

On this card, I used black, teal, and white.

 

Yesterday, I was struggling to use four colors on a card and gave up!  Three colors is much easier and less frustrating, so this will be something I'll keep in mind on future cards.

 

Thanks so much for the monthly class, Paula!

 



OWH May Bootcamp with a bit of Mojo!

Hi there!  The latest OWH Bootcamp lesson is Variety is the spice of life.  I chose to add variety by using different papers from the 6x6 Beach Cottage paper pad by Creative Imaginations.  I layered different papers so that the focal point (the Technique Tuesday sentiment) stood out.  Today's Mojo Monday sketch was the layout for my card:

 

This is the sketch:

I hope my card gives enough variety for the homework lesson.  I appreciate your comments and advice!

 



OWH April Bootcamp

This month's OWH Bootcamp is on The Rule of Odds.  Since I became addicted to card making, I noticed that there's a preference to use odd numbers, but I never knew it was a design principle.  Paula's got a great blogpost about it and encouraged us to make card.

 

I made this AnyHero card, which started out as sketch 162, but then I switched it up a bit:

 

The red paper is from my stash and the stamp is by Paper Inspirations. I embossed the stamp in Antique Gold, then used Walnut Stain distress ink to age it a bit.

 

I also made another card, in the middle of the night when I couldn't get to sleep.  I'm lucky everything came out alright!  I used a scrap bundle to make this card:

 

A scrap bundle is something I learned from the Online Card classes - I put together scraps that could be used to make a card with a paper clip.  I've got several of these bundles, waiting to become a card one day.  It's a pretty simple card, but the Tim Holtz stamp is inspirational to me.

 

Happy Monday everyone!

 



Bootcamp and Pattern Play Class - Day 1

Hi friends!  Today I made a quick card as I was unpacking from this weekend's scrap retreat.  It's a good thing my card was simple, because our power went out when a thunderstorm came thru!

 

I used OWH sketch #62 for my card, which I thought followed Paula's lesson on The Rule of Thirds:

Here's my card:

I also used Creative Memories pattern paper for the background of the card, following today's lesson in the Pattern Play card class I'm taking.  I didn't include a sentiment, because I like to have a few cards with no sentiment in my OWH box.  The flower is from the Nifty Fifties cricut cartridge and the ribbon is from my stash.

 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!



Get to the point - Bootcamp lesson

Whew!  I'm still recovering from this weekend's VCMP.  I commented/reviewed every card made for my challenge and was impressed with the creativity of everyone.

 

This month's Bootcamp lesson is Creating a strong focal point.  Here are my entries:

The lighthouse is from Stacy Stamps, which I stamped on blue cardstock and colored in with Inktense pencils.  I felt that the image needed a white oval background to help it stand out against the red cardstock.  The papers are from my stash with the sentiment going from left and leading the eye to the right and the image.  Well, at least that's my hope!

 

I enjoy your comments and critique - it's always good to learn something new.  Thanks for the lesson, Paula!

 



A day to play

How I wish I had a three day weekend all the time!  I would spend it like today- taking a walk, shopping and playing in my craft room.  Oh how I envy people who get to do this for a living!

 

OWH started a new series called BootCamp and the first lesson was today. Paula wrote a great article on color basics which is a good lesson for me, since I'm a computer geek by day.

 

Our homework assignment: make a card using one of the color harmonies.  Here are mine:

 

Monochromatic

I created the background using green & yellow alcohol inks, then stamped over it with a flower dipped in Alcohol blending solution.  Sentiment is from the "Very Special" stamp set at Simon Says Stamp, stamped on vellum paper with a white organdy ribbon bow. The cardstock is a mint color that matches my background paper.

 

Analogous

I created another glossy background paper but didn't use the Alcohol blending solution, so the colors stayed green and yellow.  I loosely based this on this week's OWH sketch with ribbon & vellum paper from my stash.  Stamp is from the Stamps of Life:

I look forward to more BootCamp lessons!