Monday 21 February 2011

Less is more - spring time 1 ....

... the challenge at Less Is More this week is to make a themed card.  Chrissie and Mandi have chosen Spring as the theme - which gives us lots of scope, new flowers, baby animals, Easter!  To name only a few ideas.  What's really nice about this blog is that Chrissie and Mandi provide tutorials for the various techniques and tips they give us - and that's such a good idea.  This week there is a tutorial about using our PC to help with making cards.  Chrissie gave some  (really excellent) directions on how to use text boxes in Word.

It occurred to me that I used to use my computer a lot more to make cards than I do now.  In fact I used it a lot to personalise cards.  A few examples are shown below.

The first card is one I made for a friend's parents for their Diamond Wedding anniversary.  I didn't have any suitable stamps - so I played around on my computer with fonts and layout, until we settled on the design shown.  The photo is of her parents - I scanned the original onto my PC and then played with it in Photoshop and made this lovely vignette!!  The little diamonds were found in clip art somewhere on the computer, but they worked, so we added them.  I completed the card by added gems to the diamonds and mounting the picture on silver mirri card and some lovely mulberry paper.  The other card was super quick and easy to make - I found some lovely baby photos from Microsoft clip art, made them all the same size and put them in boxes.  I added some text in a nice contemporary font and then printed onto ink jet acetate.  Attached the acetate with brads and added a ribbon.

I thought I'd have a go at making a card completely on the PC!!  And then I remembered why it's been a while since I last made cards like this!!!  I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon messing about with positioning, fonts - getting Word to do what I wanted it to do.  This card is CASEd entirely from Susan and Viv - both beautiful cards ladies and gave me the idea to play!!



The card is printed onto fairly lightweight card (my printer doesn't much like card).  I loved the post stamp idea that Susan used in her card, so I decided to play with that - I made a table (following her instructions) and settled for a block of four.  Rather than stamp an image, I thought I'd use a digi - so the flower is a simple daisy by Pink Petticoat.  I added text boxes above and below the table and hunted for a suitable quote - fonts used are cambria (12pt) and Civitype FG (36pt).  I spent ages trying to decide which fonts worked best and what colour to use on the word "spring".  The design layout is all Viv's - thanks!!  I coloured the images with Twinkling H2Os - French Lilac, and added colour to the stems with a Sakura Stardust pen in green!

I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out, the positioning needs a bit of work and I think the fonts could be a bit bigger, but it took such a long time and the amount of scrap paper in my bin was amazing!!  What I've learned from this exercise is that Chrissie is a genius!!  And that I need a printer that handles a heavier weight card.  I like the idea of making cards like this - I think I need to build up some templates which can be adapted to suit different occasions. 

Now, I'm off to look at some more cards on the LIM blog site, and then play in my craft room and come back with a Spring card that I've stamped and coloured!!  Back later.

25 comments:

Mandi said...

Good layout Deborah
I think you have probably scanned your card, its a shame it bleaches view we have
Like the mixed font, particualrly the introduction of the lilac in the black

Thanks for joining us again Deborah and for all the comments you leave everyone
mandi
"Less is More"

Faith A at Daffodil Cards said...

What a pretty card, I may even have a go of this myself, thanks for the advice on my blog, much appreciated.

Jose said...

Love the little card you made for Ewan Deborah, and the Spring card is sweet, lovey idea
Jose

Angelnorth said...

Pretty card, love the lilac tones! You've reminded me why I rarely use the PC for crafting though - I can spend literally hours choosing fonts! A wild garlic stamp would, by the way, be fabulous - I love wild garlic!

Susan said...

Deborah, I think your postage stamp card came out really pretty! It does take a bit of practice, but when I finally get a layout that I like, I always save it to my computer for future use. THe idea with the photos on the cards above is super creative...gotta remember that idea too!

Awesome cards!!

Donna Mosley said...

Hi Deborah, very elegant card. Love the layout and the pretty flowers.

Donna x

Kathleen said...

Love the pretty card and the wording. Like you my printer won't take thick card.

Kathleen x

Chrissie said...

You have no idea how delighted I am to read this post Deborah, it's evidence of the community that is just beginning between the participants in our challenges.
The sharing of ideas and techniques, the development of skills and abilities is something we had only dreamed of. It is exactly what we wanted this blog to be about!I'm glad you are stretching your boundaries even if you're filling your waste bin in the process.
Thank you so much.
As Mandi said, your card would have looked more vibrant had it been photographed rather than scanned, but it looks great nevertheless. If I were to be really picky, I would have had the image a tad larger.. but that's just nit-picking!
Thanks for being part of this great group.
Chrissie
"Less is More"

Stamps and Paper said...

A really pretty spring card.

Anne

TAM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TAM said...

A brilliant card - something I plan to try at some stage but like you say crafting on the computer always seems to eat away the time

GinaA said...

I love this card, simple and stylish. Thanks for the info re the type of print you used.
Happy Inking
GinaA
x xx

Pauline said...

Lovely cards Deborah, I do like the stamp idea.

Diane said...

Excellent card, You've given me some inpsiration, I must investigate this technique.
Thanks for sharing
Diane x

Paula (PEP) said...

Amazing that this is possible but with no printer & my track record I'm going to have to stick to the old inks & stamps. I think this is a completely different world from anything I could have imagined - the digital crafting I mean.
Paula (PEP)

Caroline Hallett said...

love the sentiment on this - and its a great card

Aileen said...

I must admit I'm not as patient at fiddling around on the computer and get frustrated quickly but you've shown it's worth the effort. Great idea to keep templates for future playing too. No point reinventing the wheel each time! x

Anonymous said...

This is really pretty Deborah and I love the sentiment. I used to do a lot on the computer but that was before I discovered stamping, must try again, but I know I'd get really impatient if it took me ages to do!!

Hugs
Brenda

Sally H said...

Such a pretty elegant card, Deborah! I think you did a fab job!

Stella said...

Both cards are gorgeous Deb but the Diamond Wedding Anniversary card is definitely my favortie. A brilliant idea to scan an old wedding picture and you "framed" it gorgeous! I love the subtle stars and gems; fabulous!

Inkyfingers said...

This is just gorgeous. Great job.

Vicky Hayes said...

I do like a grid layout! And I love the optimistic sentiment!

Lynne said...

Very pretty CAS card.
Lynne xxx

Maureen said...

Love your card and the layout is super. well done.
Good luck in the challenge.
Maureen.......x

Suze Bain said...

This is a lovely card Deborah, I too really liked the 'stamp' idea. It always takes me ages to make a card (I'm a bit of a perfectionist!) but I think it always pays off.

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