We Muses are excited to be part of this new avenue to share creative ideas with all of you and hope you enjoy it as much as we did putting it all together! Heather gives us a topic, and we get to run with it! WOO HOOOOOOO!!!
The fun part, is that we haven't yet seen what the other Muses did, so it's a GREAT surprise for us, too! Yippeeeee!!!
As you now know by the title above, we're casting off the "standard", breakin' outta' the box, and pushin' beyond the traditional! Ready? *grin*
Shaped cards are especially fun to make, send AND receive--everybody loves something just a wee bit different from the norm!
To help me narrow it down (cuz seriously, you could run with this and go waaaay crazy!) the first thing I did was pile a bunch of tools and supplies, in colors that went well together. A theme always helps me collect things that visually go together and maintain a sense of focus. I may not use everything I pull together, and usually figure out what won't "fit" as I start building the card.
Because I'm extremely visual I like to draw sketches and mind maps of my projects, and that was the next step. These are extremely rough and sloppy, I must admit, but they enable me to jot down my thoughts so I don't forget layout, colors, and construction particulars regarding how I think things are gonna work (at least, in my head). Sometimes the end result doesn't look anything like the sketch, but it drives me nuts to stop mid-stream in a project and not remember what direction I planned on taking it when I'm able to return to it.
Like I said, pretty rough/crude. LOL!
I wanted to make a 3x3" card to go in our new mini envelopes and decided to use one of these charming hand-crocheted flowers a friend had sent me as the focal, and this made it easy to build from there. I kept the base white, and the remaining colors pink and green, pierced the flower stem and used punches to add subtle design extras that wouldn't overwhelm the small canvas.
After making the first 3x3" card, I thought it would be fun to make one in the shape of a flower, since I had dies that would accommodate the idea. I also wanted to use some wool felt flowers I'd recently die cut to repeat the flower motif. The scale of the Leaf Trio was a good match to the felt flower and easy to stamp and trim out quickly. The card base is actually made from two separately die cut pink flowers; the back panel was scored where I wanted a fold line, and that area glued to the card front. I like this because you don't see the fold line in the front or have to compromise the shape by die cutting beyond a fold line. The back panel functions pretty much like an easel with this method.
You'll notice the button was threaded with ribbon, a fun alternative to thread.
Using scratch card stock, I sketched out the shape of a strawberry to 4.25 x 5.5 dimensions (standard A-2 size card) and deliberately made the stem large so that the card would fold at the top. It doesn't get much easier than this and you can re-use the template over and over again.
The mix of patterns and colors convey strawberry in practically every sense of the word, don't they?! Wrapping the front of the card at the stem with ribbon and garnishing with some paper and felt flowers and a button gave it simple but effective "pop", and stamping the sentiment onto a white tag finished it off. Looks so juicy, I'm smackin' m' lips already! *chuckle*
I hope these ideas spark you to try making some non-traditional card shapes and sizes soon!
Stamps- To A Sweet Friend, Leaf Trio, Thanks a Bunch, Hello (Monogram Frame Clear Set) by A Muse Artstamps
Paper - Kitchen Red, Grass Gingham, Blush, Buttercup, Palm Green, all by A Muse Artstamps
Ribbon: Stitched Lime Grosgrain, Stitched Popsicle Pink Grosgrain, Sheer Black Polka Dot by A Muse Artstamps
Embellishments: Buttons, crochet, paper & felt flowers from various sources
Punches: Leaf by Martha Stewart, Scallop Border by Fiskars
Dies: Flower & Circle by Spellbinders
