Where the rubber meets the digi...

I’m procrastinating a bit this morning.  I should have gone to the gym but I found myself in my studio, imagine that?  I came up with this fast little card, combining a digi stamp and two rubber stamps.

I rarely know what I’m going to do once I get here.   I have cigar boxes with card starts, random scraps glued to a surface, painted borders, partially stamped images, etc.  These are things I would put out for my students in free time, and it was amazing to watch what the children would come up with.  My advice to the kids, was to let the paper choice guide you to your coloring.

So today, I found this embossed white cardstock with a scrap glued in the center. This was going to be my base.  I had one of my ‘Les Chats” digi images already cut.  Using Copics, I pulled some pink form the scrap and added a little accent of green.  I love how the white stays so crisp so I left the cat’s body white.  I decided on a landscape format and attached the cat asymmetrically.  

 There were a handful of green and pink flowers I must have cut long ago. “Play with both,” I would tell the kids. I preferred the green, although I did not care that it would be so close to the green above the act's eye, so I added the white circle, accented with some pink Prismacolor pencil to enhance the edge.  Now it needs a  sentiment – so I stamped “Happy Birthday.”

At this point I am floating the flower element and it is unbalanced. It needs a stem, and for my eyes, it needed color with some black contrast to pull over the cat image.  Does that make sense?  Since the cat is outlined in the black I need to visually balance the composition.  The perfect stem is the Ribbon Border #3 from Stampotique. No need to introduce anymore colors, just repeat the colors in the cat image. 

To begin with boxes of scraps, it is a fast way to create a spontaneous card or little work of art.  This approach is really great fun for the kids. Creating that composition, using balancing skills and making choices about shape, texture, and color, taps into those thinking skills. 

While my specialty has been working with children, I hope some of the process will inspire you too.

Tip:  When printing your digi image, create an entire page and use the sizing handles to alter the sizes.  Rotate the images so you can fit as many as possible on your sheet -- then print on cardstock.  Cut them out and set them aside for later use. 

Happy Friday.