Hi Creative Friends!
Have you ever looked at a card or a scrap book page, finding yourself drawn to the design elements of the image, but perhaps you lack the featured stamp image? Or have you ever had one of the Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Catalogs which is nearing its expiration date and think to yourself, what am I going to do with this?
This is where card or scrapbook map/sketching skill comes in handy. Let’s look at an example. Here is a card I created many moons ago. It’s one of my favorite cards; it has one of my favorite color combinations, plus I like the juxtaposition of the squares in relation to each other and the bold, yet simple design. I CASEd this card from another card designer or the Idea Book and Catalog (can’t remember at this moment). I’ll call it Grateful Cascading Boxes.
So you can see why I call it cascading boxes!
If you take a look at this card with a different pair of lenses, though, you will see the more “global” shapes that are recurring in the layout design. How many squares do you see? How many rectangles? If you said 5 squares and 3 rectangles, then you are right!
Here is the same card from the layout perspective:
When I look at this image, I see five squares (or parts of a square) and three rectangles (including the outside border of the card). So, you may be wondering why I’ve spent some time on this exercise… Well, it’s because I believe that knowing how to look at a card or scrapbook sample and break it down mentally or on paper as a sketch helps you to see things differently and can later become an inspiration for another card or scrapbook page at some point in the near future! Also, by looking at a sketch rather than the card sample, your mind is not limited by the color and/or stamp image choices made by the sample designer/artist.
So, what do you think? Are you up for a challenge? Create your own revamped card using a sample from the
2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalog. Reference the page number so we can all go and check it out. Share your samples with me and I’ll post some samples here on my blog (e-mail your image to me at planetkreative@gmail.com). I can’t wait to see what you have created! Happy creating!
