Stamp-A-Faire: Stamper's First Aid

Welcome back! Still with us?!?! We saved something real fun for the end with Stamper's First Aid. You might have noticed this last week on Nichole's blog that she was asking for you to post a photo of a card that you felt just "needed a little something". The design team members were then asked to each pick a card and remake it with a few changes that we felt benefited the project but remained true to the original concept. If your card got chosen (Gladys...I'm talking to YOU!), you'd receive a $25 PTI gift certificate. Lots of fun.

The card I selected by Gladys paired up image stamps In Bloom and Turning a New Leaf and a sentiment from Blooming Button Bits (took me awhile to figure that out...was looking in all my sets!). I felt it had a lot going for it. The composition and balance of elements was just about spot on, it had an interesting juxtaposition between the solid leaves and lined flowers, and used lots of bright color.

And here's my version. Just to outline a few changes I made...

1. I wanted to anchor the leaf sprays a bit so the stems were hidden, making them more a piece of a main image instead of individual elements. The only way I felt I could achieve that was by stamping the flower images on their coordinating dies and covering up the stems. This also allowed me to place two flowers on pop dots for added dimension, creating a more dynamic composition.

2. Gladys choose some great colors with Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest, and Hawaiian Shores. I threw in one more with Winter Wisteria. If you look at her original card, she's got an Aqua Mist blossom overlapping the Raspberry Fizz. That visually read as purple to me, so that's what I went with.

I also felt if you are using lots of different color and not following the rule of three (each color used three times in the composition), then you have to go whole hog when throwing the rule out. The two orange blossoms in Gladys original card conflicted with that a bit. It threw the balance off just a little bit. By ditching one orange blossom and adding a purple, you have a certain order in the chaos. Not one color is predominant.

3. I added some color to each of the blossoms with a Copic marker just a shade or two lighter than the ink color used. There's still plenty of white on the edges, carrying over that soft look Gladys was going for, but just with a little added depth and interest.

4. I choose to move the sentiment down and place it on a piece of Aqua Mist striped paper. It gave it a "home" and leads your eye down across the card, letting you see the flowers first. Thought a patterned paper would add just the right bit of personality.

5. Since the leaves are more of a supporting element, I kept them all one color (Simply Chartreuse).

Gladys, thanks for giving me such a great card to work with. It took me in a direction I don't normally go in and I love the result. Hope you do too!

Be sure to check out the other Stamper's First Aid Projects tonight.


Jessica Witty
Betsy Veldman
Dawn McVey
Heather Nichols
Melissa Phillips
Ashley Cannon Newell
Maile Belles
Danielle Flanders
Debbie Olsen
Michelle Wooderson

Thanks for joining us! I hope you had a fun and creative day.