Saturday, May 8, 2010

Cheerful Word Collage

A few posts ago, I mentioned having a bunch of word stamp sets (like SU's Everyday Flexible Phrases) that don't get to meet with ink much. Here's a card that corrects some of that rubber loneliness.



My boys' school has anti-bullying word collages made by students posted all over the halls, and a few months ago, Ali Edwards posted a link to a website that will arrange these automatically. The idea appeals to the type lover in me, and with so many word stamps on the theme of happiness, it seemed inevitable to make one myself. It gave my stamp positioner quite the workout!

Design 101: Arranging all these words is a bit more challenging than I anticipated. In the end, I wanted to add a third reverse-type word to give the whole design a solid visual triangle, but there simply wasn't a spot for it. One thing I did avoid (well, for the most part) was trapped white space. Trapped white space creates a hole in a design, an empty spot completely surrounded by stuff so it's trapped and can't escape off the page. Trapped white space disrupts the balance and harmony of a design. Building the collage from the middle out would prevent creating trapped white space, but I started with the "Laugh every day" stamp in grape jelly Memento ink, thinking the darker purple would help give a visual ground to the random collage.

Because I love the way this turned out (who couldn't be made happy by receiving a card like this?), I'm going to remember to start in the middle next time because there WILL be a next time. Anybody out there got a bazzillion Merry Christmas stamps like I do? Happy Birthday? Thank you? Oh the possibilities!

May your weekend be full of creative possibilities. And don't forget about the One-Layer Wednesday Challenge: Punctuation.

Re: OLW challenges: I'm leaving the current challenge thumbnails on my sidebar and putting them on the bottom of the OLW post. That way, you can easily see all the current week's goodness more easily. You can post your link to the challenge using either InLinkz box, though. When the new challenge goes up, I'll replace the old challenge in the sidebar but you can still see the old challenge cards on the individual challenge posts. I hope that makes sense.


Supplies
stamps: various
ink: Memento
paper: PTI white, SU passion pink
accessories: stamp positioner, dimensionals, corner rounder

33 comments:

  1. What a great design lesson today, thank you! Such a happy card.

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  2. Soooooooo cute!!!

    I'm a little scared to think how long it would take me to arrange the words but maybe I'll give it a try with your tips!

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  3. How adorable! Love the two rounded corners too!

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  4. Another great idea! Love your card - those words make me smile :) I've been stamping for 7-8 years now, and I only purchased my Stamp-a-ma-jig a month or so ago. Now I wonder what in the world I did without it! (I also wonder why I couldn't have invented it!)

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  5. That is a great idea and I really like the way it turned out. I may experiment with some clear stamps on a large acrylic block and see if I have enough to stamp them all at once. The positioner is a wonderful tool!

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  6. I have one entire stamp set from CSS that has thank you's. Not sure I would have the patience to do this however. Love your end result. Very cool.

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  7. I own a 'thank you' collage stamp and have a 'happy birthday' collage stamp on my wish list. Thanks to your suggestion, I can cross that off of my list. Thank you.

    PS - This card makes me smile.

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  8. Who wouldn't love to receive this card? What a day brightener for anyone! Thank you for the details in teaching us how to do this.

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  9. you are truly a genius, susan!
    i love this card, it's one of my top ten favorites!! soo clever and cheerful. off to buy a
    positioner for myself. thanks again for the inspiration.
    oh my!!!!
    marty

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  10. What a happy, wordle-y card (love that site, by the way). The design is great, and the result is so fun.

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  11. As always, your ideas are innovative AND obvious all at the same time - original AND 'gosh, why didn't I/we think of that!' Always clever and neatly executed Susan.

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  12. I'm stuck for words - this looks amazing. But oh so difficult. I bet your Stamp-a-ma-jig was glued to your hand by the end of the card. I can't wait to try this out.

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  13. Fun card! Love the shape of it too!

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  14. WOW - Love this!! The different colors, fonts and typesizes really make this special and unique!!

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  15. Wow Susan, for someone that likes to take the easiest route possible this is a lot of work!!Beautiful results though!! I love the rounded corners too!

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  16. LOVE it!! My redundant sentiment stamps will languish no more. ;)

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  17. ..as i looked at your card I thought of Christmas messages as well, will have to try it this year. What a fab way of using word stamps, love that the types used are totally random but all work together.

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  18. I have a thank you to make tomorrow and I think you've just inspired me big time. Once again!
    I love the different fonts and colours and the underlying message just says it all so sweetly.
    Thanks for sharing!

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  19. I love it, so simple... and yes I do indeed have a lot of thank you stamps, what a great idea!

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  20. Oh my Susan this is incredible ... definitely one to try, especially for Christmas.
    You are soooooo inventive but this is not sooooooo simple to create me thinks ;)
    Thanks for the low down on how to do it ....now where are those sentiment stamps hiding .......

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  21. What a great idea to use when there are several sentiment stamps for an occasion, and a stamper just doesn't know which one to chose! The answer is: use them all! Thanks so much for the creative idea!

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  22. just wanted to say i am a BIG fan of yours. always stunning

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  23. Love this card, so pretty and colourful!

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  24. Simplicity at its best! Congras on being featured in Hero Arts Twitter!

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  25. Such wonderful inspiration and the design tips are very much appreciated.

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  26. I love this idea. So simple - yet challenging - completely creative.

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  27. What a fabulous use of those word stamps! I have a few of these, and you're tempting my to try!

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  28. This is THE most creative and beautifully simple card I have ever seen! ... It's amazing. I love words too. My Thesaurus gets a workout on a regular basis. I will definitely be doing this. Thanks for all the great tips. Your cards are beautiful!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!