Friday, August 17, 2012

About 40 Minutes on the Farm

Ever since I finished my craft space reorganization, I've felt a bit aimless with my stamping. Actually, I have been a bit aimless for months now, feeling the itch to shake things up a bit, though whether the shake-up will appear on the blog or not remains to be seen. I have too many ideas and need to settle on one or two and get hopping.

But I procrastinate.

Bet you don't know what that feels like, eh?

Anyway, Wedesday I pulled out On the Farm from Papertrey and decided to play around with it. Here are the cards I made, in the order I made them, in the roughly 40 minutes my children allowed me to work.

I hope my commentary shows not only how cards that are near-misses can be helpful for learning, but also how loosening up and playing with something can be fun! Or funny. Depending on your sense of humor.




I really love the layout and colors above, but I don't love how the green ink shows so strongly through the rusty color I used for the rooster. A little show-through is fine, but this is egregious. He'd be a pain to cut out and pop, so the solution in the future is simply to use a darker color for him. The bling creates a visual triangle...before I added them, the card looked mighty boring and incomplete.

When in doubt, add bling. You can go a bling too far, but it's better to have blinged and failed than never to have blinged at all.




As you might suspect, I just love all the white space on this one. Red and brown make a fun color combo and pop nicely off the white. The chickens are "looking" at the sentiment, which creates the feeling of movement even with so few elements. The rooster wouldn't work on this layout...he's looking the wrong way.

Just like a man.




I'm not a fan of puns in general, though I recognize their popularity in stamping and give in occasionally to the fun. But "herd it's your birthday"? Seriously? Bovine ridiculousness.  I love the weathered frame, though, and hope I can remember it's there for use with other sets. I also like the placement of the label stamp on here.

Did you know a major contributor of the greenhouse gas methane is cows? They fart a lot.

Just sayin'.


 


Finally, here's a card that works in some ways and not in others. The colors are fun, and the use of the border stamp works nicely, but the three images do not. The chicken and rooster are looking at each other (nice design...planned, I'm sure, by Nichole when she designed the set), but the label is floating in the air, which wasn't a good design choice on my part. Oh, to be able to have an ink eraser! Then, when I stamped the sentiment, it just got lost...not dark enough. So I added the brown half-pearls to draw attention to it, but they are just too heavy and look out of place on the card.

Perhaps I should remake this one, change the sentiment to Happy Anniversary, and ditch the label. Or maybe add a few hearts floating above the happy cluckle.

Couple. Cluckle. Chuckle. *snort*

I'm sorry. Not sure what's gotten into me.

Supplies
stamps: On the Farm, Birthday Basics (Papertrey)
ink" Memento
paper: PTI
accessories: half pearls, rhinestones

19 comments:

  1. Love your last comment...too funny! And, am AMAZED that you turned out FOUR cards in only 40 minutes! WOW! I am impressed!

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  2. It's so nice to know that someone else goes through the same thought processes as me when making a card! I am obsessed with scale and proportion. Now if only I had your talent to go with it...

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  3. Lovely giggle today Susan! I really enjoy it when you give us the design monologue. It's a little insight into your thinking processes and really quite helpful. Have a wonderful day, xxx

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  4. Oops, sorry I forgot to say really great cards and I mostly agree with your diagnosis:0) Oh! For half your talent, xxx

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  5. Love your red & green inks, what shades are they? I'm struggling to find red that isn't pink-y.

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  6. You sure are patient. If something doesn't work for me I get a different stamp set. I like all of these but I wish you would quit using this set because I'm trying hard not to buy it and you're not helping.

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  7. I love how much you accomplished in 40 minutes with this Farm set. I agree that just playing around can be a very good thing. Also, I think you are too hard on yourself with your critiques. Let me send you some die cut farm animals, and see what you can do with them. email me your address: joyce dot mehrberg at gmail dot com.

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  8. OMGosh, I laughed at every comment. I'm so glad other people try and miss, though your misses are way more appealing than mine *looks at pretty trash*. :/

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  9. Love the idea for the last card..lol. The farm collection looks like you could have a lot of fun with it. Love the red and brown colors. You have given me and idea with those colors. Great Cards love how it took 40 mins. Congrats on the getting the room all organized Wish I could snap my fingers and mine would be done..Ha Thanks for your inspiration.

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  10. Nothing that wrong with the cards....but I didn't buy the stamp set - just the dies and they are great....let the 'other' Joyce send you some - they are dinky but so useful. I particularly wanted the horse and had to make a card for a pig farmer recently and was so glad I had the die.
    Yes, if we all ate as much greens as cows do we'd be adding to the problem too, thankfully we don't!!

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  11. Couldn't delete the email without popping in to say thank you. I learned some things and I laughed. Good start to any day! Does saying I am going to thank you actually count as a thank you? Just in case...Thank You!

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  12. Your cards are always stunning!! Love them all!!!

    As or the color showing through the rooster, it doesn't look bad at all! It's art! :-)
    But if it really bothers you, you don't have to cut out the entire rooster, just his body where you see the ink. You can stamp the rooster first, then mask him, and make the background. :-)

    Always look forward to your newsletter!!!
    ~Lindsay~

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  13. Thanks for all the funny comments today - made me laugh and smile. Love the layouts and tips on design - i really need them. Hope you have a great day and are looking the 'right' way!

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  14. Thanks for my start of my day with a laugh! :) Great set of cards even if YOU don't thik so. Thanks also for the "hints" of stamping.


    ps - I got a 6x6 acrylic pad -- still haven't used it! I'm afraid... :)

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  15. Great cards!
    Think you can use a diecut on the first card, to cover up the green. And I'd put the label of the 3rd card more up and to the right, so it's just there for a bit on your card, not the whole label ;)
    But totally love your choice of designs and colors :)

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  16. OMG -- "Couple. Cluckle. Chuckle. *snort*" - Laughed out loud!
    thanks for the CHUCKLE!
    Love you!
    Hugs,
    Sherry

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  17. I love your posts. Great cards and great writing -- makes me smile!

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  18. Fabulous! Loving this set more and more, oh dear!

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  19. Wow - I absolutely love "Herd it's your birthday". What a great collection of work!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!