My Design Thought Process

Have you ever wondered, "How did the designer come up with that color combo?" Or, "How did she know which accessories to use?" I sure have!

So, as I was browsing some of my favorite card designs, I thought it would be fun to share my design thought process with you.

Note: For all of these cards, I used one of the fabulous how-to books from Close To My Heart for the pattern base and then I chose the paper colors, accessories, and distressing techniques to add pizazz to the pattern.

Happiness is love:
Man. This card is one of my top three all-time favorites because it turned out so elegant and sassy cute! I chose my two favorite background and texture papers. I wanted something light as the base color because I wanted the message on the card to be the focus. So, I went with the tan, lined paper. Then I chose the pink polka-dot paper because I wanted the paper to tie into my theme of "love", and what better color than pink to represent feelings of the heart.

I wanted to make the dots on the pink paper pop, so I chose black rub-ons for my two-part sentiment and a black button to help round out the black accessories. Then I covered a bracket dimensional element in a deeper pink paper, to play off the lighter pink polka-dot paper. And finally, I needed some other pops of color, but they needed to be lighter so they didn't draw attention away from the sentiment, which was my focal point of the card. So, I chose a very pale blue paper to cover my heart dimensional element and a cream button to finish everything out.

Then, to give everything a softer look and playing off the tender feelings of love, I sponged the edges of all of the paper and covered dimensional elements with a tan ink.

Now comes the fun part: putting it all together. I decided to attach the papers and the "love" portion of the sentiment first and then play around with the accessory placement so that I could ensure that the focus remained on the sentiment. I absolutely "love" how it turned out! Don't you?

Happy Fall, Y'all:

Another of my top three favorite cards is made for my favorite time of year: Fall. I love the colors of the leaves, the crisp air, and the feelings of warmth from the Thanksgiving holiday. It makes me so happy!

So, I made this card with all of those things in mind. I chose papers that represent the colors of the leaves and distressing techniques to represent what happens to those leaves when you step on them. (One of my favorite things to do!) The two main distressing techniques are: 1) crinkling cardstock to give it ripples and ridges and then I distressed those ridges with sandpaper, and 2) dry embossing lines into the cardstock and sandpaper distressing those lines. 

And, finally, I chose the accessories to complement the happiness I feel in this season: cheerful flowers, shiny metals, and warm ribbon. Wouldn't this card add some warmth to your crisp, fall day if you received it in the mail?

Get Well:
My third favorite card of all time is actually quite simple. I've been saving this card to send to a friend or family member whenever they are sick to brighten their day. Luckily, I haven't had to send it just yet. (Phew!)

To put this card together, I thought of what would make me smile if I was under the weather and stuck inside all day. So, I chose happy papers with pops of blue, to bring a little bit of blue sky indoors. I sponged the edges of my papers with a rich, brown ink to match the brown in the papers and then I added pewter accessories to finish off the cheery feeling of the card. (I'm still saving this treasure for the perfect moment to brighten someone's day.)

There you have it--my design scoop on creating three of my favorite cards. It really all comes down to what the focus of the card is: sentiment focus, paper choice to represent a feeling, intended feeling of the recipient, or whatever YOU choose as the focus. Just make sure you play up that focus with your design choices!