Wednesday, October 27, 2010

OLW 26 - Black, White, and Red All Over

Today's OLW challenge is to use black, white, and red only on your card.  At first  I wasn't crazy about the challenge, but as the day went on, I started thinking about things I could do.  After I got home from teaching crochet club at the school today, I decided to play.

My first card is an example of what not to do.

The card is too big to have the flourish floating around in the middle of it.  Since there was so much space around the outside, I tried to fill it in with the flowers and ended up with too many.  It just looks weird and not cohesive at all.  I may end up cropping this one down to try to salvage it.

Here is my second attempt.

Ah, much better!  Having the flourish stamped off the edges of the paper just a little bit creates much better flow.  I was able to triangulate the flowers for a nice balanced look.  The sentiment stamped in the lower corner continues to balance the whole card.

Look what I just did.

Look familiar?  This is my first card cropped to 4 1/4" square.  See how it helps to have the image stamped off the side?  Once again the flowers are triangulated creating better balance without overpowering the design.  The flourish would look better if it were angled up a little more to fill in the gap at the top, but I think this was a great save.

Lesson learned.

Supplies used:
Stamps - Baroque Motifs, Small Script, Warm Words
Paper - GKD PL white
Ink - Memento black, cherry cobbler
Accessories - black rhinestones, SAMJ

Hope you're having a great day!

K

11 comments:

Bonnie said...

I have been struggling with this challenge all day too! You really pulled it off, twice. I, on the other hand, still have a full waste bin and no card for the challenge. I love what you did Karen.

Cynthia Schelzig said...

Gorgeous!!!

Susan said...

Karen, I must say I'm proud of you for salvaging the card! I would probably have thrown it away. Great save...and beautiful card!

Kittie said...

Karen, your first card was pretty but I do agree the offset image makes it perfect, Your cut down of the first card made it perfect, too! Beautiful.

G Peplow said...

Yay, love the learning process and love your card's, all of them, now:0) xx

Janet a.k.a. swanlady21 said...

Great save. Lovely cards.

librariane said...

The cropped card is fantastic! It makes for a nice-sized thank you card.

Rosemary said...

gorgeous cards! i love how you saved the 2nd one!

Jess said...

Love it when you post the rejects and show how you salvaged them - makes me feel like I'm not alone in doing that ;) hehe

Rosanne said...

Gorgeous!

Jennifer Styles said...

You know, I like'em all. Lovely, lovely cards!

Great job on the challenge!