How to Make a Card… (cqc69 & ISC55)

While I sat at my desk, in the beginning stages of creating this card, I though I would document my thought process. I have lots of friends make comments about not know where to start and “I can’t think of anything.” So, I thought I would show you all today what steps I take when creating a card.

Here is the finished product… But, let’s back up a little….

I rarely create a card from scratch, or with out some kind of inspiration. That is difficult for me. I need some direction. So, I have lots of challenge web sights that I check to get new color or sketch ideas. Today’s card was created using the colors from Color Q and the sketch from Inkspirations.


Once I choose my direction, I pull out the ink in the colors I am going to use. Now, if I don’t have a challenge for the colors, I pull out my color coach and flip through till I see a combo I like. I lay my ink out and see which one I like the most. Or which one I think should be the “Daddy.”

I explained a little bit last week about the “Family” concept my mother, The Artist, taught me. When creating a piece of art, you should have a Daddy, a Mommy and the rest should be babies. The Daddy is my color I will use the most. Here, I chose Cajun Craze. For the Mommy, or secondary color, I chose Peach Prfait. The babies then are Rich Razzleberryand Crumb Cake.

Once I have my color set, I focus on design. One rule of thumb I find is the more layers the better. I think a card with lots of layers always looks more exciting. So, I added several layers here rather than the simple squares. I added the circles in the same color to give it some texture. I forgot to mention my card size. I use 5 1/2″ X 4 1/4″ most of the time because this is a piece of 8X11 cardstock cut in half!

Now, I use lots of scraps. I have a very hard time throwing away paper. You can see the paper that went into creating this card has been used many times! I stamped the puppy on white and then again on Peach Parfait. I cut the second one out and glued it to the first. This is called paper piecing.

Now, for fun, I want to show you my work space. I have a huge table, but I always seem to work in a 6 ” square! Ha! I hate when my desk looks like this, which is most of the time! You can see I have the computer right next to me so I can look at the sketch.

Oh, and don’t forget the TV… LOL. Gotta have my TV going….

Once I’m done, I take my card out to the front porch for better light. It sits on a little red stool against the brick wall. Look how dirty that stool is!
And there you have it! Pretty simple. I have lots of comments on my bows, and I owe it all to a great tutorial I found HERE.
This set, Wellness Wishes, is available for FREE as one of the Sale A Bration sets! Click HERE to find out how you can get it for FREE!

11 thoughts on “How to Make a Card… (cqc69 & ISC55)”

  1. Such a darling card, Erica! I love that you shared your creative process, so much fun to see how you work. These cheerful colors are perfect for a get well card! Thanks for sharing at the ColourQ this week!

  3. Erica what a cute card and I loved that you showed every step…how fun! Your table looks like mine and I can't stand it either..but cleaning it sometimes is not what I want to do! 🙂 I haven't heard of he "Daddy, Mommy and babies" trick, but is totally makes sense!!

  5. Well, this is a most informative post—mostly cuz I got to see where you stamp & photo!!! LOL! And I am fascinated by your TV on the wall. I want one of them!!!! I love your Daddy, Mommy & babies theory….such a cute way of describing it! My upline always said the main color should be 70%, then 20%, then 10%….same idea but yours is more fun! Your mom is a smart cookie!

  6. Hi Erica! love how you explained your creative process. Informative and I LOVE your card, I love the tone on tone layering & your bow, but I love how all that "awesomeness" doesn't detract from your focal point. GREAT design! (PS, I think our craft tables were separated at birth, what is up with that meager 6" of workspace?)
    😉 Have a stellar day & thanks for playing with us at CQC!

  7. Love your color-on-color circles! Super cute card with that sad puppy! Thanks for playing at ColourQ this week!

  8. Hi Erica, thanks for sharing your creative process & the cool "family" colour concept. Great card, love the colour on colour texture, the gorgeous bow & the poor little sad-faced puppy! 🙂

  9. Thank you for explaining how you put together a card. I am still at the copy stage, but you made it seem easy enough to try an idea on my own! Thanks.
    Gale

  11. Love the dimension you added with the dots! Great double challenge card. Thanks so much for joining us at Inkspirations this week 🙂

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