Boot Camp - Any way you slice it

I've been studying Paula's Design Boot Camp lessons on the Stars & Stamps blog.  She produces a new lesson on the 3rd Monday of each month.  These lessons are very useful in improving the quality of the cards we make.

The March lesson was on 'Anyway You Slice it (Composition & The Rule of Thirds).  In my last post, I showed how I created a template to help guide me in following this rule.  I've been trying to use this template when creating cards.

The February Boot Camp was on creating a Focal Point on your card.  In both of these cards, I tried to make the sentiment the Focal Point with contrasting colors to draw the eye to that area.  By placing the focal point at the 'sweet spot' (intersection of lines on my template), this is supposed to create a pleasant composition.

 

I've used my dies and punches to make the elements of these cards.  The patterned papers are by MME.

Boot Camp Template

Since I took a break after mailing my box of cards to OWH, I decided to study up on the latest Boot Camp on The rule of thirds.  To understand this, please check out the link.

I printed Paula's template and made sure the measurements were correct, then I traced the template onto an acrylic template that I bought years ago from Evolving Images.

I used this template as a guide when making my card.  I also chose the stripes for the Midweek Throwdown on the Stars & Stamps Blog.

After completing the card, I checked it with the template to make sure the Focal Point was at the intersection of the thirds.  The paper is from a 6"X6" pad by MME, called Reunion.

Looking at my finished card, I think the sentiment may have drawn the eye away from the flower, which was my intended Focal Point.  I'll work on this in the future.

Edit:  I tried adding another circle to frame the flower.  Did this help or not?

More lighthouse cards

I got into the lighthouses with my previous post and decided to make more cards with them.  When I bought all my lighthouse stamps, I also picked up postcoards and brochures of the Oregon Coast lighthouses.  This made me realize that some of the lighthouse have red roofs, so I used this info in coloring the images.

Love those lighthouses

I fell in love when visiting lighthouses on the Oregon Coast.  When I found a dealer selling lots of lighthouse rubber stamps, I bought them.  They have sat unused for too many years to count.  I decided to use a few of them.

I decided this was a good time to use the weathered wood paper.  After the first one, I embossed the paper in a woodgrain embossing folder.  The image and sentiment are popped on dimensional foam tape.

Torn Paper Mask

I've been playing with this technique of using a torn paper mask to create a space for inking and stamping on a card.

This technique is very versatile and could be used with a variety of colored ink and small stamps.  I'm practicing with different embellishments and sentiments.

Any Hero cards

I found a page of digis that I had printed a couple years ago and never used.  They were tucked into a pile of left over paper scraps.  I had apparently picked them up together and stored them  I decided to turn these great sentiments in Any Hero cards for out deployed troops.  I will write messages of gratitude inside the cards for out heroes.

 

I'm sure I got this sentiment digi from Operation Write Home, but don't remember who created it.  I'm sure I knew when I printed it, but didn't keep that information.

The ovals are cut with Spellbinder Nestibilies - Classic Ovals.  The blue was embossed with a Tiny Stars embossing folder by Paper Studio.  I patted an ink pad onto the embossing to makes the stars show up better.

Scenic cards

I started this project to make a birthday card for my son.  I'm holding this post until after his birthday.

I haven't made many scenic cards, so this was a learning process.  I stamped a group of 3 trees multiple times across the card, then stamped some grass clumps in the foreground.  I then sponged on some brown for the ground and some blue for the sky.  I stamped this deer from Stamper's Best onto white cardstock and fussy cut the image and glued it in front.  I decided the sky needed some clouds, so I added some stickers.  Then, I die cut another cloud for the birthday sticker.

I decided to work on my design and make some DAD cards for Operation Write Home.  I found a few more tree stamps and a mountain stamp from my stash.

 

Learning new things

One thing that has always interested me in cardmaking is creating my own backgrounds for cards.  I find it exciting to learn new techniques.  This technique was posted on Facebook and was a card made by Ann K.  The process is to tear paper and attach it to your background cardstock with removable adhesive.  Then sponge or brush ink into the open space and then stamp images over the same area.  When the mask is removed, you have an interesting background for your card.  I've tried several of these with varying results.

Silver Sticker frames

A friend gave me a package of silver sticker frames. 
I challenged myself to use all of them (2 sets) on cards. 
Here is the result.

The 4 cards in the upper center show the outline portions, plus the inner parts.  Here they are in individual photos.

 

There are more of these cards posted in the last 2 previous posts.  Here's a couple more of the cards.

More sticker frames

These sticker frames have many rows of individual stickers.  They are all silver, but separate at many levels.  I'm made a couple more cards with them: