Sunday, August 26, 2012

My Personal Challege

Almost all of the cards I make are copied or based on ones online or in publications.  Recently, I've been participating in some card challenges and have been learning how to better combine colors. But, these challenges have a sketch to use and I wanted to really test myself today.

I gave myself a challenge today to do a card from an image in a Cricut handbook that I did not choose.

The cartridges that I own are on a numbered list in an Excel spreadsheet.  There are 75 cartridges on the list.  I asked my husband to choose a number from 1 to 75 and the cartridge with that number was the one I'd use.  Then I looked at the handbook for the cartridge to see how many pages it contained and asked him to choose a number within that range.  By this time he was totally confused! LOL!

The cartridge was Paisley and page number 65.  That silly old paisley has 7 or 8 layers, depending on how you want to cut it. When I realized that's the image he'd picked, I almost scrapped my whole idea and was going to find an easier image to cut.  But, I persevered!

Choosing colors is a real challenge for me.  I can pick  three or four, but to come up with colors to coordinate for FIVE layers?  It gave me a headache just thinking about it!  I used a fantastic website,  Design Seeds.  This site is a lifesaver for color challenged folks like me!   There are hundreds of color combinations with gorgeous photographs that contain all the colors on there so that's how I came up with the ones I used for this design.

For lack of better names, I'll call the colors teal, peach, rust, purple and olive.  Who would have ever thought you could put them together on the same design?

This was definitely a challenge for me! Not only was picking colors difficult, but it's been a long  time since I've used all the features in Design Studio.  Just figuring out all the layers that I needed to cut probably took me at least 30 minutes!

Once it was assembled, it looked too plain so I used a Signo gel pen to add the doodles.  This reminds me of a Pennsylvania Dutch design.

Now, I've satisfied my need for a challenge!  And, I'm off to find another card inspiration---online!

4 comments:

Tammy said...

I love it...Your story made me laugh. I was going to comment on that it doesn't take much to confuse someone when you just ask them to chose numbers...You have peeked their curiousity and then they need to know but decide it isn't a game anymore..lol

I also really like the card. I love to look at inspiration on line or in these groups but then try to put my own take on it. Awesome job Linda

Karons Krafty Korner said...

Great card Linda - love the colours you chose. TFS

TeresaK said...

Well that just turned out lovely! I love the way you ended up picking a card to do...and how fun was that! I know what you mean about images that have so many layers...I often just stay away from them! Thanks for the tip on the site for the color matching!
Teresa
www.createenjoyshare.blogspot.com

MaryH said...

Thank you SO much for this post. I have the same problem with choosing colors that 'go well' together, terrible at layouts too,unless I copy something. It's nice to know that an experienced cardmaker has the same problem sometime. I just posted a card I did, that I am totally unhappy with how it finished up. Nothing like what I had in mind when I started. BUT I hadn't posted for many days, needed to at least put out something, so I did! Feeling terrible about it, til I read your post. I've bookmarked the recommended site, and I LOVED your challenge story. You did great with your challenge, and TFS.