Making a Birthday Card

My mother sent me a photo of a flower in her garden. I thought that it might make a nice card so I printed it out and sketched out the out lines and coloured it in using Copic markers. I then added some patterned paper, ribbon and an embossed Happy Birthday. I think it turned out all right.

Start Again

I think I’m beginning to iron out some of the flaws in the posting of this card blog. I’ve been trying to figure out a better way to photograph the cards. I’ve been looking at what other card bloggers do and decided that using a neutral background looks best, so I’m ditching the black.

Also, I found taking pictures of the cards upright is easier plus you avoid casting weird shadows. Another issue I’ve been tackling is trying to make all the pictures the same width so that it looks more pleasing when I post, by avoiding the annoying varying sizes of photo frames.

On the cards making front:  I have been continuing to make cards out of my doodles. Now that I have a few cards under my belt, when I look at some of my early cards they seem very plain. I didn’t use many embellishments or many layers. I’m finding as I get more comfortable with the process I am starting to experiment a little more.

This week I am posting some more of my early card designs. Two Birthday cards, one for a boy and one for a girl, plus a Thank You card coloured two ways. Once again, the images were drawn by me and coloured with Copic Markers. The word stamps are from Stampin’ Up! and the background papers are from a variety of different sources.

I am always open to suggestions, comments or critiques, after all this is a learning process.

Cheering

Well, I missed posting some new cards last week so I'm going to make up for it. This week I'm posting a couple of pictures of cards I made for my cheer leading nieces.  At this point the cards were still a work in progress, I guess I never took a picture of the the finished product...oh well.


The last card is a remake of one of the sketches to show a more traditional cheer-leading outfit.

Finding Creativity

Sometimes trying to be creative is a very difficult thing. It just doesn’t seem to work on demand. There are days you may want to do or make something, but you find yourself clueless about where to start. Other days you can have so many ideas that you’re left figuring out what to do first.  As the saying goes, “when it rains it pours”.

But what does one do when there is a dry spell? How do you handle days where nothing you draw looks right or you just can’t think of a subject to write about? Everything I’ve read on “writer’s block” suggests that the only solution is to keep pushing through. If you’re a writer just write, or if you draw just draw anything. It doesn’t need to good or have a point, you just have to keep moving. So I do what is suggested in the hopes when inspiration hits me I’ll be at the ready, pen in hand.

What my inner psychologist wonders is why this happens in the first place and whether there is a way to predict these ebbs and flows.

This week’s card I created when I was thinking of card that a son might give his mother. Once again I took one doodle and presented two ways: one for Mother’s day, the second as a birthday card.

Rn'R Girl

This week I chose one doodle and displayed it three ways. This one I dubbed “Rn'R Girl”. In each case I coloured the doodle with Copic markers. One is a photocopy of the original. My daughter thinks the one with the blue hair is crazy, but that’s Rock n’ Roll, baby!

original drawing on cards stock background.

photocopy of drawing on a stamped background highlighted with ribbon and an embossed
birthday stamp.

Used a different colour scheme and used sparkly card stock.

Let's Get Started!

I always wished there was something productive I could do with my doodles then one day it occurred to me that I could make them into cards! I like to experiment using techniques borrowed from the worlds of illustrating, fine art and crafting. My hope for this blog is to make a place to show what I’m up to as I search for ways to make use of my incessant doodling.

This first card creation is one of my crazier images. I came up with it on an unusually warm and sunny March day. I thought it would be funny to make a character with tulip shaped hair that is overjoyed that spring is here. My daughter thinks it looks silly, but that’s kind of the point.