Hello Flourishes friends!
Welcome to another edition of Create With Me Monday! Today I thought I’d share a little bit about my creative process. Over the years, I have been asked many times how I come up with a card design. How do I select colors, layout, embellishments? While the process is not always exactly the same, there are a few things I do pretty consistently that work wonders for getting those creative juices flowing! 
So…let’s get started!
The very first thing I do is choose my stamp set. That decision is often based on the occasion or recipient; but sometimes it’s based on a challenge or perhaps even my mood that day.
I chose to work with Flourishes beautiful Botanical Bookplates Vol 1 for my first card today:
Once I’ve chosen a stamp set, I go on the hunt for a great sketch. I have a handy three-ring binder right next to my work station that is chock-FULL of fabulous sketches. Over the years, I’ve copied and pasted some of my favorite sketches onto a blank Word document, printed them out once I had a full page, and added them to my binder.
Here’s a shot of my book:
Where do I find those awesome sketches, you ask? Why, they’re all over the ‘net, my friends! Splitcoaststampers has a weekly sketch challenge on Wednesdays, and many other companies and blogs have regularly scheduled sketch challenges that you can participate in….often times with a prize attached too…woot! A great website with tons of challenges all listed in one spot is The Daily Dare, which is updated every single day with the newest challenges on the web.
Once I have my stamp set and layout chosen, I move on to colors! There are so many ways to approach this. One of my favorites these days is a cool website called Design Seeds. If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend getting on their e-mail list! You’ll get an e-mail every day with several different color combos, complete with a beautiful photo to inspire you.
Here’s the one I chose for my first card today:
Sigh…isn’t that just lovely? It definitely spoke to me!
Once I have my colors chosen, I usually will find some fabulous patterned papers in those colors.
Like many of you, I have a SERIOUS collection of patterned papers! I particularly love the 6×6 pads for card making, and there is certainly no shortage of those out there in stamp land! Truthfully, not every card I make has patterned paper on it; but most of them do. I should also say that sometimes I’m just itching to use a certain pack of papers. So in that case, I choose my stamps based on the papers I’ve already chosen.
Once I have my colors and papers chosen, I pick out some yummy Flourishes Copic Marker Collections to color the image…unless of course I’m working with an image that doesn’t require coloring (hahahahaaaa….I know, that rarely happens with me!).
Have you seen Flourishes a-MAZING Copic Collection Swatch Book???
That fantastic tool has been SO helpful in choosing Copic Marker Collections for my projects! I can take my little ring of yumminess, and hold it right up to the papers I’m using to find the perfect match! That tool is well worth the investment! For my card, I used the following Copic Marker Collections:
The final step in creating a card is adding ribbons and embellishments:
For me, this part of the design process is a visual thing. That’s why I have many of my ribbons and embellishments out where I can see them in my studio. As you can see, I like glass jars. Those are the items I tend to reach for first. Have you ever gone through a drawer in your craft room and found embellishments you had completely forgotten you even had?! Well…that has happened to me more times that I can count. So, I decided to put as many of them in full view as I could, without cluttering up my studio too much. I also have a wonderful nuts and bolts drawer unit that is full of fun embellishments. Mine is black, but is very similar to this one:
Those are the items I tend to reach for first. Have you ever gone through a drawer in your craft room and found embellishments you had completely forgotten you even had?! Well…that has happened to me more times that I can count. So, I decided to put as many of them in full view as I could, without cluttering up my studio too much. I also have a wonderful nuts and bolts drawer unit that is full of fun embellishments. Mine is black, but is very similar to this one:
So, that’s pretty much my creative process from start to finish. How about a shot of the actual card I’ve been alluding to? Okay, here it is:
Because I have so much white in this card, I chose to give it some texture with an embossing folder. I also used several different Spellbinders dies to add interest to my main image. If I’m going to use a die-cut for my image, I usually do it right after I stamp the image, and it is most often based on the layout I’ve chosen.
Here are a couple of final tips for you:
Are you on Pinterest yet? Well, if you’re looking for inspiration of ANY kind, this is the site for you! I have my own card sketch board started on Pinterest. It’s like having my 3-ring binder moved to my computer…cool, huh? Here’s a link to my board: Inspirational Card Sketches. I also have a board for my favorite color combos. You can check that out here: Color Me Inspired. Flourishes also has Pinterest Boards you can check out with sketches and card samples too! Just click HERE.
In honor of Flourishes Christmas in July sale this week, I have a holiday card to share with you today as well:
I used A Gift for You for this one, which I must admit, I am so sad to see is on the retiring stamp set list. LOVE this set, and I’m super-glad I already have it in my collection! Now, it’s not every day that I make a Christmas card with such crazy-bright colors; but, hey, it’s SUMMER, and I found this awesome color combo on Design Seeds:
Once I saw it, I just knew it would work perfectly with one of my new 6×6 paper pads, Basic Grey’s Lauderdale. It clearly was fate!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Create With Me Monday, and maybe found a little inspiration for your own creative process. If you’re up for sharing, I’d love to hear what your creative process looks like!
Have a beautiful Monday!
~Cindy
Create With Me Monday, Tutorials & Techniques |
WOW! Cindy your tutorial is fantastic and I am now finding and following all of your links
Gorgeous cards and I love your insight
~ Amanda
Love the links you included in this email. And the cards. Thanks as always for sharing.
Oh my the soft colors of the first card today are fabulous, I think those should be a FTTC challenge. Just gorgeous creations Cindy.
Cindy, thank you for sharing your secrets to success in card making. Wonderful post! Thank you.
Jan Marie
Flourishes
Beautiful projects…fun to see how you put it all together….I never know where I am going with mine (and it shows sometimes, too…lol)…it’s how my mind works, totally unorganized!! I am on Pinterest and love it…..the inspiration is wonderful….going to check out your boards!!
Your cards are beautiful Cindy! I love how you used the Lauderdale set (one of my faves).
Thanks so much, CIndy! I so appreciate reading this and have gotten some ideas. I get to a point and just get stuck…so you’ve helped me…and you always inspire me too!
thanks so much for sharing your creative process and beautiful cards! now i know i need a sketch layout binder!
Oh My Gosh! Cindy girl, I want your craft room!!!
I also want your sketch folder!!! LOL!!! How awesomely organised are YOU!!! What a fun and fabulous tutorial, it was like popping by for a visit!!! 
Thanks Cindy! I currently keep my sketches on my computer — but it’s not such a great idea because I can’t flip through them I could with a binder, so I may go back to that. I hadn’t even noticed the Copics Swatch Book in the shop before! Definitely will be getting that – I’m still a baby when it comes to copics so it will be a huge help to me! Thanks for the hint!