Wednesday, August 31, 2011

General Theme Cards for OWH

I've been working on general theme cards for Operation Write Home, including the Birthday and Miss You cards shown below.


My thanks to Tiffany, formerly of Pizazz It and now on the design team for the newly reopened Scrapbook Art, for the birthday card design. The card's components are so simple -- 12 rectangles and 9 leaf punches! Simply round the corners of the icing rectangle and you're all set. (Using a ribbon in place of the middle rectangle between the cake and the icing is also very cute.)

I love the simplicity, yet unmistakeable message, of this birthday card. And, I also love that it can be so easily tailored to suit a guy or gal. Paper choice allows for showcasing favorite colors or favorite things, such as a love for chocolate or a passion for doggies/kittens. The card pictured above was made from KaiserCraft's Hippy Girl Collection.


The Miss You card is yet another design from the Mind's Eye Stella Rose collection. What I love about this card was the pairing of brown and black, which makes for a gender-neutral card that can easily be sent to a fellow.

For this card, I tried several different techniques. The first was pressing the formerly brown leather tag face down on a black ink pad to better blend with the patterned papers. I rubbed the edges of the card with a charcoal pastel and blended the pastel to fade in towards the center of the card. Using the pastel seemed to add a little more depth as well as subtly accentuating card edges. When all this was done, the card still needed a little something -- and that something came in the addition of black photo corners. All of these elements seem to have come together to create a really aesthetically pleasing card.


Next post: autumn cards for OWH