Thursday, February 6, 2014

Tweaking a Design

These tweaking posts always yield interesting comments because what I consider an improvement, some of you inevitably consider a dis-improvement. Everyone is entitled to her (or his) opinion, which is why the world is such a fun place. Feel free to disagree with me, but I'm always right and you know it.

Yeah, right.

(Seriously, we need a sarcasm font!)

Anyway, here's the first card I made with my drop-dead gorgeous Hero Arts map stamp.


The ink is VersaMagic aloe vera, which is a nice, soft green, with charcoal VersaColor ink for the sentiment. It's not a bad card at all, but the sentiment seems a bit too dark, and the border around the map is so tiny that it makes the whole card feel a bit cramped.

So I re-made the card with a lighter inks, different colors, and bling instead of pearls. Oh, and a wider mat of white around it all. Much better! Well, at least it looks more like I made it.




As you can see, I trimmed almost all the border off the stamped panel to make the mat wider, and the whole thing feels so much less cramped as a result. The map is stamped in VersaMagic sea breeze, which is a lovely light blue, and I colored the bling to match with Sharpies. The sentiment works better in a warm brown than the charcoal of the first card. (This brown is VersaMagic jumbo java.) Brown and pastels always look nice together.

I gave this card to my darling husband. I bought this stamp, in fact, because he loves maps and I love him. But I digress.

So, do you disagree with me? Does the green one float your boat, or are you true blue in your sailing preference?

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts map background, Papertrey sentiment
ink: VersaColor and VersaMagic
paper: Papertrey
accessories: pearls, rhinestones, dimensionals

16 comments:

  1. I love both, but somehow that green "speaks" to me ( I tend to like brighter colors...that could be my eye problem--LOL)! Glad to see you are having fun with this stamp. I am sure your hubby love this/you to pieces!

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  2. You make the most beautiful CAS cards :)

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  3. Totally agree with you. The border, the colours and the bling works better for me too!

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  4. Both cards are great! I hybrid of sorts is peaking my interest. I think I'd go with the blue card because of the bling and the brown, but the map I would stamp in the green ink. Thanks for all of your insight. I truly enjoy both of your blogs.

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  5. Both cards are lovely but the second is far better .Fantastic - keep up the good work on your blog your chat ALWAYS makes me smile

    debbie (bonny cold bright Scotland )

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  6. I am really surprised at the impact the larger border makes! I know the color changes make a difference too, but the take away for me is the larger border of white! Thanks for this lesson; I will certainly use it in my card making! I so appreciate your use of design principles to make the most lovely cards.

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  7. I think I like the green one better though both are great....as always. And I like the card from yesterday, too. I have a few of those pads...may have to drag them out of the cabinet...wonder if they're too dry?? We shall see.

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  8. Your 2nd version is my favorite for all the reasons you mentioned. Thanks for showing both!

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  9. Both are beautiful but I love the second. The extra white space is wonderful.

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  10. I like the remake better.

    One of my friends once asked me why I was so stuck on the A2-sized card base. So many stamps work on a larger base, and I wasn't giving it a fair shot. She challenged me to go for 5x7 or larger. I almost died, though I do now own some 5x7 envelopes.

    I think you should try the whole stamp on a larger base. I'll give you an envelope for it. :)

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  11. I like the green colored map better, the brown sentiment and the bigger matting. How's that for a mish mash answer? I read what Leslie above wrote. I have several larger stamps that would look better on a larger card... but those larger cards make me anxious. I don't know why. I have plenty of big envelopes, so that's not it.

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  12. I totally agree with you. The change in matting makes a world of difference.

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  13. I'm loving that green, but I hear what you're saying about the greeting looking too dark, and the crowding.

    I like how you cut the second map down a bit smaller, but the downside is,you lose the border around it. I'd be tempted to add a blue mat underneath, just 1/8" or so of blue to maintain the nice white matting around the outside edge.

    Love brown for the sentiment. It would pair well with either color.

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  14. I like the second better, Susan. It just looks better to me.

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  15. BTW, our admin. assist.is always IMing me using Jokerman as a sarcasm font. Check it out. It totally does the trick.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!