If you follow my YouTube adventures, you will know that I had to take a forced break from crafting due to health reasons (everything is explained in detail here). That meant no coloring, no painting, no card making. And I understood what people mean when they talk about creative muscles: if you don’t exercise, they deflate! At least mine did 🙂 .
As I got better over time, I felt it was time to sit again at my craft desk and make something pretty. But what? I had no inspiration…eventually, I overcame my creative block and in today’s post I am going to share with you a few tips so that, should you feel stuck, you’ll have a process to get those creative juices flowing again!!
Before moving on, I wanted to give you a brief overview of the main products I used for this card. You can find the full supply list with pictures and links at the end of this post.
• Up With Love Stamp Set – Mama Elephant [ ELH | SSS ]
• Scribble On My Heart Stencil – Heffy Doodle [ ELH | SSS | SBC ]
• Outside’In Stitched Heart Stackables Dies – Lawn Fawn [ SBC |SSS | ELH ]
• Everyday Script Dies – Pinkfresh Studio [ SBC ]
Tip #1: Pick a Theme
It doesn’t matter what it is: birthday, Christmas, Easter…anything you like. For me it was an initiative by my crafty friend Kari: she recently lost her dad and, since he loved bears, she asked crafters to help her create 74 bear-themed cards. One for each year of her dad’s life. I just had to create one, too.
Regardless of what theme you pick, having one will give you some context and will help you select your supplies.
In my case, since the subject was going to be a bear, I chose the Mama Elephant Up With Love Stamp Set [ ELH | SSS ]. I stamped the bear and colored it with Illustrator Markers.
Tip #2: From Details to the Big Picture
Whatever supply your theme inspired you to pull out, take a look at it and try to select details that can help you move forward in your design. In this case, I decided to use the heart balloon in the bear image as a starting point for the design of my card base.
I created a heart-shaped focal point with the Lawn Fawn Outside In Stitched Heart Stackables Dies [ SBC |SSS | ELH ] and the Scribble on My Heart Stencil by Heffy Doodle [ ELH | SSS | SBC ].
In order to do that, I die cut a heart-shaped mask and then I blended Distress Oxide in Pink Flamingo [ SBC| ELH | SSS | RNG] through this super fun stencil. This created a heart pattern inside my heart-shaped mask. Heart inception! 😉
Tip #3: Keep it Simple!
If you were starting to run again after a long break, would you start from a marathon or a light jog? Well, the same thing applies to creativity.
Keep it simple but still, go for something you will feel happy about. Creating something you are happy with will fuel your desire to keep crafting more and more!
In this case simple means a few images, a clean design and a limited color palette. Having to make fewer choices will reduce the decision fatigue!
Still, I wanted to add some oomph to this card, so I used the Mama Elephant Cloud Nine Dies [SSS] to add a stitched detail to the card base. A subtle and quick way to make it less plain!
I also added some white gel pen highlights, a few clouds around the bear in order to set the scene, and Glossy Accents over the balloon for a touch of shine.
Lastly, for the sentiment, I used the lovely Everyday Script Dies by Pinkfresh Studio [ SBC ]. This added a bit of an elegant touch to the card and helped fill the empty space at the bottom of the design!
What do you think? Not too bad as a start, right? 🙂
Inspired to create more? Here’s a post where I share Five Easy Tips to Create Beautiful Scenes on Your Cards!
As always, thanks a lot for stopping by and remember…
Keep crafting, keep on shining!
The items marked with a * were sent to me for free for designing purposes. When possible, affiliated links are used at no cost to you. Thank you for your support!
