Sunday 11 May 2014

A few thoughts on….changing it up

As some of you know I teach card making classes at our local Arts Centre and have been doing so now for about 18 months. The ladies, who come along each week, often ask me how I dream up something new every time. Well the truth is, I don’t.

Take this little box. Intended as a wedding favour, to fit this week’s theme….

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….and here it is again, in its previous incarnation, as a Christmas gift box.

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The basis is the same. A simple box, made from a 6” piece of card, fastened with seam binding. A change of colour scheme and decoration was all that I needed.

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This wedding card is a mash up of these two birthday cards, with punched and embossed butterflies instead of hand cut stamped flowers. Adding the doily and a couple of gems, helped to make it suit the occasion.

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The final card is a design I’d made previously for Valentines Day. I swapped the red glittered hearts for a champagne colour and changed the sentiment. Used the same background stamp, ink and cardstock as I did for the little box with the flower. That gave me a set of three projects to fit my wedding theme for the session.

If I had to start completely from scratch each time, I’d just give myself a headache. I begin with a theme or a colour scheme and then go through my Picasa gallery, of cards and gift boxes, to see what I can adapt. The project evolves as I go along and often the end result bears little resemblance to the starting point. Some of the time it will depend on what happens to be left out on my desk!

Do you have tried and tested designs that you adapt and use again?

16 comments:

Scrapthology said...

these are lovely projects and love the fact you've been able to make different versions.

scrappyjacky said...

I'm always adapting something I've made and really like....and with scrapbooking I have favourite sketches that I come back to time and again.

Sian said...

I definitely do. For scrapping I don't feel the need to come up with a new page design every time, when the main thing is getting the story down.

These are great examples of adapting as you create

Wendy said...

I definitely use the same ideas for many things, they can look totally different depending on papers that are used :-) Love those boxes!

Jimjams said...

Gorgeous creations Fiona - there's absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel every time - a change of colour, theme or whatever is quite enough.

KraftyKaren said...

Three lovely projects. I think I tend to stick to the same formula for most of my cards. I also have favourite sketches that I go to for my scrapbooking but use different colours, papers and embellishments and each time the layout is different x

Linda said...

Great post Fiona! Lovely projects! Love the way you've changed things around a bit to make a new project:) I think you are right, no need to reinvent the wheel every time.

Lou said...

I agree we don't need to invent something new everytime. Yours are good examples x

My not so simple life said...

I think I do, I've noticed on a lot of my layouts they seem to have a similar design. All your projects are lovely though and you wouldnt think they were all from the same base design.

My not so simple life said...

I think I do, I've noticed on a lot of my layouts they seem to have a similar design. All your projects are lovely though and you wouldnt think they were all from the same base design.

Sandra said...

Beautiful beautiful projects

Lisa-Jane said...

I love the variations on the theme style of card making etc - we don't need to reinvent the wheel each time and if a project looks fab then it makes sense to do it again! I often use stock starting points for my pages to get me started.

Alison said...

I wish I did that - I am sure it is a more efficient use of your time! But I am sure I would get bored ... I think I've only done that once with a class - just used different papers. I just start with an element or something I want to use, and go from there ...

Jo said...

It's amazing how different the same thing can look with just a change of colour x

Susanne said...

Gorgeous cards, and those other projects are stellar too. Yay for changing it up.

debs14 said...

It's lovely what difference a few little changes can make. Love those boxes especially.