this is the card that took me the longest to make for our special CAARDVARKS purple onion designs gallery. it took about a week. ok, i was not actively working on it the entire time. in fact, in active time, i probably only spent 45 minutes or so.
this happens to me a lot, actually: i start making a card, in this case i was playing with this great line of little arched windows (POD calls them "scallops") i stamped & embossed several times and colored them in various ways and finally came up with the little panel at the center of this card. i loved it, but how could i make it into a card??!
at times like these, i always remember the advice we were given for taking tests in grade school: if you're stuck, move on to something else and come back. so i put the pretty panel off to the side of my worktable, and made other stuff, intermittently coming back and trying the kraft & aqua with various papers and embellishments. i came up with some interesting combinations, but nothing really "clicked"...until quite by chance i happened to see a discarded piece of prima angelique paper sitting next to the panel. then i found the heidi swapp "diamond drama" rub-ons (while looking for something else!) --et voila--i was stuck no more! the rest of the card came together in about 10 minutes!
(rubber stamp: purple onion designs; patterned paper: prima, hambly, hobby lobby kraft cardstock; black glossy cardstock: ranger; florals & gem flourish: prima; chipboard border sticker: my mind's eye; rub-ons: heidi swapp, basic grey; fancy brad: marah johnson, creative imaginations; ink & embossing powder: psx; markers: tombow; ribbon: michaels; adhesives: xyron, tombow monoadhesive runner) ok, so i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "silly, silly lauren! you could have made something perfectly nice on the very first day and *saved* a week!" and you're absolutely correct. but that's not really my point. my point is that you can MAKE STUFF HAPPEN or you can LET STUFF HAPPEN...both are good ways to accomplish a creative goal, but i kind of like the latter, because it often leads somewhere i would not have thought to go on my own. if i my deadline had been closer...sure...i'd've mounted the panel right away (probably on solid black or one of the many b&w prints i considered) and embellished it and called it a day. since i had extra time, i elected to set it aside and hope for an unexpected "epiphany"...which rather wonderfully did eventually decide to show up and surprise me.
dontcha just love it when that happens??! yeah, me too. here endeth the latest lesson.
♥ happy creativity, darlings! ♥
♥♥gorgeous♥♥ wowza Lauren...this is absolutely fantabulous!
ReplyDeletehe he ... you just described my entire M.O. ... i am constantly surrounded by partial parts-is-parts, and it is only after i think on it a while, or have a happy accident in the scrap pile, that things finally come together. then you get the WAM and ta-da! a beautiful creation.
ReplyDeleteand now i must own this scallop thingie, too. your work here is done.
Yep, when I force it, I am not happy. The let-it-wait strategy works quite well (usually). For you, worth the wait! Fantastic, Miz Lauren :)
ReplyDeleteWow gorgeous! Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! I love everything about this!
ReplyDelete(-: Heidi
Epiphaneeeee, for real! It was worth the "set aside" time. I have something called a "done box" that really isn't done at all, but I park stuff in there on hold until the Epiphaneeeee comes! Isn't it funny how us great minds think alike?! Yep.
ReplyDeleteAmen, sistah! That is how I work... ALL THE TIME! lol
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it was worth the wait! :)
Purple onion designs . . . now that's got a certain ring to it . . . .
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the *wait-for-it-to-happen* front. I think if you force it you often end up with something you don't like...or at least don't LOVE...but if you wait for it to happen in it's own time you always end up with something you ADORE...like this gorgeous example. Just perfect ♥
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