Design Process

I have received a few questions from visitors and thought perhaps I would post my answers here, some of the responses may inspire others.  If you have a question, please feel free to email me.

I enjoy
looking at your blog daily and truly enjoy your creations.  This is my
question….how do you come up with your ideas?  I see your card and I
think…why couldn’t I think of that.  So for certain blogs that I visit
I am asking how people find their inspiration and/or how they come up
with their cards.  I am awed and envious as I wish I could have an
original and not have to CASE cards. -Dee Dee

My process has evolved over the years to a routine that works well for me.  The same process might not work for everyone, but I would be happy to outline what steps I take to create.

I always start with a color scheme.  I get inspired in a multitude of ways.  It could be from a piece of clothing, something in nature, a new spool of ribbon (see a previous post about this here) I picked up at the store or patterned paper from a trendy manufacturer.   For this project, I got inspired by the colors in the new Laurel line by Scenic Route that I had used in a recent project for the magazine.  I thought the Petal Pushers set from Technique
Tuesday would go along with my theme nicely.  So I started going
through my ink colors to pull three colors that coordinated with the
paper.  I knew I wanted the same look and vibrancy as the Laurel paper,
without using the paper.  I ended up pulling Old Olive, Cool Caribbean
and Rose Red from Stampin’ Up.  I got inspired by a design used by my
stamper friend Melissa, on her blog.  I loved the way the three flowers were arranged on the cover of her card.  

I like to pull all of my supplies before I begin, so I also got together some coordinating cardstock.  I knew I needed something dimensional to add to my card, whether it be ribbon or an embellishment.  I organize all of my supplies by color, since that is the language my creativity speaks.  My small embellishments are categorized in these compartmentalized craft boxes and my ribbon is wrapped around wooden clothespins and fastened with a glass head pin.  By organizing in this way I can easily find things in exactly the color I am looking for.  The other thing I like is that it can constantly grow and expand with my collection.  Keeping ribbon on spools threaded onto rods was not working for me, I was running out of space AND a lot of ribbons come wrapped around cards instead. I consolidated over 20 spools and a huge pile of cards into this one jar containing all my pink & purple ribbon.  If it gets too full, I know I can further break it down into two jars, one for pink and one for purple.  It has worked wonders for me.  The embellishments are the same way.  If I out grow one compartmentalized craft box, I can divide the contents into two.

So now that I have all of my supplies assembled, I get to do the fun  easy part, STAMP!  I just utilized the ink pads I knew coordinated with the stamps I knew I wanted to use.  I assembled it according to Melissa’s design and viola, I was done.

For actual layout ideas, I sketch A LOT!  I get inspired by the layouts of ads in magazines, product packaging, tags on clothing, etc.  I have a book I use to contain all of my magazine clippings. When I am in a rut, I can leaf through it and get a fresh outlook on design. 

In brief, color is the main focus for me when working on a project.  Pick trendy colors that will make your project fresh and exciting.  Neatness counts.  Sometimes I make a project twice.  Once to get everything laid out the way I want, a second time to pull it off with perfection.  Organization helps me to perform better and find just what I need without a long search.  I hope this answers your question, Dee Dee!  Good luck in finding yourself and your creative process.