Have you ever been completely stuck trying to design a new card? I sure have. I spent two whole days last week staring at this card I was trying to make. I just didn’t like the way it was turning out, but couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to change. It was so frustrating! It was a Valentine’s Day card to bring with me as a make-n-take at the next craft day get-together with my girlfriends. I wanted to use some unconventional valentine colors, so I decided to go with mint green and chocolate brown and call it my Mint Chocolate Chip Valentine. I also knew that I really wanted to show off my new Big Shot die-cutter machine and it’s awesome embossing ability. So I found the cardstock colors I wanted to use, and I also discovered that I had just the right matching shade of mint green grosgrain ribbon. Fantastic! Well, this is what I came up with as my first version.
It’s not that bad, it just didn’t look the way I wanted it to. I realized I had to let go of the mint green ribbon, even though it matched perfectly. It just wasn’t working because I wanted to stamp my sentiment on it, but it kept coming out blurry. So I had to let go of it and just use a strip of cardstock instead. But that wasn’t enough to make the design work, so I finally decided to just try reversing everything about the design – and voila! Perfect!
As a designer I think I get attached to using certain embellishments sometimes, and that can hold me back. So the next time you’re stuck on a design, ask yourself if there is a piece that isn’t working but that you’re still holding on to for some reason. And just try reversing each part of your design – you might be surprised!
Click here to get the instructions for this project. This is my first project using my die-cutter machine, but stayed tuned for more – I love this thing!
