Wednesday 8 February 2012

OLW#78 - Circles, Circles Everywhere!

I was so excited when I saw the rules for this week's OLW Challenge. Use at least 5 circles on your one-layer card. I LOVE CIRCLES. You can make so many cool, graphic cards with circles. I couldn't wait to get started.

STAMP STORAGE TIP: I store all my clear circle-shaped stamps together in one of these. In fact, I store all my clear stamps in them. Yep, I broke up ALL my clear sets and I now store them by theme. That way, when I need a "Happy Birthday", I can pull out my "Happy Birthday" case and see them all at one time and select the perfect one, rather than finding it in a set a week later! I love storing my stamps this way, but there is a downside - sometimes I can't remember which set a stamp came from, or who made it. Most of my clear stamps are Papertrey Ink, Stamps of Life, Lawnfawn and I have some Waltzingmouse as well.

For my first card, I went straight to one of my favourite tiny stamps. You know, the little stamps that are not the main image in a set and hardly ever get used. Well, I've used this one again and again.

And again:



I thought I might use this for my husband's valentine, and then I made THIS:


I used this colour combination a lot in the fall and I love how crisp and pretty (and yet still somehow masculine) it is. I drew circles lightly in pencil, using my circle nestabilities and then used two 3-berry stamps to create the wreaths. A simple clean (and round!) alphabet completed it. I think this one will be for Michael.


I still have lots of boy/men birthday cards to make - one more brother-in-law and two of my son's about-to-be-13 friends, so I went off on a birthday tangent, using the same colours:



Finally, I came up with this, using 4 circle outline stamps:



LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this! I drew only two lines to help with my placement - vertical and horizontal through the centre. But in my normal "don't know when to stop" fashion, I wondered how it would look with some colour. I went back and forth - no colour? one colour? 4 different colours? which bits should be coloured? which colour(s) should I use? 

So you can see that I could make this card in perpetuity and never come up with the same thing twice! And in the end I decided that if I didn't like it with colour, I could always make it again. Here it is with a fairly monochromatic colour scheme:



I do like them both, but I think I prefer the uncoloured one - what do you think?


Edited to add three more (non-qualifying because they have more than one layer) cards I made on Thursday:






Supplies:
"Perfect Fit"
Stamps: Papertrey Ink (Grunge Me), Gina K Designs (Love you to Pieces (for Autism))
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury 120 lb
Ink: Real Red, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: none

"Love"
Stamps: Unknown (probably Papertrey) 3 berries, MFT (Banner Day alpha)
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury 120 lb
Ink: River Rock, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Soft Suede
Accessories: circle nestabilities (to draw circles for guidance)

"Star Birthday"
Stamps: All unknown. Sorry. If you know, please let me know!
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury 120 lb
Ink: River Rock, Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade, Soft Suede
Accessories: none

"Circles Everywhere"
Stamps: All unknown. 4 different sizes of circle outlines. Two are likely from Papertrey's Polka Dot basics
Paper: Gina K Pure Luxury 120 lb
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copic Markers and Stardust stickles (second card only)

"Olympic Rings"
Stamps: ?
Paper: Whisper White, Early Espresso
Ink: Real Red, Early Espresso, Summer Sun, Tempting Turquoise, Only Orange, Melon Mambo, Lucky Limeade, Perfect Plum
Accessories: Circle nestability (drawn for a guideline)

"Happy Birthday" CASED from Vicky Dutcher
Stamps: ? circles, Papertrey Ink (Happy Birthday)
Paper: Whisper White, Island Indigo, River Rock
Ink: Island Indigo, River Rock, Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade
Accessories: none

"Crazy Circles"
Stamps: ? Circles, ? Happy Birthday
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Grey, Gina K Pure Luxury 120 lb
Ink: Memento London Fog
Accessories: Cotton Candy copic marker, Stardust stickles



7 comments:

  1. I really like all your cards. I think my favorite is the second one. I love the colors you chose.

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  2. I like the colored circle card best, too. It's very contemporary- a lovely style! I'm following you now as you are so inspiring with your creations!

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  3. WOW. That's a lot of fabulous circle cards! I think my favorite is the second, too.

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  4. Wow! You're really on a roll with the circle cards! What a fabulous group of cards! I really like the black and white with four circles...reminds me of zentangle tile.

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  5. These are all amazing--but I LOVE the one you've made for your husband's Valentine!!! Amazing!!! :) Oh, and that last one is brilliant, too!!!

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  6. I see you had fun with the dots too. I especially love the 2nd last one . . . a great masculine card.

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  7. All lovely simple cards. well done :o)

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