The design process

Hello everyone,

Apologies for being AWOL last week - just too much to do and not enough hours in the days!

Today I want to let you in on a little bit of the design process that goes on behind the scenes before a card makes it to my shop. We'll start with this card:

This design has always been a popular one but I was never really entirely happy with it, so I set about trying to see if I could improve it. The wrought iron bracket and leaves were stamped on this card, but I wanted to make them more 3D to link in more with the quilled flowers. This was my first attempt:

The leaves are punched with a Martha Stewart punch and I'm perfectly happy with that part of the design. But the bracket just looks too clumsy to me. I spent a lot of money buying a set of Shapeabilities to get that bracket and then I didn't like it.

So the I thought, what about if I quilled the bracket - surely that would look more delicate. But somehow it's still not right. I showed my husband, who just shook his head and said "No, doesn't look right" - thanks for that!!

So back to the drawing board:

Now, in my head, the bracket needed to be black, to reflect the wrought iron design in real life. But as the black looked too clumsy and heavy I thought I would try it in gold - and it seemed to work. The gold links in with the borders on the card and the greeting. For me, this third one is the one. But what do you think? I'd love to hear your views!

Til next time, have fun,

Jill