Signature Style Crafting

Friday, as always is Daring Cardmakers Day and this one set us all a right old challenge!  I don't think there was a single DT member who didn't struggle with Lythan's dare.  Hopefully other people won't feel the same hehehe

    "I (Lythan) sometimes wonder if my cards are all rather repetitive and boring.
But I have decided to embrace the fact that there are certain elements that I have 

to include on my cards and call it my signature style (sounds soooo much 

 better than samey samey!).
 And being the nosey type I thought it would be fun to make you analyse what 

are the go to features that you like to add to a card - what is your,,,,
    Signature Style"

I definitely should have started on my card before yesterday,  Yesterday turned out to be rather fraught.  It was a bit like Friday 13th coming a day early, But in the end I managed to cobble together this card;

i think there is actually more to my "signature style" than you can ever see on the finished card. 
The main criteria for my Signature Style seems to be "Now how difficult can I make it for myself this time".  No-one ever sees just how complicated and time-consuming a crafting project is, do they?
Look on my desk and you'll see a stack (stack sounds far too organised for the mess) of punched out, chopped up 12x12, punches, dies, discarded bits of card.  Look in my bin and you'll find a whole load of  torn, gooey and discarded petals and flowers that were rejected.  So much wasted paper! 
Then there was the embossing - that didn't go well either, this card is actually the fourth attempt just at that bit!.
Hey ho, never mind - let's move on....

Well, what is my style? Well, don't ask me; it changes all the time, I think - maybe YOU are the better person to ask.
So I thought about the things I like to use most and the way I like to arrange them.
Obviously it had to have handmade flowers on it, I use a lot of dies and punches, I'm not good at "white space" but add some embossing and all that emptiness takes on a whole new "feel" - in more ways than one ;), I like a bit of pretty ribbon, some swirls and pearls, and I really love to go "off page" by cutting a few cms off the edge of a card then extending the embellishing over the edge.  A whole new "dimension" but it still fits in the regular envelope.. And speaking of dimension, I like adding that...a LOT!  Which makes it not fit in that regular envelope anymore, of course!

 

Materials
15cm sq smooth white card, top fold, 2cms removed from side. Embossed with "Corner Swirl" folder
Extra smooth white card for upper "Petite Dots" embossed panel
 WMRK "White Out" Promenade papers
Wired Pearls, Wired Acrylic flowers, Flat-backed blue pearls, Ribbon
Tools
Embossing Folders: "Corner Swirl"and
"Petite Dots", both Crafters Companion
Dies:  Spellbinders Labels 18,  MFT Die-Namics "Fancy Flourish"
2x SU flower punches 

The WRMK papers are some of my favourites. I used mainly plain ones for this card, but the patterns on the other side are soooo pretty - I hardly ever use them because I doubt they are still around to buy more.  However, I was covering some boxes to store paper pads in the other day and decided that as they were so pretty I should use them for something I'd be keeping!  Having them out on the desk reminded me how Summery and pretty the colours were - perfect for some flower making.

I've tried to get a better photo of the gorgeous swirly embossing on the card blank - failed pretty much, but hopefully you can get the idea

I hope you like my card for this week - I very much hope you'll give some thought to your own "signature style" and share it with us over at The Daring Cardmakers - do check out the fantastic cards my Teamies have made this week and see if you agree with what we all think of as our signature style.
Thanks for looking, please leave a message.....