Taking Inspiration

On the Daring Cardmakers this week Lythan set, what for me was a tricky challenge:

Inspired by.....Nat's signature style

"I would like you to take a trip into a world of pure gorgeousness by visiting the blog of lovely teamie Nat and getting inspired by her style. I have been a huge fan of Nat's since I started card making and I have seen her work evolve but it has always been current, stylish, clean but not simple and with a wonderful way with a focal point. Well that is my interpretation - I look forward to seeing what you take from Nat's signature style."

 

I've been thinking about this one for ages, ever since it popped up on our calendar, and wondering what the heck I could do!  To me, Nat has a style all her own; it's how she puts papers and other components together in a strong, graphic way, the way she uses quite bold paper designs without fear and of course, horror of horrors....she stamps!

I even went and bought a few new paper packs in the hope that they'd help - but in the end I didn't use any of the new stuff, and I avoided the stamping issue quite deftly, I reckon ;)

After a little scroll through her blog I'd made a little shortlist of Nat-esque things to use: bold paper background, a long strip of stripey paper, Doilies, Vellum, a big loopy word, enamel dots and a banner

Materials and Tools

Large top-fold rectangular card base

Papers: Miss Caroline "Howdy Doody" 12x12 set by My Minds Eye

Bazzill card to match

Plain creamy-white paper (no idea where this came from)

Vellum

Paper flowers and Lace ribbon (Santoro Mirabelle)

Polka dot satin ribbon

Enamel dots, Pearls

"Birthday" sentiment pc generated and printed on the same 

white paper as the lower doily

Dies:

Circle Doily (Crafters Companion) in 2 sizes, the lower in white paper, the upper one from vellum

"happy" (Memory Box) is cut from the peachy coloured Bazzill. I glued two pieces together, then cut the die twice - so there are four layers altogether

My big discovery when making this was how much I like that big flowery background.  Maybe it was upsizing the card base, maybe it was covering the whole of the card front, or maybe it was keeping the rest of the layers fairly clean and simple, but the thing that had been bothering me most - the bold pattern, I actually really liked.  And it is a very beautiful paper!

So thanks to Lythan for setting an out-of-the-comfort-zone challenge, and to Nat for consistently inspiring us with her special, signature style!

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll check out the rest of the cards on the DCM Blog this week.