MFT February Creative Chat–The Creative Process

It's time for the MFT Creative Chat. The My Favorite Things Design Team Creative Chat is a monthly feature, where we are challenged to explore our creative spaces and share valuable organizational methods, tools, and shopping strategies with you. You'll be able to peek into our creative spaces, ask questions, and share your own ideas in the MFT forum.  This month, we were challenged with the following:  

• Show us your creative mind at work.  Take us on a journey through a card-making session, start to finish.
• How do you select colors, layout, embellishments, and overall design?
• Share your creative process with us.

Visit Kim's Blog for a full list of designers that have taken up the challenge and get ready to delve into the minds of our creative team.

OK, so are you ready for lots of pictures? I’m going to walk you through how *I* go about designing a card from a sketch. I pretty much do the same things no matter what my starting place is. If I’m working on a color challenge, or an inspiration piece, I almost always start with my layout. Mind you, that layout may change in the process, but that’s where I start. The exception to this rule is when I have to use a particular stamp set, say, for teasers. Then, obviously, I start with the set, but my next step is to find a sketch that will work with that set. So, let’s get to it, shall we?

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I’m going to show you how I designed my card for MFT’s Wednesday Sketch Challenge #56. First, I pulled up the sketch on my computer—I keep it in front of me the entire time I’m working.


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I knew I wanted to make a Valentine card so next I got out all my Valentine paper to see which one “spoke” to me the most.


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I decided to go with MME ‘Love Me’ collection and then worked on choosing papers. I pulled out several designs and card stocks and switched them all around until I decided this was the arrangement I liked the best.


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Then I decided on what stamp set I wanted to use. I chose to use Inspired by Love, which hadn’t see any love lately ;-) I went with the fancy heart as my focal image. 


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My next step was to see what Die-namics die I wanted to use for that circular element. So, I tried out the image I’d chosen from the set to see what die I liked best for this image. I chose the Dizzy Doily Die-namics die for this one.


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But…I think the heart looks a little lost on the large die and it was too large for the sketch, as well, so…


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…I tried it out on the largest of the Dizzy Doily Duo Die-namics dies and it was “just right” :)


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Next, I roughly laid out all my elements to see if this was really the way I wanted to go. This is where I’ll adjust a sketch a bit if necessary…


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This is where I decided on my sentiment. Since I was going to use the flag from First Place Award Ribbon Die-namics die set, the sentiment had to fit on the flag. I tried several out but decided to go with this one from Clearly Sentimental About Romance. 


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…and then I firmed up my design but don’t put it together yet.



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Now I needed to decide on some embellishments. To do this, I brought out several things I thought might work…


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…and then rejected them all for this. I felt I needed a little more aqua blue on the card so first I tried some turquoise baker’s twine. But, it was too dark so I went with red and a dark aqua button. I think this balanced it out nicely.


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I was happy with that so the only thing left to do was put it together and here’s the finished result. Sometimes I decide to sew on a card—actually, I have to make myself NOT sew on a card sometimes, LOL! I fear they’ll all look alike if I do that, so I mix it up. This one seemed to *need* sewing so I did it.



So, that’s it! That’s the way I go about creating a card. I hope I’ve given you a few tips for making the creative process easier for you!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'll be back tomorrow with this week's MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge!