Mother of Mercy, Card Fail

A few months ago  I decided to become a volunteer creating  greeting cards and buttons for one of our local senior daycare centers. Eileen, Peggy and Joan helped me to create 125 awesome Valentine’s Day cards last month.  This month we created the same number of St. Patrick’s Day buttons. And most recently I started churning out Mother’s Day cards.

In an effort to streamline the process I decided to create one layer cards instead of cards that use embellishments, die cuts and Glossy Accents. I have several really nice versions of floral cards that I created. However,  today I wanted to share an inside look  at the creative process as a whole. As in, sometimes I can crank out a whole lot of cruddy cards before I create something I am happy with.

Card Fail #1: I wanted to create a floral card with the sentiment as my focal point. Unfortunately, I created a terrible mix of colors, that totally distracted the viewer from the sentiment.

Card Fail #2: I thought that maybe a change in color scheme and a larger clear area around the sentiment would help. The colors were lighter but, equally uncoordinated and the card still made me want to put all of my supplies up for sale on Craig’s List.

Card Fail #3: The” third time is a charm”, is not applicable in this case. The colors were better coordinated and the sentiment was more visible this time but, the overall look was still very amateur.  After creating this card I decided to shift my gears a little and create something truly clean and simple.

This last card is much more pleasing to my eye. It is clean and simple and comprised of only one layer. Although it is not a masterpiece, it will be a nice addition to the little bag of goodies each woman will receive at the adult daycare center or with her Soup Train meal.

Tomorrow, I will post the photos of the other cards I have created so far. But for today I wanted to show you that it is OK to have creative failures. It is all part of the creative process and sometimes it is good to have a laugh at your own expense.

Happy Stamping,

Mo