Learning Through Inspiration with Joan Bardee

I’m super happy to be back sharing more of my Learning Through Inspiration series on the Penny Black blog. Thank you so much for your feedback! That series, which you can find on my blog Dear Paperlicious, is all about improving my cardmaking through studying other designers’ cards. Today I’m continuing my study of Jill Foster.

JILL’S CARD

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT JILL’S CARD

• It’s gorgeous.
• The masked border. Jill uses this technique quite a bit and it adds a wow factor to a one-layer card.
• The watercoloring is just amazing. Look at the blue butterfly. I enlarged the photo 5 times (I feel like a scientist using a magnifying glass!) so that I could try and figure out why it looks so delicate.

• Now that you can see it more closely, you’ll notice that the butterfly seems transparent – you can see through one wing onto another. How does Jill achieve this? Well, feel free to ask her in the comments because I have no idea how her hand and mind work! HA. The point is – by taking the time to see what she’s done here I can at least work towards achieving the same result.
• You can also see the large range of color from very light to dark on the wings. The details of inside of the butterfly are barely there. However, the edges are much darker. This range is something Jill mentions in her videos. I’ll repeat one tip Jill shared recently in one of her fabulous videos – don’t get overwhelmed with the light source; rather, make sure that the image has a great deal of variation in tone. That brings depth and it’s that depth that makes an image come to life.
• Love the dots in the background. They remind me of bubbles and help the butterflies look like they are floating.
• Rather than 3 butterflies on one color and two of another, Jill colored one butterfly blue. She “broke” the rule of threes and in doing so, made the card special.
• The background has different colors but is done so well that the entire card looks cohesive and beautiful.

MY CARDS

WHAT I LEARNED

 

• You can see that my top card is an attempt to pretty much copy Jill’s card. I did that because I wanted to remove the element of design from my card – all I was left with was technique.
• So, to the extent Jill’s butterflies look different than mine, it’s not because she chose different colors or a different butterfly set. The basic card is the same. Jill’s looks different because she can color her butterflies in a way that makes them seem alive, and her multi-color background, with lots of shading, creates more movement. I tried to color my background with different colors and my wastepaper basket is now quite colorful! (Let’s just say this was effort #3).
• So, I confirmed what I already knew — achieving a transparent look with watercolors is quite difficult.
• Normally, I would have stamped the butterflies in black, and colored in each section of the butterflies in different colors. It was a nice change to stamp in a light color and ignore the lines inside the butterflies.
• Making a border by masking off with tape is a great idea. It adds depth and interest, but doesn’t add bulk. And, it’s an inexpensive way to add a faux layer. I already had blue painters tape in the house. Using inexpensive non-crafting items leaves me more $$ for stamps and dies!
• After making the top card, I realized that my butterflies weren’t coming out as nice as I wanted. So, for my second card, I used what I call the “rainbow trick.” My theory is that you can try and hide less than perfect coloring by using a rainbow theme. The eye is drawn to the range of colors rather than each butterfly.
• I created a mask, but only on part of the butterflies. Jill uses this technique on other cards and it’s a great one.
• If I had to do the second card over, I’d make the blue layer in the middle of the card darker in parts. Sometimes we are afraid to add to much color, but being timid didn’t work out well this time.

 

MOOD WHEN DONE: Delighted. I like both my cards. They may not be perfect, but I never aim for perfect. I aim for “better than the last time,” and for something that I would actually pop in the mail to someone.

This is my last Learning Through Inspiration post for Penny Black. Thanks so much to Penny Black for their generous gift of stamps and dies and to Jill Foster for reaching out to me and for providing endless inspiration over the years. You are a treasure.

for the products featured on the cards above

30-558 Butterfly Garden
30-552 Sending Thanks
30-238 Footnotes
30-541 Good Wishes

Supplies: Top Card: Penny Black Butterfly Garden, 30-558; Penny Black Sending Thanks, 30-552; Penny Black Footnotes; Ranger Adirondack Bright Dye Reinkers (retired); Versafine Onyx ink; waterbrush; painter’s masking tape; Arches Hot Press Watercolor Paper; moxie for publicly trying to copy one of Jill’s cards.

Bottom Card: Penny Black Butterfly Garden, 30-558; Penny Black Good Wishes, 30-541; Ranger Adirondack Bright Dye Reinkers (retired); Versafine Onyx ink; Ranger Distress Ink Tumbled Glass; Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool; waterbrush; Arches Hot Press Watercolor Paper; blue cardstock.

 

Disclaimer: From time-to-time we have guest bloggers post on our site. The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Penny Black Inc. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.

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