A Designing Journey to Brilliant Lightbulb Cards with Watts of Power

I created a few lightbulb cards, but my process may not have been a linear one.

How do other stampers create their cards? When I have a reason to make a card (that’s just about every day!!), I waltz into my craft closet, pull out a few stamps that might be useful, and sit down with my blank notepad. While I have no real drawing ability (which is probably why I gravitated towards the wonderful world of stamps), I sketch out a few ideas. Let’s just say the final product usually only loosely resembles one of those sketches, but it gets me going in a focused direction.

Do I sometimes find myself going down roads that I’m just not feeling? Of course, and I’ll share with you some of those avenues below while I worked my way toward two cards  I’m happy to share and send. I’m not perfect, and art isn’t supposed to be perfect. Sometimes I forget and can get discouraged after seeing everyones fantastic cards and scrapbook pages and quilts on Pinterest. If this is something that you also battle with, please remember that trying is the fun part in art.

Risk helps us to find new and exciting places!

What helps you? I’d love to hear any strategies you employ while designing your art.

I will be needing a graduation card in a few weeks, so I was gravitating towards the Watts of Occasions stamp set from Stampin Up. Below is part of my process while creating a few Lightbulb Cards..

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Sketch out a few ideas.

This is your time to sketch out good and bad ideas without judgement. After sketching out a few ideas, I noticed a theme and grabbed a piece of white cardstock and a piece of watercolor paper. I wasn’t sure which version of my theme would look better so I tried them both! I stamped the lightbulb over the colors.

Try out your favorite piece of your sketch.

In my sketch, I knew I wanted to pop up the lightbulb with dimensionals, so I cut it out. Once I did that, though…I realized I liked the sponged ink around it! So here’s what I did:

1. I taped the cut together on the back
2. Die-cut out the whole piece using a circle die
3. Die-cut a larger circle from a bold red cardstock scrap
4. Adhered the sponged circle to the red
5. Adhered the lightbulb in the center using dimensionals.

Whoa! The red peeks around the edges!! I love this piece of card candy!

Do you know yet what sentiment might go best with your card?

I stamped the sentiment in a bold red, and embossed it with a sparkly powder. It shines!

Here is the final card! I’m also submitting it into the Inkspirational Challenge 162 with the word prompt of Power. What is more powerful than brilliance? Shine on.

Any leftover pieces? Reimagine their purpose!

Remember that piece I watercolored? We can’t let that go to waste! Given the opportunity, my cards inevitably end up as shaker cards. This time will be no different!

Check out below this avenue where I just couldn’t find the right feel. Playing with my stamps or Trial-and-Error? 😀

Trial-and-Error is ok!

I thought I would make a shaker with a full (4″ x 5 1/4″ orange) top layer to the card. I tried masking the bottom to only cut out the top of the bulb, but didn’t like how that would look. So I stamped the entire image on the back of the orange and cut out the top of the bulb. Ugh. So maybe I would make a mini-shaker and glue that candy onto the watercolored paper. Yes!

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To make the lightbulb shaker card:

1. Cut your watercolored bulb using a circle die or punch.
2. On a coordinating yellow scrap, stamp the bulb in black.
3. Fussy cut out the bulb and carefully cut out the center of the bulb leaving a large enough outline to hide foam adhesive strips.
4. Add your foam strips on the back of the yellow bulb, ensuring no large spaces are left between your pieces.
5. Sprinkle a small amount of gold glitter in the center of the watercolor bulb.
6. Adhere the yellow bulb down over the watercolor/glitter bulb. Shake!

For a different style of shaker, check out this coffee shaker card with instructions!

I love love love a good opportunity to use black paper. And use it for a sentiment? Yes Please! I stamped the sentiment in gold and embossed with gold powder. Brilliant!

Not shown: All of the different color inks and paper combinations I tried for the sentiment on this card. More trial-and-error! I tried to tie in the watercolors into the banner, and then realized I needed to tie in the gold from the shaker! Ah ha!

Finished Lightbulb Cards:

I really enjoyed making these cards, and enjoyed sharing my journey of mistakes with you! I’d love to hear any comments from you! About the cards, about mistakes, about how you design, about how to not block your creativity!

Happy Crafting!