Working in a Series: Valentines

I was grocery shopping the other day and spotted a display of beautiful commercial pop-up greeting cards that popped out into a box, like a diorama with layers of art and figures.  They folded shut to fit in an envelope to be mailed easily.  

Inspiration struck!  

At home, I watched YouTube videos on making your own pop up box cards, and I set to work, first sketching out ideas for designs to try.

I chose an envelope size of 5" x 7" and sized the cards so they would fold up and fit in that space.  The front and back of the box =5" x 5"

The sides = 5" x 1.75"

That leaves a tab of 5" x 0.5" to glue down to close the box.

I cut a stack of 5" x 14" pieces of watercolor paper, then measured and creased the folds.

Now I had a pile of paper blanks to try out those ideas from my sketchbook.

I also took walks to generate ideas.  I was struck by the beauty of the bare winter tree limbs against the bold blue sky, and the backdrop of white snow covering the ground.  Those walks inspired this tree & heart design.

As a lover of collage, I rifled through my basket of collage materials, and found artwork from a date calendar to make into a heart-themed diorama.

I found old music sheeting printed with hand-made heart stamps. They fit perfectly with some fluffy feathers of similar colors.

And I put together some of the leftovers to make simpler cards like this one.

Working in a series is a great way to get your creativity flowing.  You can try a variety of ideas, and if one doesn't work, you don't have to keep it. Having many iterations of a theme gives you lots of ways to succeed.

The process of trying out a variety of ideas, color schemes and materials can inspire new ideas.  You may decide to repeat some of your favorite cards.  

I liked the tree limb card so much, I made a bunch of them.

And of course, I had a few cards, not pictured here, that I threw away.

Working in a series can be freeing.  I hope you give it a try!

Happy Creating!