Hello YNS Fans!  In case you missed it we kicked off a brand new Design Team series on the blog on Mondays.  This time around we are talking about the design process.

Well, I’ll be honest.  I’m a “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of girl when it comes to designing so it’s a bit hard to describe my process. But typically I have two different modes of operation when I sit down to create a project:

1.  Pick my paper/colours and embellishments first and then my stamps OR
2.  Pick my stamps and then pick my theme based on the image.

Here’s an example of a card that I did where I chose my papers and embellishments first.  Then I chose a stamp (Moving Elly) that would fit the theme of the papers and that I could colour with the colours in the papers. In terms of card design, I like to use sketches as a guide or in this case the paper with the chevrons was my starting point and I built the design from there.

Other times (like when we are giving our new release stamps to work with) I have a specific image to work with.  I look at the image and then decide how I’d like to use it.  For example, for this card I had to use the “Zina from Africa” stamp.  First I coloured her and then I picked out some papers that accented the African theme and the image.

I hope this gives you a little bit of insight on how I start my design process.  Stop by each and every month for the next several weeks for more tips.