A Study in: Quatrefoil (negative shapes)

First of all, super-exciting news to finally share (I am pretty good at keeping secrets, but it still drives me crazy to do so)! 

Seeing that email from Michele asking if I'd like to be a Girl Friday (um, hello, YES!!) was such a thrill. I've always thought the CAS-ual Fridays challenge is top-notch, and then to be a part of it ... wow! And now that Michele has started her CAS-ual Friday Stamps company I'm so anxious to play with her fun/trendy/versatile stamps! When I saw the insanely talented group of designers who are also joining the team, I was even more excited, and then immediately panicked. Holy cow, I'm going to have to make some darn good cards! Seriously can't wait to get started.

Here's the bouquet my decades-long girlfriends from Jr. High sent me to celebrate, isn't that so sweet of them?!? Thanks Golden Girls!!!

OK, thanks for letting me share. Back to the post ...

If you're new to my blog, you've landed right in the middle of a series of posts focusing on several different ways to use the same die ... Papertrey's Quatrefoil Cover Plate die.

This post will feature cards made with the negative portions of this die, combined with one of this week's challenges. First up ...

Looking at the photo at Runway Inspired Challenge this week, I see one tall, pink object on the left with white inside, and several layers of smaller, neutral items mostly on the right, but crossing over the pink.

 I tried to keep the same elements that I saw in the photo on my card. A tall, pink object with white inside, and the shorter, layered objects on the other side. Due to the grays, I made this a sympathy card. The pure, white vine moving upwards also worked well for a sympathy card.

It's pretty easy to see where the quatrefoil comes from on this card, right? I just cut a strip from the middle and that was that. Instant trellis. I cut apart a Memory Box Flutter Vine die (which is a clump of leaves) and pieced it back together to make the vine climbing up the trellis.

Next up are the soft colors at The Play Date Cafe. I have to admit, I was going to pass on this one because I don't usually use pale colors. But then I came back and gave it a try.

The flowers are cut from patterned paper and arranged on the mint cardstock. For this card it's less obvious where the Quatrefoil comes from. Can you tell? It's where the rounded bumps of the quatrefoil shapes meet one another. In an earlier post I used these intersections as "X's" on a XOXO card. But for this card, I lined up the longer X's (going vertically on the die) and made an interesting border. On the white side of the border, I used my hole punch to remove the mint green sections. The punch happened to be the perfect size.

Next up is the Camera Craze Challenge at Moxie Fab (this photo is from the additional inspiration on Cath's pinterest board). When I saw this challenge, I REALLY thought I need to skip it for my quatrefoil study. But then I had an idea ...

Maybe they'd make some pretty cool bellows if I stacked and slightly offset them. And MAYBE I could even use those odd, end pieces with the straight edge. Since I was going to be taking major liberties with making my camera out of these quaterfoil outlines, I decided to use some fun colors and make it a modern-ish camera. That's where the sentiment comes from too. I have an 85 year-old aunt who is just gorgeous and so fashionable (used to be a model) and very "old school cool." If she was a camera, it would be this one : )

For the "old school" sentiment, I felt kinda naughty only tapping my letters into the ink pad once, and very lightly at that. But I wanted an older look for that part of the sentiment, to contrast with the more modern "cool." Just like the worn texture at the top vs. the modern pattern on the bottom.

The quatrefoil outlines all being the same size made it difficult to construct the bellows. So I made an extension of the bellows in black cardstock that I could graduate in size. I also like the fact you can see some of the other side of the quatrefoil outline, making it look a little more 3D.

OK, one more! This one is inspired by Dawn McVey's sunshine card in the middle right for Papertrey's 6 year anniversary.

I used similar colors,and made it into a full circle. Remember the pink trellis card? That's what makes up this card. A bunch of quatrefoil outline strips rotated to make a circle. Again, the part that I think is going to be bothersome (the ends where there's not a full quatrefoil shape) turns out to be the best part! The straight edge at each end makes a nice circle when they are all lined up.

I started adhering them together in the middle to get the spacing right, and afterwards ended up liking how the ends curl outward a little. So I left the ends loose for now. I think it's an added layer of interest.

Thanks so much for looking, and all of your kind comments along the way!
-Kelly

Previous posts in this series: Die within a Die, Positive Shapes, More Positive Shapes
Future posts in this series: Whole Die, 3D Shapes