Monday, June 3, 2019

GIU Day One - Design Principles

Yay, I'm so excited to be your GIU this week! I've decided to bring some basic design principles for card making and scrapping, for that matter. I love to always be learning and why things work and what engages the viewer, so I hope you find these helpful. If not, you can at least look at the pretty cards! Oh, and possible win some deeply etched red rubber of your very own. Who wouldn't want that?

Today's lesson is on grounding. What does that mean? Does it mean always including a ground in your work? No. It simply means anchoring your focal image so it isn't "floating" there, confusing your viewer. There are many ways to ground and most of them don't include dirt.

Grounding to the Ground

Ok, well, one of the ways is to ground to the "dirt". I love the Angie Girl line and I like to make sure the head to toe girls are grounded and not floating on my card base. The brain is confused as to why she's weightless otherwise, even though it is just on paper and 2-D. This doesn't just hold true to people, but objects too.



Grounding to Design Elements

Not all Angie Girls are head to toe. Some are just the torso, so how do you ground these? Glad you asked! You can ground them to the additions you make to your card. Some twine, washi tape, a banner, your sentiment, a die cut shape. This way she isn't a ghostly apparition, just floating there. And as above, the principle works for all sorts of objects. No ghosts carrying vases either.



Grounding in the Sky

Ok, you'd think that you wouldn't need to ground say a hot air balloon or a bird, because they are in the sky and meant to float. No, the brain understands this, but I always feel like my card is more complete if I do anchor these things. Clouds are my favorite way to anchor in the sky, but birds or design elements work too, even a sun. I'm not sure why I feel like they hold up my balloon or whatever, but they do.

I hope you have found this helpful. These are just some of the things I think about when I'm assembling my cards.



Be sure to comment to be entered into the random drawing for a grab bag of deeply etched red rubber, from your favorite stamp company! And be sure to follow me and subscribe via email to keep up to date on what's going on over in my part of the world.

Until next time, happy stamping!

55 comments:

  1. I love learning new tips, thanks for sharing these ones

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  2. thank you so much for sharing tips with your cards, it helps us all to learn more too

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  3. Terrific! your three cards are wonderful and I appreciate the tips on grounding the images.
    stamping sue
    http://stampingsueinconnecticut.blogspot.com/

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  4. Hahaha no ghosts holding vases. You crack me up. I'm much more cognizant of this since we've been friends. Also, once you begin to see it, you can't unsee the ungrounded-ness in other cards or your own cards. Love you, friend. This is so perfect.

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  5. Your cards are always
    Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

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  6. Thanks for sharing the dirt on grounding. Great cards, too.

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  7. Nice lesson on grounding and it really does make a difference. Great start to the week.

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  8. Always love your beautifully designed & colored cards.
    Thanks for the tips on 'grounding'. Have to admit, I don't
    usually think about it, but I'm going to now. :-)

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  9. Beautifully grounded cards, thanks for the tips! ❤

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  10. Thanks for the tips, next time a design seems a little off, I'll know to look and see if it just needs to be grounded. Love your designs, they are stunning.

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  11. Thank you for this lesson. I think about grounding all the time when I’m making cards. I always thought it was that ‘ocd-ness’ part of me that was bothered by images floating around without something else to “support” why they’re there. Since I never took formal art classes, I compose cards by what is pleasing to my eye. I’m loving your cards and looking forward to your week.

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  12. These are great! I can't wait to see what you are creating and teaching the rest of the week!!

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  13. Excellent post with lots of good information. That hedgehog is super cute!

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  14. Thanks for the tips. Your cards are Beautiful.

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  15. Great ideas! Congrats on being this week's GIU gal!

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  16. I am so excited for your GIU week. I love your cards and grounding images is really a great finishing touch. Thank you for the tips, I love learning how to make my cards better!

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  17. Great tip and gorgeous designed inspiration

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  18. Awesome cards! Love them all! The hedgie and balloons card made me smile this morning!

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  19. Loved reading this. You made reading about grounding entertaining.i giggled when you said...ghost holding vase! Loved the psychology behind your techniques. Btw...wonderful cards/ examples of those techniques.

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  20. Awesome cards! Thanks for the info.on grounding!

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  21. Thanks for "grounding" me. ;) I usually ground full images, but had not realized how much of a difference grounding partial images makes. I do have many, many Angie Girls so this is a great and useful tip! Thanks!

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  22. Ghost holding vase... hahaha

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  23. I always love your beautiful cards, and these are no exception... but thank you for the extras! Your design tips are so helpful! I'm so looking forward to your GIU week!

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  24. I love your cards Laura! You are such a great creative teacher; I have learned many thing from you! Thanks!!!❤️

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  25. Excellent advice that I hope is read by many!!!

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  26. Such beautiful cards, and I really enjoyed your tips for "grounding" your images. (I don't think I've ever heard that before.) Looking forward to reading your blog posts this week!

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  27. Your cards are wonderful and the advice on grounding can cover a lot of situations, not just cards!

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  28. Thank you for sharing, great tips that I can't wait to try. Your cards are beautiful.

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  29. Awesome cards. Always love your work. ❤ Thank you for the lesson. 😊 Grounding is great advice. Look forward to seeing what's next.

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  30. Wow, a great start of your week!!! beautiful cards! and I need to ground more!!! thanks for the inspiration!

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  31. What a good lesson here glad I hopped in to your blog can’t wait to try this

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  32. Please do not include me in your drawing. I just wanted to comment to support you and tell you that your cards are amazing! I have left a few cards and grounded and it truly does make a difference! I had to go back later and “repair” them. Your Tricia girl is quite a beauty!

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  33. Fantastic post! Love your cards? ❤️ I can’t wait for tomorrow’s! Also please excuse my comment for the drawing! 😊

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  34. You make me smile with your witty explanations and smile even bigger with your beautiful creations. Thanks for the tips friend. I love being inspired and learning from you!

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  35. Such great information and wonderful cards! Looking forward to tomorrow!

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  36. Great information Laura! These cards are amazing!

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  37. Beautiful cards! Love the back to basic techniques! 😊

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  38. Fantastic cards and great advice and tips on grounding! 🥰👍🏻👍🏻✂️

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  39. Great explaining. Grounding is so important. Reminds me of not having “sticker sneezes” in the old scrapbook pages :)

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  40. Three beautiful cards!!! Such a great post and perfect examples for grounding! Congrats on your GIU week!!!

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  41. Stunning as always! Great work Laura

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  42. Great advice and cards on grounding. Love the literal ground on the first one.

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  43. I Love all three cards, and your blog was very informative. I have splurged on Unity a bit lately, and what I don't understand is how did I miss out on Hoppy and Hedgie??? More than once??? Thanks for a great post!

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  44. I'm a fan of learning new things. Thanks for sharing this! Grounding all the things from now on!

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  45. Great card and thanks for the lesson!

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  46. I struggle with grounding. It never looks natural!

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  47. Cute cards! Cool that you are sharing art elements as a part of card making. :)

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  48. Beautiful cards - and love that you’re incorporating design principles for us this week!

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  49. Thanks for the info in regards to grounding...makes total sense. Love your cards also!

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  50. Your cards are beautiful .love all you tips,I am learning so much from your tips ,thank you

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  51. I always love learning new design tips or being reminded of those I had forgotten! Great card examples to go along with it!

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