Due to the faff of a new city, new job, new flat and a new routine, my new blog posts have suffered. I aim to do better.
This week, I'm focusing on my silhouette cards. These are my go-to designs when I'm sometimes stuck for ideas. My first silhouette cards were a set of Christmas cards back when I was more focused on calligraphy than paper craft and featured different Christmassy shapes with a calligraphed message.
The original silhouette card: I was inspired by my magazine (again) and made this using black paper and finishing it with silver pen detail and white thread strings. I also learnt that day that stitching paper is not the easiest thing to do and vowed never to do it again. I lied. This is probably one of my favourite templates to use and the last card I made before moving also featured it (albeit the evolved version).
I make sure to always have a stash of black card or paper just in case I have the urge.
The key to a good silhouette card is to keep it simple. Because the card has no real detail, it needs to be distinguishable and it needs to be clear what the design is. From my own experience, I know how difficult it can be to judge - I know what it's meant to look like - so I usually borrow my brother or sister and get them to identify the design!
By using black, it lets me use a whole range of other colours. I found white in particular looks particularly bold. I always like to finish them off with a bit of sparkle by using a silver (or gold) pen and peel-offs.
These two cards used the off-cuts from each other. Anyone who knows the Death Note manga series will know who these two characters are. I was particularly pleased with them because they reflect the characters and their relationship with each other.
This one was a repeat of a card I made for a friend starting a new job. It's still one of my favourite designs because of the way the silhouette stands out against the pink and just makes the shoes pop. (I was particularly happy with the writing as well)
I think I am still recovering from the last two weeks, although I think it's more the lack of sport than having had to make and post a card everyday, from Wimbledon to le Tour de France to the Olympics, I've been watching sport for the last two months!
Anyway.
Recently, I decided on my target market, although I won't stop with all my other cards! Whilst I was at the Kanzi Kibera concert in July, one of my customers (that sound good!) was commenting that we didn't have many cards for teenage boys - luckily I had a couple of my silhouette guitar cards with me.
That got me thinking a bit. Most of the handmade cards that I have seen are quite fancy and grown up, or brightly coloured and childish and mainly aimed at the female market.
So, bearing this in mind, I set up an album on my Facebook page dedicated especially to those cards aimed at young people. These designs range from Batman to Disney to guitars and over the last couple of years this collection has grown quite a bit. I guess it helps that I am off that age group where all my friends fit into this category. I hope to expand this and I was able to add some more to the album today.
Last month, my brother requested a meme card for his friend's birthday. This proved to be a bit of a challenge for a couple of reasons. 1, his friend had already seen my first meme card - 'Like a Sir' (posted in April) so I couldn't give him that one and 2, I don't know that much about memes so I had to come up with a design that used the right meme in the right way (or else I would be in BIG trouble!).
I finally came up with my design:
This 'rage comic' as they are called comes with the caption 'Challenge Accepted' and of course, he is referring to the giant paper pieced birthday cake next to him. I believe it went down well and I think my reputation precedes me now. Whenever it's one of my brother's friend's birthdays (and he asks for one of my cards) as soon as he gives it to them, they say - before even opening it might I add - 'this is one of Emma's cards isn't it?'
The other cards added to the album were hot off the cutting mat today. I have been reading a manga called Death Note. I began reading it last year but put it down and have only begun to read it again. It's quite thought provoking but is so, so good although you do have to pay close attention in order to follow the logic of the characters.
The two main characters, Raito and 'L' (he doesn't share his real name in the book) work together in order to solve a huge mass murdering mystery. However, we know from the beginning that Raito is the one that has been causing the deaths and wants rid of L.
And this is where the inspiration came from. The main themes in the book are a bit of a Ying and Yang. The obvious one is good vs evil.
The design on these cards are silhouettes of Raito and L face to face. Those who are familiar with the manga, anime or film can (hopefully) see who is who and the significance of the apple in the middle (I don't want to go into too much detail about the story). The apple was made with red card and finished with black pen and white pencil to add detail such as shine and shadow.
I am really happy with these card, and I will probably end up making a template from the two silhouettes to make more of these cards (if needed). Once I had drawn the profiles - using the manga as reference - it was simply a case of cutting them out and sticking them in place and because I cut them out carefully, I was able to use the negatives to create a second card.
