Designing Cards

Flowers

Putting together a design that looks and feels right is probably more difficult than it seems. There are plenty of copyright free line drawings of flowers in, for example Search Press books and Dover Publications. Also photos can be transferred to drawings by using a grid of squares and transferring the outlines using the squares as guides. If you have and iPad you can get an app called 'copy it' which is a grid that can be sized up and set over your photo on the screen.

If you are creating your own flower pictures there is plenty of advice in art books on composition. It is however, important to group flowers in odd numbers as this is most pleasing to the eye. A triangle shape can be used as a basis for a collection of flowers making sure that larger blooms are at the base to balance the design.

Parchment

I mostly use 150gsm and 160gsm plain parchment paper for my projects. One of the problems I had when I started out was that the parchment buckled and curled and sometimes the natural oils on my hands marked the parchment.

Most of these problems disappear when you get used to parching. For example, it is often a good idea to rest your hand on a piece of folded kitchen roll, protecting the parchment from oils and heat from the skin.

A beginner may not yet have developed a lighter touch because the work demands a high level of concentration and so it is difficult to relax. This improves the more you practise.

Certainly it is not a good idea to put moisturising lotion on your hands and then work on your parchment! Unless of course you are going to wear gloves!