MFT Summer School Lesson #13 Hard vs. Soft

Hello, friends!  I'm back with the next lesson in My Favorite Things Summer School.  This one is about hard vs. soft.  From the My Favorite Things blog:

When it comes to the concept of Hard vs. Soft we can define it like this: For every hard line or edge you place on a card, the design is balanced by some softness, whether it be from a texture (like a ribbon) or a shape (like a circle); too much hard or soft might not work.

I tend not to use many soft textural items such as ribbon or felt on my cards, but I do like mixing hard edges and soft edges, as in straight lines or angles vs. circular elements.  You can see an example of that in my card today.

The fishtail banners, the wonky chevron pattern, and of course the rectangular shape of the card, these are all hard elements.  The circles from the Jumbo Dot Cover Up, the circle of twine, the curves of the flowers, would be considered soft elements.  Using these elements together on a card creates balance.

To make this card I used the Wonky Chevron stencil and Cracked Pistachio distress ink with my blending tool on white card stock, then I cut that piece with the Jumbo Dot Cover Up die and mounted it on black card stock.  The flowers and leaves are from Polynesian Paradise, I stamped them on watercolor paper and used my Zig Clean Color watercolor pens to color them.  I wanted the hibiscus to really POP and stand out on this card, so I used neutral colors to surround them.  I love how this turned out!

I'll be back tomorrow with another card for the 4th lesson in this series, it's a cute one :)