Using Circles on Christmas Cards

(This post is part of my Frosty Festivities Blog Event)

When I'm making Christmas cards, or any other batches of cards, I prefer to make each one differently, purely because I get really bored doing the same thing over and over again! The only trouble is that it can take a lot longer, because I have to do so much thinking before the next card. Usually I'll make some cards that are similar, for friends - these cards might just have a different colour or sentiment but the sketch and supplies will be the same.

For close friends and family I'll take the time to think. But to make it a little easier I'll choose a theme for myself to follow. For this trio of cards the theme was circles:

It was easy to find a selection of circles in my Christmas stash. There's something about circles that fits so well with Christmas - it's the shape of wreaths, and baubles, and snowballs. I've followed a different technique on each card to place the circles, and they're techniques that you could come back to again and again.

Technique 1: Scatter them:

Supplies mostly Pink Paislee City Sidewalks

To regular readers it's no surprise that I like the scattered circles look, I usually achieve it with gems on my layouts and cards. Here I've used ephemera and chipboard pieces, of varying sizes. Using a variety of sizes really helps to achieve the scattered look, if the pieces were all the same size your eyes would be trying to find the pattern and make them match. 

It also helps to place some alike colours near each other, and some separate - if you separated all the like colours then it would look too deliberate, putting some close together makes it seem more accidentally scattered:

Technique 2: Line them up:

Supplies mostly Crate Paper Sleigh Ride

Putting circles in a line is satisfying somehow. It is both linear and curvy, so it appeals to the part of me that likes things ordered, but also the part of me that likes to rebel! 

The theme of lined-up circles is repeated on both the background papers too, which unifies the card all together. And then it was a little too 'lined-up' for me, so I had to rebel further with a random misting of dots at the top of the card:

Technique 3: Cluster them:

Supplies mostly My Mind's Eye All is Bright

You don't have to cluster circles in the middle of a card or project, it would look equally good at a corner or edge of something. And you don't have to cluster as many circles together either - a cluster of 3 or four looks great too. 

To cluster some circles you need to place them as close together as possible, to make a feature of it. My centre circle is actually overlapping the brad and buttons circles, which helps to draw the eye in, as it's like something is secret and hidden, so you eye looks a little closer. Again I've used a variety of sizes to stop things looking too organised or linear:

Be Inspired:

• Chose the techniques of scattering, lining-up, or clustering to place some shapes on your next project
• Make a series of something eg. cards or tags, keeping a 'design theme' in mind (not an occasion theme), but making each item in the series a bit different
• Try placing some elements together, in a line or scattered, but varying the size of them

Don't forget that a comment on this post, or on any of my posts from this weekend, will count as an entry into the Grand Giveaway {NOW CLOSED} but only if you've registered your interest in winning that here!

See you again in 60 minutes!

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