Basic design and building on it . . .

Yesterday while I was designing the anniversary card I posted, I got to thinking, again, about all the time it takes me to design one card. I came up with a new strategy out of frustration. This morning I decided to start with a basic, clean, and simple design. I used the "Thank You" stamp by Impress Rubber Stamps and the Sea Shell stamp by Inkadinkado. I picked two colors I really like together (SU! Night of Navy and Certainly Celery), stamped the images, cut the mats, and adhered them. There! The card was finished and I was pleased with it. Whew! No hours of agonizing over one card! I already had an idea of how I wanted to develop that basic design. I wanted to add a "random" patterned layer under the "Thank You" image. My "random" has never come out the way I wanted it to, so I have kind of avoided "random". I "googled" random stamping and the very first article that came up was "How to "Random" Stamp" by Tracy Liu. I printed her article, put it down next to me on the kitchen island where I was stamping, and followed her formula. It worked the VERY FIRST TIME! (Did you hear me shrieking with excitement?) Then I used my first sheet of SU! grid paper and stamped the "Thank You" and the sea shells in the exact spots! (I shrieked again!)
This is one of those events that you want to share with someone who stamps, too. I'd tell my DH, but he probably wouldn't appreciate my excitement. Now I have a few more variations spinning around in my head. I should write them down. Thanks so much for dropping by!