How Many Ways with a Compass?

Here is a little background for you. I have an undergraduate degree in Geography. I ended up getting an MEd and became a teacher who really loved adding lots of geography to my curriculum. One year I even wrote the county's second grade curriculum for geography. Maybe I seem extreme, but I think it is important to know all about where you are and how the world around you influences you.

Anyhow, one of the things that I had to teach them was the basics of map-making. It was always a fun lesson to see how kids saw their world. In teaching about maps, I stressed the major elements to basic map-making. One of the things you always find on a good map is a compass rose. Without it, the map does the reader no good.

So, when this new compass rose showed up in the Sea of Love release I was so excited. I could not wait to make cards with it. However, the creative side of me seemed to have taken a break when I was trying to make card samples and I just couldn't come up with anything good. Now that the stress and craziness of the holidays are behind me (yesterday was Three Kings Day and the twelfth day of Christmas), I can share a series of cards that I made with the compass and the sentiment "I'd be lost without you." Today I will share two cards and I'll have the other two for you tomorrow.




This was the first card I made. I was trying to stick to the red, white and blue color scheme that we used for the amuse-bouche. I decided that I wasn't all that thrilled with it, except for the heart punch (a leftover from my daughter's punching bonanza). Back to the drawing board.



Then I went to SplitcoastStampers to look for inspiration. I find that the challenge sections give me a push in directions that I would not normally go. I found a sketch challenge (SC256) that looked perfect for an idea I had - pairing the pirates and compass together. The wavy line in the middle gave it a greater nautical feel. I wanted, again, to stick to the red, white a blue color scheme, so I only highlighted portions of the people with my colored pencils. I like this one a bit better than the first, so I tried some other ideas. I'll share those tomorrow, so please stop by if you can.


card #1: white notecard, red gingham paper, navy paper, compass, sentiment by A Muse, punch, Copic markers.

card #2: navy notecard, natural paper, sky blue paper, compass, sentiment, pirate, tiny heart, pirate girl by A Muse, colored pencils, circle punches.