Fortunate to Know You Birthday Card
This stamp set, Fortunate to Know You, is an oldie but a goodie. The layout is one I’ve used before— get the details here. I’m sharing this card to showcase a couple of techniques or tips for you to try with your stamp sets.
The Stamping
The first thing is the color combo. It’s a little more interesting than a traditional monochromatic card because I’ve paired Real Red, a bold color, with neutrals like Crumb Cake, Smokey Slate, and wood grain in the chopsticks.
Next, I used tone on tone stamping to create my own DSP or visual texture with the fortune cookie stamp. A couple of tips when you do this. Rotate the stamp so you don’t get a row of identical images in the same direction. Also, stamp off the edge of your paper. This cuts the image off and adds interest. The eye reads it as part of a larger sheet of stamped paper, and it becomes wallpaper instead of stamped images that require the viewer’s eye to focus, which means texture instead of a focal point. You don’t want the background to compete with your focal point.
The third thing I’d invite you to try is stamping on your DSP. For the chopsticks, I stamped the image on woodgrain DSP and cut them out with scissors (fussy cut). The stamp is just an outline image, so by stamping on something that has a pattern, I made it more interesting with zero work. For the take-out box, I added interest by coloring in select spots with Stampin’ Blends. I used Smokey Slate for the handle, a little bit of Ivory for the shadows on the corners, and Real Red for the Heart.
The Layout
The last thing is the arrangement of the focal point. The chopsticks, sentiment, and red rhinestones are laid out in a triangle. This draws the eye around the card. The viewer takes in the DSP’s texture, the stamped pieces, but their eye is focused on the main images. Also, notice that the pieces are connected. The chopsticks are laid across the box in line with the handle. And the sentiment is tucked under the box and touched by the chopsticks. That keeps the layout from feeling busy or disjoint. These pieces connect to form one focal point.
I hope you enjoyed these tips and techniques and you try it with your stamp sets. Happy crafting!
Love that card!