Article of the Month
February 2008
Flowers: They’re one of the most versatile stamps you can own. Perfect for sympathy, love, wedding and anniversary cards, they’re also ideal for those “just because” greetings.
Most of us look at a botanical stamp and automatically think we must use the entire image as the card focal. Not so! This month, Designer Laura Nicholas shows how effective it looks to have a softly stamped botanical image as an accent on a card focal.Beautiful Botanicals
By
Laura Nicholas
Laura began by stamping a botanical image on the left side of a white card quote cut-out. Notice how the top of the flower slightly overlaps the “W” in the quote? It’s a great way to have the two elements—flower and message—interact. She then trimmed the card quote, cutting off the bottom and left side of the botanical image. She inked the edges of the card quote and matted it onto brown paper, then onto pink dot paper.
The result is a rich, dimensional card focal. Laura chose to stamp the botanical image with brown for a soft effect—try the same technique with black ink for a sharper contrast!
Laura then created the base of her card. She covered the card front with striped paper (stripes running vertically)—placing the glue ONLY on the left side of the card and leaving the right half unglued. She cut a piece of floral paper to 4 1/2"x 6" and inked the edges, then added brown mini brads at each corner.
Laura wrapped sheer dot ribbon around the papers on the right-hand side of the card, attaching the ends of the ribbons underneath the striped paper. She then secured the right side of the papers to the card front.
Laura added the matted card quote to the front of the card with foam tape, positioning the focal to overlap the ribbon. The finishing touch? A small dotted bow, slightly overlapping the card quote and attached with Zots™.
For the inside of the card, Laura repeated many of the techniques from the front of her card. She began by inking the edges of a 3 1/2"x6 1/2" piece of striped paper. She inked the edges of a 3"x6" piece of floral paper, glued it in the center of the striped piece added a brad in each corner. She wrapped ribbon around the paper, securing the loose ends at the back of the striped piece—then glued the striped piece to the inside of the card.
For her inside card quote message, Laura only stamped a partial of the botanical image. She placed a piece of scrap paper underneath her trimmed card quote to protect her work surface, then stamped the top portion of the botanical stamp on the left side of her quote. She re-inked, then repeated with a small portion of the botanical stamp on the right edge of her quote. The quote is inked, matted on brown and pink dot, then attached with foam tape. Again, a small bow overlaps the card quote message.
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