Inspire Me Monday: Sentiments in the Spotlight!

Hello all! Julie here with another “episode” of Inspire Me Monday!

How many times have you made a card, and then had to cross everything you had in the hopes that your card arrived at its destination in one piece? Well, today I am not only going to show you a few cards that are very mail-friendly, they use a different kind of thought process that puts your sentiments in the spotlight!

Here's a peek at what we are making! The decking out will come later -- so you'll have to stick with me to see how this all turns out! ;-)

Every single one of those above is a single layer. Fun right? So, let me share some of what I did to create these looks!

ONE BIG HELLO! 

For the first card, I started by stamping the word "hello" from the Big Scripts stamp set. Then, I took a clear ruler and a fine tip black marker to make the lines above and below my sentiment. I will say that I did run the marker over the ruler a couple times, just to make sure the line was solid and not broken in any way.

Afterward, I added some dimension thanks to a paper piercer and template. I think it just helped make this area stand out a bit!

Now the fun begins! I used a Post-It note to mask my sentiment section...

Then, I took the Ranunculus from the Dynamic Duos: Foxglove and Ranunculus stamp set and stamped it above the black line using blank ink and then moved the Post-It to cover the other direction and then I stamped the lower portion of the ranunculus bunch to make it look like the bunch was shooting out from underneath my sentiment section. See?

And, after it was all colored up with Copic markers, I layered it on some distressed looking pink decorative paper and added some minor accents with glitter glue and rounded corners.

LOVE & THANKS

For the next card, I wanted to use some of my dies as stencils. This rectangle die is a super simple shape but just think of the shapes you could use as word windows! Any shape and every shape!! All it would take is a steady hand with your fine-tipped marker!

I started by stamping my sentiment, then secured the die using bits of washi tape. I traced the inner part of the die using the same fine-tipped black marker. 

Ta da!

From there, I made a mask of that box simply by tracing the inner part of the die onto a Post-It Note and cutting it out....

After that, I stamped the branch from Power Poppy's Happy Crabapple clear stamp set several times over top until I covered the entire front of the 4" by 5.25" piece! I colored with Copic markers, matted it up and here's a peek at the finished card! As you can see, I accented the inner portion of the box with some ivory Copic Markers and some paper piercing, just to make that pop a little bit more. I also -- which you can't see really well -- accented my flower centers with a wee bit of glitter glue to make it sparkle. While I have three layers, this one is still extremely "mail friendly!" 

SENDING LOVE

This last card I whipped up by creating a little sentiment window with a punch! I started by stamping the sentiment from the Dynamic Duos: Glads and Gerberas. Then, I matched it up with just the right circle punch and created a mask by punching a circle out of the top sticky part of a Post-It Note, covering the sentie! You can see, I set this up in my Misti Stamping Tool and there's a reason for that! 

I am going to start by stamping the Gerbera Daisies from the set over top in black...

 Now, the fun part! Because I used my Misti, I am going to remove that mask, clean off my stamp and ink it up using a faint pink ink (Memento Angel Pink) and stamp right over the top! 

You can barely see the pink, but in real life it just gives it that extra bit of dimension! From there, I punched the circle out of a heavier card stock and let my fine-tipped pen do some work again as you can see in my finished card!

While I added some glittery enamel dots, those little guys are still pretty flat making this another card I can pop in the mail without a worry! So there you have it -- three ways to make your sentiments stand out -- with Post-It Notes, Punches and Dies! 

Thanks for popping in and joining me for another Inspire Me Monday! I hope you dig through your supplies and see what you might be able to use to put your sentiments in the spotlight!!!

Have a fabulously creative week!

~Julie