The design I settled on involves masking off a shape to stamp inside, using small solid, or “fill in” stamps from a larger set (Beautiful Branches, in this case – see the supply list at the end), and minimizing the colors used. I thought I would go for a muted palette, so I grabbed a soft corally-red and a light gray, and used black for some detail and the bold sentiment.

you are here

I started by trimming some Whipped Cream cardstock down to 4.25 x 11″ and scoring it at 5.5″ to make a top-folding A2 sized card. Then I die cut a heart from some scrap paper and used the negative space as a mask to stamp inside. Stamping directly onto my card base, I used the small fill-in flower and berry stamps from the Beautiful Branches stamp set from Concord & 9th. I stamped the flowers in rouge ink and the berries in a light gray. Also used one of the small floral detail stamps to add some embellishment to the heart without adding layers. Clean clean clean.

Then I got stumped on what sentiment to use. I settled on the bold “You Are Here” from the stamp set of the same name from Concord & 9th. I played with the positioning a bit, but in the end put it right over the heart. I thought it might not play well with the image, but you know I really like it. It helps that I heat embossed it with clear powder to give it a bit of extra shine and punch. It definitely makes the sentiment stand out more.

At this point, I would start adding Nuvo drops or sequins or other doodads, but this is for a clean and simple challenge, so I…stopped. I might have smacked my own hand.

in my heart