Sensational Sentiments...

 

Do you ever have it that you create a card and you get so caught up in the images, techniques, or embellishments that you get almost completely finished before you realize you forgot the sentiment?  Happens to me all the time.  :-) So today I'm focusing on the sentiments.  They make great focal points...after all, the sentiment is usually the reason you send the card in the first place, right?  

Papertrey Ink has so many great sentiments.  With the Think Big Favorites, Tag-its, and Fillable Frames collections (just to name a few!) there's a great variety of large and small images.  There are also lots of great fonts...from fun and funky to classy and elegant...and everything in between.  

And while all of these sentiments are great on their own, mixing and matching them with other sets opens a whole new world!  I decided it would be fun to mix and match sentiments from different sets to create some eye-catching focal points.  These are super fun to make...something fun to play around with when you have some free stamping time.  You could create a stash of them to keep on hand for when you need to create a quick card.  

I thought I'd share a few tips to keep in mind if you'd like to give this a whirl.  I'm going to show you step-by-step how I stamped one of the sentiments, then I'll give you a some pointers as I show you the others.  Let's get started!

I started off stamping a bunch of different things onto scrap paper.  Here's a shot of my experimenting.  I didn't worry about colors, I was thinking only about the composition and placement of images.

Now for some step-by-step.  I'm going to show you this Congrats word collage and how it all came together...

 

I started off with a bunch of Vintage Cream cardstock pieces.  I trimmed them to 4 1/4 x 3 1/2.  This is a great size...enough room for lots of stamping, and the perfect size to tack on a card later.  

Using one of the cardstock pieces, I first stamped the little line/star border from Ad Sense.  It's little details and accents like this that make the sentiment visually interesting.

Now I added a sentiment above and below.  "Well done!" is from Fly Away and "Fabulous" is from Say it With Style.  Using a clear block marked with a grid is essential for this type of stamping...it makes it so easy to get everything straight and lined up!  They have been out of stock at Papertrey for a long time, but you can find them HERE, HERE or HERE.  My favorite to use is the long 6" block...it stretches all the way across  my card front.

For the next step, I'm using the "sensational years" stamp from Big Birthday Wishes.  Always keep in mind that you can ink up just portions of your sentiments to customize them.  It really stretches the uses for your stamps!  Here I'm just inking up the "sensational" portion.  This stamp is large enough that I could just avoid inking the "years" portion if I was careful...if you're working with a smaller sentiment a piece of scotch tape over the portion you don't want to ink does the trick.  Just put it on before inking, then pull it off before stamping it onto your project.  One other thing to note is the placement...notice how I nestled it nice and close to "fabulous", allowing the "l" at the end to tuck around the "s".  I'll balance it out in a bit with my next word.

Now I'm going to balance it out by stamping "congrats" from Think Big Favorites #5.  The big "C" nicely fills in the area.  This is why you want to play around on scrap paper first...just to get a feel for the best placement of things before stamping on your good cardstock.  :-)

I'm happy with the way the sentiment looks, so now it's time to add some little embellishments to really make it special.  I'm using some stars from Banner Builder.

I'm going to finish it off with a couple more of those little star borders from Ad Sense, just to add some grounding.  This is the perfect example of how a grid block is a necessity...I can get them perfectly aligned.  

It was easy to then take my sentiment block and create a card.  I just added some patterned paper strips from my scrap box, a little twine and a diecut star and button.  

I created cards with all of the sentiment blocks I showed in the first photo of this post... just by adding few strips of paper, diecut borders, a little embellishment and voila!  A group of fun cards.  

 

Let me show you each one, along with a tip or two.  The sets used in each card are linked at the bottom of this post.

A mix of fonts keeps it interesting...mix up the size and the type of font.  The decorative elements from the Mat Stack Collections make great embellishments and act as a frame the sentiment.

Keep an eye out for places to tuck images.  The flourishes on this "It's Your Day" sentiment are a great place to perch a bird or nestle some flowers.  The "celebrate..." sentiment finishes it off.

Just another mix here using Mr. and Mrs from Big and Bold Wishes.  The banner images from Banner Builder make great accents as well.

And lastly, a thank you card.  I combined the small "just a Note"  with the large "thank you".  The combination of script and print fonts really work nicely together.  Also keep in mind that you can layer images like I did here with the ledger circle by using different colors of ink.  The circle and flowers create a nice balance. The "to" is part of a "to:, from:" stamp, I just masked off the portion I didn't want to use with a piece of scotch tape.

Whew...did you make it all the way to the end of this post?  Congrats to you if you did.  :-)  I hope you enjoyed today's focus on sentiments!  I really enjoyed creating these cards for today's post...it was fun to come up with different sentiment combinations.  If you are inspired to create a card based on this post, I'd love if you'd share it with me!  Just leave a link in the comments and I'll be sure to check it out!  

All supplies are linked in the thumbnails below.  If you mouse over each one, it will show you the name of the stamp set/supply used.  Thanks for stopping by!  

 

 

 

Basic Supplies for all cards

Comments

[Diane Hover]

Beautifully done.....and a wonderful idea to do some and have a stash...its raining her nonstop (again)...so what a great day to sit and do these...thanks for the inspiration!!

[Vicki]

Hi Betsy,

I just wanted to tell you that I just love your cards. It doesn't matter what you create, I love them all! I can recognize your work immediately when looking in craft publications. Thanks for sharing your ideas. I don't think my cards will ever be as creative and beautiful as yours, but you give me some great ideas! Thanks again.

[Denise E]

Great tips, gorgeous cards, fabulous mixing and matching! Love my grid blocks too...can't stamp without them! Thanks for sharing your amazing ideas and inspiring us all to go stamping! =o)

[LeAnne]

These are wonderful---great use of all those fun sentiments and doodads!

[Cynthia]

Beautiful cards Betsy. And thank you for the supplies lists! Takes all the guess work out of checking my supplies...

[kim]

Love them all! Looks like I need to be getting myself some new sentiments to work with! :)

[Mary Anne Perlmutter]

Thank you Betsy you have such a keen eye for design and color. I am looking forward to gathering together all my senitments and seeing what I can do. We are so lucky to have you on the design team.

[Jennifer K]

What a great idea to mix and match sentiments. I'm stuck at work and all I want to do now is run home and get all inky trying out different things. Hopefully tonight I can sneak away to my craft room. Thanks much for the inspiration!

[Loretta]

Wow Besty, you just make it look so easy!

[Katie Jones]

Betsy, I LOVE this idea! Each of your card is just gorgeous! I'm going to have to pull out all of my stamps to play today! Thanks for all of the great tips!

[janet wilson]

Beautiful work. I am absolutely inspired by what you have shown today, Betsy - thank you :o)

[Ann]

Oh Betsy these are WONDERFUL! I love them all and all are going into my inspiration file post haste! Decorating the sentiments with tiny images is something I never would have thought up myself.

[Christina D]

I just found your blog and I love it! The cards are great and the info on doing the cards is great. Love those cards!!!

[Kristii]

Absolutely awesome post!!! I do forget all about the sentiments most of the time! Thanks Betsy!

[Lynne Ingram]

Want to try this RIGHT NOW! Impressive and creative. thanks. A stamp-a-majig would work if you don't have a grid block.

[Diane Jaquay]

These are AWESOME, Betsy! Love how you've combined the sentiments from different sets, it's almost like having NEW sentiment stamps!

[Nancy Lempinen]

A wonderful post and your step-by-step descriptions are so easy to follow. On small occasion I have attempted to do this, but not to the extent you have done, great job. I'm off to fill up my coffee cup and pull out some of my favorite sentiments. Love the idea of having some on hand for a "quick" card when needed.
Thank you so much, love your blog and style!
P.S. I tried the scotch tape method and it didn't work for me...because I left the tape on when stamping, duh! Another great tip.

[Laurie]

thanks so much Betsy! I always love ideas on mixing and matching pti sets!

[Stephanie Lee]

Wow!! what an inspiration to mix and match the fonts - it has opened a whole new world of sentiments for my existing sentiments!! Thank you. Steph

[Tami M.]

WOW! Every card is amazing, you are so talented Betsy! Who knew that combining sentinemts could be so wonderful!

[Jessica Wekenman]

These are gorgeous, Betsy! Your instructions and tips are great! I will definitely try playing around with this idea over the weekend!

[Kris]

These are wonderful! I really appreciate the stamping experience and knowledge you so lovingly share. I keep putting off purchasing Say It With Style but you've used it so "fabulously". It's now out of the wish list and into the cart. I can't wait to try some of these on my own.

[Tammy W.]

Awesome idea! I can't wait to try. Thanks for the inspiration. I LOVE your work! : )Absolutely gorgeous cards!

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlTDHCzzLrjKMJZhfgtLitwW6-ynQVRi_c]

Love it when people think outside the box. Love it even more when they share their ideas. Thank you.

[♥Wendi]

Amazing! I love all the sentiments and of course the attention to detail that you are so good at! Thanks for sharing the steps too! Always helpful for people like me! Happy Weekend! ♥