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Spruce up your sentiment stamps...

Hello and happy Friday!  I'm up this week for Papertrey Ink's weekly Design Team tips.  Today I have some simple ideas for ways to spruce up your sentiments.  I am constantly inspired by typography, so today I pulled out a few inspiring typography trends and incorporated them into some
cards.  Let me show you the inspiration photos along with the techniques and projects that resulted from them!

First up is a very simple concept in this gorgeous business card...

Trimmed sentiment
(photo credit)

I think the thing that makes this card successful is the way it's trimmed close to the lettering.  I tend to leave a border around my sentiments, but trimming them tightly, even to the point of trimming off a bit of the sentiment can really give it a fresh feel.  So simple!

Here's a card I created using this idea.  The sentiment is from Script Sentiments...the font totally reminded me of the font in the business card above.  I trimmed it so that I just nipped off a bit of the flourishes on the ends.  

 Belive

The "I know you can do it" sentiment is from Flower Fusion #12 and the background florals are from Bigger Blooms.  

Believe-dtl

1-goods

This idea of trimming super close works great with script fonts like in the inspiration photo, but I thought it would be fun to try it on a sentiment that had more of a block lettering style. I used the "happy" sentiment from the Celebrations set and trimmed it close on each side as well as along the top edge, again just nipping off a bit of the actual letters.

Happy-happy-happy

I trimmed three blocks stamped with the "happy" sentiment, then layered them with foam.  I added a few candles from the new Wishes Come True stamps set.

Happy-happy-happy-dtl

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Another trend I've been spotting in typography is filled in negative space, where the loops of each letter are filled in...

Filled negative space
(photo credit)

Laugh more
(photo credit)

This is another super easy concept to incorporate into your cards.  I chose a sentiment from the Stylish Sentiments: Birthday set.  I stamped it with Classic Kraft ink, then stamped it again with versamark and heat embossed with clear powder.  I knew I wanted to watercolor the letter openings, so the clear powder would keep the ink from smearing.

Birthday-dots

I used reinkers mixed with a bit of water to do the watercoloring in each letter opening.  I chose ink colors that coordinated with the patterned papers I used.  I few gold stars cut with the Star Gazer dies added a bit of sparkle.

Birthday-dots-dtl

These Brushstix from Tsukineko work great for this type of coloring with the re-inkers.  

Birthday-dots-how-to

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Fancy scripts are definitely hot...especially shadowed scripts like this...

Shadowed script
(photo credit)

I pulled out the new Scrolling Script set and attempted to reproduce the look.  To do it I double embossed the sentiment.  Did I say double emboss?  I know...I didn't think it would work either, but guess what...it did!  Maybe I'm the last to know.  :-)

Ruby-Thank-You

I stamped the sentiment with versamark, then heat embossed with Aqua Zing embossing powder.  After it cooled I stamped it again with Versamark, offsetting the image slightly, then sprinkled my white powder and heated it again.  It worked like a charm.  Would be cool done on white too, I think.  

Ruby-Thank-You-dtl

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Lastly is a trend I've been fascinated with for awhile and have been pondering ways to duplicate the look.  It's 3D lettering like this...

3D
(photo credit)

or this...

3D welcome
(image credit)

Here is the card that was inspired by this trend.  I chose a large scale script sentiment - "Congrats" from Think Big Favorites #5.  I stamped it with versamark and heat embossed with gold powder.  Then I was ready to create the 3D effect.  

Congrats

I used a clear ruler and pencil, and starting on the first letter of the word (the large letter "C"), I drew a pencil line at an angle from the widest point of the letter.  I continued along the word, drawing a line out from the tallest point of each letter, keeping all of the lines parallel to my first pencil line.  If you click to enlarge the photo you should be able to see my pencil marks.  

3D-step1

Then I used watered down reinkers and a chisel tip Brushstix to fill in the pencil lines, changing the color of re-inker with each letter.  It could be done all in one color as well, but I thought the multi-color was kind of fun. When I was done and it was completely dry I erased the pencil marks.  

3D-step2

I used the "Wear-ever" poster above as inspiration for my card layout as well.  I incorporated some gold strips that were diecut with the Rainbow Stripes die and some vellum stars.  I also stamped some small stars in the same ink colors I used for the watercolor.

Congrats-dtl

This idea intruiged me and I played around with it a bit more...watch for it to appear in the near future as a Make it Monday video, but with dies instead of stamps!  

1-goods

Well, that brings me to the end of today's inspiration pieces and projects.  I hope you were as inspired by the typography pieces as I was!  To see more of the images that have been inspiring me, you can visit my Typography board on Pinterest.   

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