Sunday Sketch

A few simple papers, a fun image and a great sentiment will help you knock today's sketch out of the ballpark.

Instead of running a banner of decorator paper all the way across your card, you're going to cut a chunk out of the middle and mat each one on coordinating card stock. This gives the focal point more emphasis and hopefully breaks you out of the routine of creating the same parts and pieces every time.

Choose two colors of card stock for your background mats, or maybe one card stock and a very subtle patterned paper. You don't want to draw attention away from your circled image until they look down at your all-important sentiment.

For my card, I started with a pink card stock that matched the pink in my focal point - a 3D Valentine image. Then I matted the pink with white so my colors would stand out even more.

I used a circle cutter to make backgrounds for the stamp, and then used a pink and yellow patterned paper that matched the stripes in the stamp itself.

Before cutting the strips of striped paper, I applied the rub-ons at the bottom so there would be plenty of room. Then I was able to center the stripes int he remaining space and make them wide enough for the stamp and circles to fit snugly inside.

For more great ideas, come visit our Etsy shop. You'll find hundreds of cards, plus lots of paper and wood gifts. You never know, you might walk with some ideas plus a gift or two!