it's anniversary time for papertrey ink - celebrating 7 years!! i actually have nichole's very first stamp set and can remember stamping with it while i waited for another release to go live. i started blogging just before that, so i guess i'm kind of celebrating 7 too - time really does fly! having been around in the background since the beginning, i'm thrilled to say that i'm back for a third year of designing stamps, with a handful of fun new sets to add to my pieces of confetti line up. it will be a few months before my next set is released, but until then, you can play with this fun little digi stamp, available on nichole's blog, along with images from each of the stamp designers. there's a contest and prizes - seven prizes!
diamonds and prisms have been popping up quite a bit lately - in ads, on fabrics, and of course on paper. so, i thought it would be fun to take the trend for a spin myself. i'm partial to diamonds, so i created a little cluster of various sized gems, blocked them in tiffany blue, and added a fun sentiment. since i thought carefully about layout and spacing in order to make the image versatile, i thought i'd share enough eye candy to demonstrate. first, above, i trimmed out the full image, leaving a white border. the sentiment is a perfect match to the rock candy stick - add a small happy valentine's day on the back and you have an easy valentine to mass produce!
with clean and simple image, it's no surprise that my cards are clean and simple too. aside from the fact that they usually are anyway, right? this second design, like the first, also features the image fully trimmed, but this time right up to the edge of the blue, no white frame. i stamped congratulations from comfort food additions right over the image and added a strip of patterned paper with black triangles to balance it out. a little golden yellow splatter (from grunge me) adds an additional pop of color. i toyed with adding something else, but what can i say, except that i really like white space!
and now, for the versatility i mentioned above - the digi, deconstructed! when designing the image, i spaced everything out so that the cluster of diamonds could easily be separated from the words. you can cut it in half, or use a 1" punch to punch out each side. i actually designed the block at just slightly over 1" x 2" so you can punch or trim with no white edge. once you cut them, you can use them on their own, or create a different layout like i did here. same sentiment, lots more rock! to highlight the sentiment, i popped it up on foam tape, while the gem squares lie flat against the blingy trim. glitter gold tape + diamonds = love!
and finally, i also made sure to leave enough space between the individual diamonds so that you can cut them all out without cutting through or too close to any of them. here, i've used just one, but i have a nice little pile on my desk waiting to find their way onto a project. this is the biggest of the four paired with a ring embellishment. the diamond is coated with fine clear glitter and popped up to match the height of the band. silver grid washi tape repeats the silver of the ring and a sentiment from just a kiss is just the right fit.
so there you have it - 1 digi stamp, 4 looks. all without altering the image in any way on the computer. but you can! change the color, change the size, add to the sentiment, etc. what are you waiting for? go get the freebie download from nichole and play to win! while you're there, be sure to follow the links to all of the stamp designers' blogs to see what they've created, too - there's even a "new" introduction. have fun and if you digi with diamonds, i'd love to see!! many thanks again to papertrey ink for this fabulous opportunity and to you, my customers...
you rock!
:) lexi
