Focal Image Design Tutorial (2024)

little bear,paulina nakamura11.26.2012

Hi friends! Our November guest designer is back again today with another fun card! Also, don't forget today is the last day our sale! So make sure to head over to the shop and take advantage! :)

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Hello, Neat and Tangled friends!

I'm back with my last post as the guest designer for November. Since I went all out Christmas on the other post, I thought I would stick with the season we are currently in: Fall!

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love the beautiful colored leaves scattered about. There are so many different varieties and we all know that jumping in leaves pictures are the best. I went with that creative thought and made some pretty Fall leaves and scattered them around the owl {both fromLittle Bear}.

Most of the time I like to do nice, clean edges, but I thought this rustic card could use a little distressing on the edges. I must say, this technique adds a lot to cards and it's so easy to do! If you haven't tried it before, you should give it a try! :)

Thank you so much Danielle for having me as a guest designer on the blog. I thoroughly enjoyed using my Neat and Tangled sets and it was so nice to "meet" some new friends as well!

Blessings to you all this holiday season.....

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Thank you, Paulina for joining us this month :)

at9:00 AM

11.23.2012

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Happy Friday Friends! Danielle here!

For those of you in the US, I hope you had an amazing Thanksgiving! Ours was great, lots of food, family, and laughs. Can't beat that!

Today begins the next challenge over at Young Crafters Unite.This time it's all about the holidays!

This is one I put together that is super simple! A few strips of washi, some twine and a button plus the sentiment and ta-da!

Well, I'm off to get my turkey in the oven! I know, yesterday was Thanksgiving but we go to my in-laws for dinner. Our tradition has become that we have our own little mini-Thanksgiving here the day after with just the 4 of us. We realized we missed having leftovers ;) I think I'll also do a little online Black Friday shopping :)

Hope you have a wonderful day!

at7:01 AM

neat and tangled stamps,sale11.22.2012

Hello Neat & Tangled friends!

I know many of our US friends are celebrating Thanksgiving today, and what a wonderful time it is to just reflect on what we are so grateful for! Included among all the things I am so thankful for this year, I must count all of you, my Neat and Tangled family. This little stamping adventure is a dream come true, and it wouldn't be anything without you. Over the past few months I have gotten to know many of you, and for that I am so happy! You're continual excitement and support warm my heart, and I wish I could find some way to let you know how much I appreciate all you do for Neat and Tangled! It doesn't even begin to express my gratitude, but please enjoy this sale beginning Thursday, November 22 at 8am EST! It will run through Sunday, November 25. No need to enter a coupon code!

Hope your day is filled with lots of love and yummy food!
Danielle

at11:00 AM

christmas,kasia tomaszewska,santa's notes

at9:00 AM

little bear,mary dawn quirindongo11.20.2012

Hi, guys! It's Mary Dawntoday bringing you a fun place card using the leaf and acorn images from Little Bear, along with a quick tip for making the place card extra special.

First, the place card:

I used versamark ink and Stampendous Rubellite PEARLustre embossing powder to stamp and emboss the leaves and the acorns. It's not just shiny, like normal embossing powder; it has a gorgeous shimmer as well.

To make the place card extra special, I used a die cutting trick:

I cut my cardstock to 4 inches wide by 5 inches tall and scored at 2-1/2 inches. Then I placed my die as shown above. I held it in place with a little low tack tape.

When I made my cutting sandwich, I placed the score line along one end of my cutting plates. This way, when I rolled my sandwich through the machine, only the portion of the die that is north of the score is cut through.

This is what you get. I chose to cover my die cut area with a matching shape and this hid my score line. However, if you didn't want a score line through the middle of the die cut area, you could score just at the left and right edges to facilitate placement of your die. Then, once your place card was die cut, you could take your card back to your scoring board and complete the scores from each edge to where the cut begins.

Thanks for joining me today! Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

--Mary Dawn

at8:00 AM

11.19.2012

Hi, Jean here to discuss a way you can put the spotlight on smaller stamp images. I like to make a lot of scene cards, but sometimes, smaller stamped images can get lost in the scene. Either they're lost with too much background or you end up adding a lot of stamped images to the card in order to incorporate the smaller ones, but end up crowding the little ones out. But there's another option! Think of using a zoom lens of a camera to capture a bird in a tree with an aperture that blurs the background so that your eye goes straight to the bird in the photo.

How to accomplish that "zoom" on a card? The focal image is captured in a circular shape. The background accentuates but doesn't overwhelm the focal image - it can be patterned paper, dry-embossed or background stamped.

With this sketch in mind, I created two cards with the same sketch. I even used the same sentiment, one from the Home Sweet Home set.

For the first card, I used the owl from the the Little Bear set perched in a die-cut tree.

For the second card, I put the bee hive into the tree and had the bees (large bee from Fresh Blooms and smaller bees fromLittle Bear)swarming "home."

at8:00 AM