I have really started to embrace my Stampin’ Up! punches. I love how most of them coordinate so well with Stampin’ Up!’s stamp set images, allowing me to quickly punch an image to easily apply to a card.

As of late, though, I have become increasingly interested in the negative space left after that stamped image is punched. I’ve seen several cards that place ribbon or patterned paper behind the negative image. For this Clean and Simple (CAS) thank you card, though, I’ve added nothing extra. I let the negative space speak for itself:

Tips, tricks and reminders:

• Use negative space. Papillon Potpourri (which I recently learned is Stampin’ Up!’s biggest selling stamp set these days) looks really great when it’s images are punched with the very elegant Elegant Butterfly punch. Take Papillon Potpourri out of the equation, though, and you still have the makings for a beautiful card.
• Let your colors tell a story. I knew I wanted to showcase a So Saffron butterfly on Baja Breeze. I initially thought about hiding the So Saffron piece under the Baja Breeze cutout to let the So Saffon be a little surprise from inside the cutout, but when I reached for my So Saffron scraps, I had a large piece. I ultimately decided to extend the So Saffon to outside the Baja Breeze piece. A little So Saffron inside, a little So Saffron outside. I like how this works. My initial idea was to pair the two with Very Vanilla (makes sense, right?), but I tried Whisper White and think it makes this design pop even better.
• Keep the sentiment sweet and simple. I love the sweet “just for you” sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes. It says what you want to say and allows the image on this card to be the focus. Of course there are times when you want to say more with the sentiment, but not today.

Stamp sets: Teeny Tiny Wishes Papers: Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Whisper White Inks: Baja Breeze Accessories: Elegant Butterfly punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Brian