Spotlight on....Mini masterpieces & Two-tone Embossing

Recently I've seen a number of posts and discussions about Spotlight Stamping.  Spotlight stamping has been around for awhile, but it seems like it's making a comeback again recently.  It can make such a powerful statement on a project - highlighting & drawing your attention to a specific part of an image.

So, I thought I'd share one of the projects I did using this technique.  I absolutely LOVED this project & I'm not sure why I never got around to posting it before.  So this is the perfect opportunity!

First off, I LOVE crisp, clean black and white set off by a "pop" of color; so this was a perfect chance to go for that look too.

The card uses a beautiful hummingbird scene stamp from the Sparkle N Sprinkle Stampette Set 452S - Hummingbird Party.  Because I wanted to use the saying Smallest Things (from the coordinating Hummingbird set - Set 451 Hummingbirds & Flowers); I thought the Spotlight technique would be perfect to draw attention to just one little "smallest thing".  And I love how that look ended up working with the saying - just like I had hoped.

To get the look I wanted, I first embossed the outer panel with an embossing folder to give the card an elegant look.  Then I stamped the image in the center & also on a scrap too.


With a piece of black paper, I punched out the size circle my final colored image would be and used this to judge how much of the image on the scrap piece to color.  Since I knew I wanted one hummer to concentrate on, this was a great tool to use as I completed my "miniature masterpiece".  And a tiny little masterpiece it was......or at least I thought so!  For just this tiny little section of the image; I used almost 20 different Copic colors and spent almost an hour completing the coloring.  A little miniature work of art!  I was very pleased.

click any image to see closer

The image was cut out with a Spellbinder circle, backed with the next largest circle in black, and then carefully aligned with the rest of the image on the card front.

For the saying to the card, I wanted to coordinate with the beautiful pinks & purples of the flowers to balance the card out.  So I decided to do some two-tone embossing.  Concord & Mulberry embossing powders from the Tuscany Embossing Powder Collection were perfect for this.  (The concord photographed a little dark, but it's a rich and beautiful deep purple.)  By spooning on "lines" of one color of the EP first and then adding the second before melting the powders; you end up with a really eye catching and interesting element to add to the finished piece.  You can even control how much of each color you add if you use the spoons to add little bits of powder.  (On the sample on the right I added a bit more purple & a little less mulberry).  Well either way, I loved the look!  It's a neat technique that really finishes off the card perfectly!


If you'd like to see the full instructions for this card, they can be found in the SNS Art Gallery here.  Well, I hope you enjoyed this example of Spotlight Stamping.  For more examples & different things to try with Spotlight Stamping, be sure to check out all the ideas in the SNS Tips and Techniques Section on Spotlight Stamping.  If you haven't done any Spotlight Stamping or haven't done it in awhile....give it a try! 

Hope you enjoyed today's card & ideas!  Don't forget to leave a comment before you go - I always love to know that you stopped by and what you thought.

Until next time,

***Julie***