Valentine’s Day is just a week away as of this posting. You may still need a special card for a special loved one. I’ve got you covered. The cards I’m sharing today will be great for masculine cards, Gal-entine’s or even for a special young person in your life. These cards can also work beyond just this one holiday.
Since I am focusing on a negative space technique, you can adapt these cards to any occasion. Change out the sentiment for an anniversary card. Try a balloon die instead of a heart for birthdays. Perhaps use a star for a congratulations cards. Let your occasion lead the way.
Shaker Card
A shaker card is a classic example of what you can do with a negative space. If you don’t already know what negative space is, let me explain. When you die cut out a heart, the heart itself is the positive space. The heart-shaped hole left in the paper is the negative space. Negative space is a great design element for cards—or scrapbook pages!
When you add something into or behind your negative space you amp up the design. In the case of shakers, there is other cardstock colors & patterns that can back the negative space. Of course, a shaker wouldn’t be a shaker without the bits to shake around. Sequins make a very traditional interactive element to this design style.
Don’t forget to add something fun inside your cards too. Repeating an element from the front of the card to the inside creates cohesive design. In this case I repeated strips of paper in similar—but not identical—proportions for added interest.
In Fill Negative Space
Speaking of the insides of cards, I have this really surprising card to share next. I have die cut three hearts on the front of this card. That created our negative space design. I then infilled that negative space with decorated hearts of a contrasting color. This card is pretty simple at first glance. That is what makes the inside that much happier when it is opened up!
Inside the card is an explosion of sweet color. That is a surprising contrast to the simple initial impression of this card. Not only that but the negative space of the card front makes way to the positive heart shapes glued to the inside panel. It is a great way to use this design element.
For additional oomph, I have created heat embossed splatters. Don’t know how to do that? In my tutorial video I share this technique so you can try it too!
Partial Negative Space
This is my favorite card of the bunch. This card uses negative space with a twist. The negative space is incomplete! As you can see, the heart bleeds off the edge of the striped panel. That leaves our brain the job of “filling in the blanks”. For that reason, this design technique is very eye catching.
Not only have we left some of the work to the imagination, but we have also gone beyond that. The negative space is filled in with our sentiment. Now that space is doing double duty for our design!
A Bonus
Since I had so many heart shapes now sitting on my desk, it was time to make a bonus card. That striped heart is going to have flat edges missing. Since the die had to overhang the paper for the effect in the previous card, that left my positive shape incomplete.
(For some reason I don’t personally find an incomplete positive shape nearly as interesting. Honestly, it just seems broken. I do wonder if there is some design psychology to this, or if it is just my particular brain. LOL.)
Getting back to this card. I used the splatter embossing technique on some of the extra hearts. Then I got to layering. I wanted the one colorful heart to be the focal. That meant layering other elements to cover the cut off edges. With that done, a quick sentiment was all I needed to finish the card.
If you want to see the creation process for the first three cards I do have a process video you can watch. I talk about these techniques as well as some other ideas.
That is it for me this month. The rest of the team will be popping in throughout the month to share their projects. We’ve got the themes of love, family and even the Olympics to explore this month. Plus it is a LOAD month, so Lindsy will be sharing her fun LOAD finale at the end of February. Stay tuned for more inspiration. Until then, happy scrappin’— and card making too!