Hello crafty friends. I have three cards today that feature ballerinas, but are actually all about the backgrounds! (OK, the ballerinas too!) When you have a delicate image like these dancers, it can be easy to lose them on the card, or have them appear disjointed from the rest of the card, so I’ve played around with three different ways to make the dancers the stars of the show. Here are the cards.

As has been my habit lately, I’ve got a video for you, so feel free to watch that instead if that’s your jam.

I stamped the images in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured them with my Copics. I cut them by hand and then started on the backgrounds. These dancers are appropriately named Ballerina 1, Ballerina 2 and Ballerina 3. You can see which is which in the supplies list below if you are interested in just one of them.

For this first card, I chose a radiating stencil called Leaf Burst from Paper Rose Studio. I wanted the ballerina to face towards the middle of the card, so I placed the stencil slightly to the right so she could stand on her ‘stage’ and face into the card. Her hand stretches up towards the sentiment, and the Clear Glitter Enamel Dots also are in the same line so they lead the eye between the sentiment and the ballerina.

For the second card I chose to highlight the dancer by adding a spotlight from behind. I did this by cutting a circular hole in the card front using the Ella’s Garden Leafy Circle die. I cut this twice and layered them up for some height and strength. The paper behind the circle as been embossed using the tulips 3D embossing folder, which gives heaps of texture. The sentiments for all the cards come from a set called Better Days cut aparts. These have embossing on them, so they have lovely shine and they feel good too!

Finally, I highlighted the ballerina using some layered dies. These Circlet Layered dies are a set of three, but I thought that number three may over power my delicate dancer, so I partially cut numbers one and two from white Cardstock, layered them up with glue and neatened up the 90 degree corner at the bottom left. I placed my dancer in the centre of the circles so that the circular shape would draw the eye in to the main image.

I hope that you’ve been inspired to highlight your images in different ways. Until next time, stay safe. Think of me as I move country AGAIN!!!

Blessings,

Donna