*Sweet Stamp Shop* - Double Take | Circles

Hey! I'm here today with one of my favorite parts of the month – Double Take!!! Today we are going to be focusing on a very basic and versatile shape – circles! I love being able to turn a simple shape into something awesome – it makes you think a little more creatively to find ways to use it!

I decided I wanted to make a confetti-like effect for my projects. And of course, since this is a Double Take, I wanted something that would work for both a layout and a card.

One of the best ways to get double duty out of your supplies and projects is to use BOTH the positive and negative shapes of die cuts/punches. I designed a fun background with circles, which you can download here, and cut it out of some watercolor paper that I had painted on very subtly. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to use on top of that beautiful rainbow paper from Crate Paper, because it hides some of the busyness of all that color! I love this effect, because I looove color, but sometimes think it is too overwhelming for my pictures; this way, I get to see some of that lovely design, while still focusing on what’s important on the page.

After that was done, I went to work adding lots of layers under my photo and then going crazy with my Sweet stamps. I used sentiments from Triangle Style as well as Made By #2. My layout was about how I love to create things, and about the first skirt I sewed, so I couldn’t have thought of more perfect sentiments to go along with my story!!! Here are some close up shots of the page and the stamping and the final page

Oh, and those cardboard/chipboard stars - same, easy DIY concept as my last Double Take!

So after my layout was finished, I had a bunch of those circles left that had been die cut.

I thought they would be perfect just scattered on a background with a bold background. They kind of looked like bubbles, which I thought was really fun! To add more interest, since the watercoloring is very faint, I added some dashed lines and mounted some of the circles up on foam tape, making sure that the circle with the sentiment popped up the most.

That was all I needed to make a fun, yet easy card with leftovers! Don’t you LOVE when that happens?? It’s like getting a bonus project from almost nothing!!

How will you use circles in your next project? Maybe you could make a garland of circles, or make a fun bokeh effect by stamping the super cute small sequins and circles in the Easily Distracted set… or try some fun confetti… the possibilities are endless! Be sure to link up a project using circles if you decide to make one – I’d love to see what you come up with! And if you enter it into this week's Use What You Have Challenge, you can even win something sweet!!