Originally, I intended this design to be a single layer. But, after creating the background, I banked left . . . slightly . . . LOL!

Read on, for the design breakdown . . .

FURTHER NOTATIONS:

• A 9-patch grid (indicated in aqua) helps to divide the space visually on your canvas and to guide you in placing “visual weight”. Notice how the initial pattern/design of strawberries is contained within a vertical column, down the center third, from top to bottom; this will later affect the rest of the design*.

• Initially, I wasn’t going to pop up anything but the gold foiled sentiment and gold embossed tag line. However, they were getting lost against the strawberries in the background. To resolve that issue, I decided to add a circle die cut from vellum card stock; vellum acts as a diffuser, softening whatever is behind it. I didn’t want to soften the entire card front, I just needed more contrast in that particular area to help that sentiment stand out more.

• On a vertical layout, it also helps to *position your sentiment, or your focal image towards the upper third or lower third, as opposed to dead center. Otherwise, it feels like the card is visually cut in half.

• To give it even more visual oomph, I decided to pop up a trio of die cut strawberries and have them “hug” the sentiment. Odd numbers are (generally speaking) more visually pleasing to the eye, so I typically start with 3, making sure their placement balances the design so the eye doesn’t get “stuck” on one spot and has that nice triangular flow (those golden arrows).

• I always consider metallics as part of the color scheme on a project; gold and copper can be used to warm up a card while silver tends to give off a cooler vibe.

By the way, it’s totally OK for strawberry stems to be a beautiful shade of red, instead of green; the color police are not gonna’ bust ya’. 😉

The end.

Hope the rest of your week is great!

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