Today’s project features the Flowering Desert Stamp Set in the Occasions Catalog and the Spotlighting Technique. This set includes a variety of fun images and sentiments that I really like. Desert plants and flowers are so unique and beautiful in a similar way to each human being on the planet!
The sentiment “be your own kind of beautiful” is such a wonderful way of celebrating and acknowledging the unique beauty in each of us and I LOVE that idea!

I chose to use a monochromatic, largely black and white color scheme here because I wanted to play around with the spotlighting technique, in a slightly different way than I have done in the past.
Typically, this technique is done with line-drawn images that are colored in. By using these types of images it makes doing the spotlighting technique pretty clear cut because all you have to do is punch out a portion of the image and color it in, to make it stand out. Click HERE to check out a few projects I recently created made with the traditional spotlighting technique.

Using a stamp set with solid images instead of images that you’d color in, presented a different kind of challenge.
I couldn’t simply punch out the image but rather I had to restamp it on a separate piece of cardstock in some other way, to make it look different from the base image. In addition, the other challenge is that for the spotlighting to work with multiple images like they are here, the images would have to be stamped in exactly the same position, so that when it was punched out it would line up perfectly with the image underneath it. As a result, I used the Stamparatus, my stamp positioning tool for all the stamping on this project.
In the close up below can you tell that the images stamped within the circle look brighter and darker than the images, not within the circle?

That’s because I stamped all the images twice on two separate focal pieces. The first set of images were stamped with Smoky Slate, Basic Gray, and Memento Black ink.
For the second set of images, I used a method to heat emboss each of these images in the same exact colors but the heat embossing added a shiny finish.
The graphic here explains this simple process to heat emboss in ANY color with just ONE embossing powder! I love this trick and hope you do too!

Now for today’s spotlighting technique card I stamped on Whisper White cardstock, just one of the three options described above.
In this next close up it’s much easier to see how the heat embossed images shine and look like they are in the spotlight! It’s a bit more subtle than when the images in the spotlight are colored but it’s still a pretty cool look. I hope you agree!

Here’s another closeup of my images in the spotlight!

I will soon be sharing another project made with this set that is in color, instead of black and white. Stay tuned for that one coming soon.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my project today!
For all the details definitely check out my video tutorial just ahead. You’ll also find project dimensions and a complete supply list at the end of this post in case you’d like to recreate this project or purchase any of the products.
Thanks for stopping by today to check out my spotlighting technique card!
Have a fabulous day and Happy Crafting!
Melissa 🙂
Check out my Video Tutorial Here:
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Would you like to see examples of the Spotlighting technique in color?
Click HERE to check out another post with two fun spotlighting projects.
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See the 2019 Sale-A-Bration Brochure PDF by clicking below.
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Project Dimensions:
- Basic Black Card Body: 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″
- Gray Granite Layer: 3-1/2″ x 4-1/2″
- Whisper White Focal Piece: 3-1/4″ x 4-1/4″
- Whisper White Inside Piece: 3-7/8″ x 5-1/8″