Jean Franks Beck: Spotlight Panel Tutorial

The focus is on spotlighting this month during our tribute to Gal Pals, and I thought I'd show you another quick and simple way to spotlight images on your cards. For this technique, you will need a blank white or ivory cardstock card base, black waterproof ink (such as Ranger Archival Ink), Distress Inks (or any other coloring medium you might prefer - markers, pencils, etc.), Post-It Removable Labels (or other means of masking your image - large regular post-its will work okay, too), a grid ruler, and some favorite rubber stamps. For my card, I used Viva Las VegaStamps' Four Tulips image and Friends Are The Flowers sentiment.

Start by stamping your image onto the cardstock in black ink. I stamped my image twice, so that it covered the majority of the space. I also stamped the sentiment.

Next, use a grid ruler to line up a Post-It Removable Label to cover the left portion of your image:

Use a ruler to do the same on the right side of your card, using the post-it to keep the card in place as well. Be sure that you have "framed" a pretty portion of your image that you wish to highlight:

Because I wanted to use Distress Inks, I need to mask my image so that I could do the background of the flowers first. I simply stamped the image onto another post-it note, cut it out, and masked the tulips. I burnished all of the edges of the post-its with a bone folder - you could use a ruler or your fingernails, too.

Next, fill in the background of your image with color. Make sure to color right up to the edges of the post-its!

Remove the mask from the main part of your image and color it in, again, remembering to color right up to the edge of your post-its so that the edges of the spotlight panel are well delineated:

When you're done coloring, carefully remove the post-it labels... and have fun with the "reveal:"

And there you have it - an easy alternative to the traditional spotlight technique, and a fast way to add color without having to color your entire image. Hope you can give it a try!