When creating cards, scrapbook pages, and more, often we need sentiments we don’t actually have. This is especially true if like me, you make a lot of projects celebrating and representing occasions that don’t usually have things like stamp sets available specifically for them. Over the years creating #StampingDiversity projects though, I’ve discovered a few tricks you can use, and I’ll share them with you here today…

Use letter stamp sets and/or dies to create a sentiment. Here I used dies and stamps to create sentiments that coordinate with the images on the cards to have exactly the sentiment I wanted.

Combine stamps or stamp partial sentiments, even combining them to create new sentiments. For her project Catherine combined a few stamp sets, partially stamping one and then combining it with others to make a unique sentiment. On my card I combined a partial sentiment with dies to send the message I wanted.

Use generic sentiments such as “celebate” or “joy” that are appropriate to the occasion. For the Hanukkah cards, I chose a sentiment that didn’t explicitly state the holiday, but rather echoed the meaning behind the occasion, and for the Janmashtami card I used a generic celebration sentiment paired with relevant imagery to send my message.

Handwrite or type the exact sentiment you want in the style you want. For these cards I used two different techniques to write my sentiments in Hebrew and Arabic to match the occasions I was creating for.

Leave the sentiment off entirely and let the images speak for themselves. For her solstice card, Michele created a night scene to capture the feel of the occasion and opted to leave the sentiment off entirely.

Hopefully these ideas have inspired you to be creative with your sentiments and create cards for all occasions, even if you don’t have the ‘right’ sentiment for it.

Shop online with me using the host code at the top of my website and you’ll get a free mail and make class sent to you this month along with PDF tutorials for some great projects!

Happy stamping!

Stefanie