2016 #8 Wonderful White Space {by Keren Baker}

 2016 Topic 8: White Space

Hi everyone Keren Baker here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you this evening with a post about White Space.

It's my preferred style of crafting and something that lots of people seem a little scared to try sometimes. If you're used to filling your substrate with colour, this might seem a little counterintuitive but apart from using up less ink or paint (ha!) it can give real focus to a particular part of your project, or lead the eye straight to your focal point.

I've created two different projects using two The Cat's Meow sets. Firstly, allowing the main image to be surrounded by white space

There isn't much real process other than adding lots of layers of colour. I've used some watercolour pens for ease and have white embossed the image from this 'Ocean' set. I've picked out details like creating 'seafoam' with a white pen and allowed the image to be showcased by allowing the background not to detract from it. Having said that this is 'white space' and indeed, it is, in my card. It needs not be white, just simply a portion of negative space to balance with the positive space in your composition.

The sentiment helps balance the composition, allowing the image not just to 'bleed' into the background. In this next project, I've added far more elements to the design, but by a simple technique of clustering, it allows you to use lots of white space and still create an 'non-busy 'design.

This second project is using the fun 'Dog' set

Simply done, I've stamped out all the elements, cut them out separately and then chose one area of the design to place most of the elements in. It's a sure fire way of easily conquering 'white space fear' and still allowing you to add lots of detail. 

I hope you'll translate these into your own style. You could easily have a coloured background with a very faint stamped images and then a bolder focal point and this would have a similar effect- it's all about balance and thinking about positive and negative space rather than great clumps of white canvas or card which seems to scare the heebie-jeebies out of lots of people! 

It is sometimes easier to explore this with smaller images/substrates- try a mini canvas or a card and play around with clustering, even just grouping layers of paint and images into one area and going from there!

See you soon (and it WILL be more artsy next time!), Keren xx

Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest: @craftstampink

Keren your use of White Space always has me in awe! Your minimilist use of composition/colour always packs a visual punch. Great to see the quirky Cat's Meow images being used. Thanks for sharing your creativity with us. ~Gillian

We would love to see how you interpret this White Space topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #8: White Space, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The White Space link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, May 1st 2016. The winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.