If you're looking for new ways to use your stamps, techniques like reverse spotlighting are a great challenge.

Once I mastered a tutorial on reverse spotlighting, I still wasn't sure how to incorporate it into a scrapbook page - until I tried using it with a favorite stamp of mine, a palm tree. After playing around a bit, I discovered this technique is a cool way to mimic the effect of a setting sun behind a tree.

(My stamp is from a retired Stampin' Up! set called "Do the Hula." Feel free to use any palm tree image that you have. An outline-type stamp, like the one I used, works best.)

Supplies:

• palm tree stamp
• coordinating stamp such as the palm leaf shown below
• small circle punch
• adhesive
• 6" x 6" piece of green cardstock
• piece of kraft or light brown paper approximately 3" x 4"
• photo cropped and matted on the 3" x 4" kraft paper
• additional piece of scrap paper in kraft or a light brown
• piece of orange paper, approximately 3" x 3"
• scissors
• black ink

Step 1

Using the black ink, stamp the palm tree image on the desired position on your 6" x 6" paper. (You may want to place your matted photo first to gauge the best placement.)

Step 2

Use the circle punch to punch out the top left-hand portion of the palm tree image.

Step 3

Using the black ink again, stamp the palm tree image on the scrap of kraft paper and carefully cut out the stamped image.

Step 4

Place the image you just cut under the punched hole and line it up with the stamped image on the green cardstock (so it looks like one image) and then adhere it in place.

Step 5

Put the orange cardstock behind the cut-out image so it covers the punched circle, and adhere. If any of the orange cardstock sticks out from behind the green cardstock, simply trim it.

Step 6

Complete the page by randomly stamping the coordinating stamp to create a background pattern, and then use adhesive to secure the matted photo.

You're done!

Experiment with reverse spotlighting by highlighting more than one image on a page or try using alphabet stamps to create a funky title. You can even use patterned paper in place of solid cardstock.