Copperplate Everyday Sentiments Collection by Paul Antonio

Hello there! I’m Paul Antonio and I’m here today to introduce my new collection, Copperplate Everyday Sentiments. I’ve been working with Spellbinders for quite some time now, first with the launch of Glimmer, as well as a few other projects. So when they created the BetterPress, they reached out right away and asked if I was interested in creating a collection for this unique new system. I thought it was a great fit with my style and have really enjoyed working on these lovely sentiments.

I started working on this collection by writing out a lot of sentiments, something like 30-40 different words and phrases! The idea was to create them in a really beautiful, delicate copperplate script that gives the feeling of calligraphy, and I think we’ve achieved that in this collection. I know Spellbinders has hung on to all of those sentiments, so you can expect to see more of these coming in the future! For this first set of sentiments, we wanted to go with things that were fairly general, so we went with Happy Birthday, Miss you, Thank you, Thinking of you, Hello and Congratulations with a flourish underneath. I was inspired to provide some classic PA Scribe script that people could use in their own cards and projects, something delicate and elegant. These classic sentiments then can be customized with additional embellishments and flourishes. I designed these sentiments so that once they’re pressed with the BetterPress, it’s easy to add flourishes or a quick drop shadow for extra impact. A drop shadow can be done with either a single line or by adding a wash that is slightly darker than the ink used. For instance, you could BetterPress with a pale pink, then take a brush with a soft red and follow just beneath the curves of the word. Or, if you’ve pressed with a darker ink, you could add a few touches of fine glitter, either with a clear Wink of Stella Brush, or with one of the Wink of Lunar brushes from Kurataki.

There are plenty of other great ways to embellish the text that might be more elaborate. You could repeat the elements from the individual lines of text to create a light pattern in the background. For instance, with the word Hello, you could create a diamond pattern, maybe even do a darker version of it on top of the sentence. It’s a simple idea, to look at the pattern in the script and then mimic it in the background.

For the Congratulations plate, you could press it multiple times and cut the flourish out, either to use as separate pieces, or to create a repeating pattern with lots of texture. There are a lot of great ways to get plenty of use out of these plates. These plates are meant to be customized when they’re made into cards. I would usually press the sentiment above in the top middle, leaving space underneath to write the name of the recipient. People might not want to write directly onto cardfronts, but I encourage people to experiment with using their own writing in their cards, even if they feel they can’t write that well. A card with the name handwritten on it is always going to be special and make the person receiving it happy. I believe that it doesn’t matter how well you think you can write. If you slow down, take your time, practice making letters correctly – the personal element of customizing your card with someone’s name is worth the effort. I love the calligraphic element of these Copperplate Everyday Sentiments plates, but a big part of my ethos is to make that personal touch that really makes things unique and special.

I hope that you feel empowered and encouraged to take these press plates and use them as a base to create something truly your own. Creativity is so much about play, and I hope that you enjoy discovering ways to embellish and personalize cards you make with the sentiments in this collection. -Paul Antonio