Learn how to apply the Rule of Thirds Design Principle to your Cardmaking Layouts

Design Ambassador, Emily Mydlowski is joining us today with three cards layouts using the The Rule of Thirds Design Principle.

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Hi Friends, Emily here with you today sharing three different card designs (two vertical and one horizontal) all using the Rule of Thirds Design Principle…and no the principle is not about stretching your supplies by making three cards with one stamp set 🙂

The best way to think about using the Rule of Thirds is to create different eye-appealing ways to compose a layout without placing your focal point in the middle of your card panel. To apply the Rule of Thirds, you’ll need to answer two questions and reference a Grid.

The Grid: Divide your card panel into thirds horizontally and vertically leaving you nine parts and four intersections. If this grid looks familiar, it might be because you see it all-the-time when snapping photos on your smart phone. The photos below show a hand-draw grid with intersection points in both Horizontal/Landscape and Vertical/Portrait Mode.

The Design Questions:

1. What are the points of interest on your card? Image, Sentiment, Die Cut, color/pattern.
2. Where should you intentionally place them?

The Rule: Place your points of interest at one of the intersections or along the horizontal or vertical lines for a balanced look—causing your recipient to interact with your design more naturally.

The Rule Applied

For all three card examples, I used the EBE Unicorns ’N Rainbows Stamp Set + Coordinating Designer Dies and Pure Magic Stamp Set for complimentary sentiments.

Portrait Mode: Top-Horizontal Across 3 Intersections

Points of Interest: Rainbow & Flying Unicorn

Horizontal Line: Rainbow Clouds

Intersection Points: Sentiment, Fluffy Clouds & Flying Unicorn

Landscape Mode: Bottom-Horizontal Across 4 Intersections

Points of Interest: Unicorn & Sentiment

Horizontal Line: Rainbow Clouds

Intersection Points: Sentiment, Fluffy Clouds & Unicorn

Portrait Model: Middle-Across 3 Intersections

Points of Interest: Rainbow Unicorn

Horizontal Line: Sentiment & Rainbow Clouds

Intersection Points: Fluffy Clouds, Stars and Unicorn

So there we are friends, three Unicorn N’ Rainbow layouts all using the Rule of Thirds Design Principle/Grid. I hope you enjoyed my post today and it inspires you to use the Rule of Thirds in your next cardmaking project. Thanks for stopping by and Big Paper Hugs!

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