Card Layering Techniques with Design Team Expert Amy Heller

Hey Echo Park fans! It's Amy here today with a fun little tutorial for you. Today I thought I would address a technique that I get asked about regularly --"How to approach layering." If you know my work at all, then you know I love to layer. I layer on cards, layouts, and anything else that I create with paper. One of the reasons I love doing this is that I like to balance many elements and textures to create a cohesive look. One way of doing this is by layering those elements.

Continue reading for Amy's insight, tips, and tricks for layering embellishments and paper on a card.


I've gathered some of my favorite elements from the "This and That Graceful" collection to show you how to layer different textures. I love to use chipboard, stickers, and brads as layering elements. Another of my very favorite pieces that's become very popular  in the industry are journaling cards which come on 12" X 12" sheets of patterned paper, such as the "Journaling Cards" patterned paper, which has this key icon from the collection.

When approaching a card, I start by cutting an A2 sized piece from the "Quilt" patterned paper.

Then I place my journaling card where I'd like it to sit on the card. I didn't want the key as a part of my design, so I decided to cover it by layering the "Daughter" sticker from the "Element Sticker" sheet over the key image. I elevated the "Daughter" sticker with some foam tape to give it some added dimension.

Next up I needed to fill the large white space on my journaling card, so I decided to use this fabulous hot air balloon sticker from the same sticker sheet. Notice that I didn't just plop it in the center; but rather I offset it to the right, which not only provides me more room for another portion of my sentiment but also provides a sense of movement and balance.

Now that my main image is placed, I felt there was a "hole" in the bottom, left corner above the "Daughter" sticker so I found a tab sticker from the same sheet that fit perfectly and tucked the sticker right above the "Daughter" sticker. I also let it hang off the left side of the journaling card, which leads the eye to the sentiment and provides a layered feel.

Now this is where I started experimenting. I knew I wanted some "weight" in the bottom left corner of the sentiment sticker, because of the large amount of "weight" from the balloon in the top right corner. So I placed a small piece of chipboard, which is literally heavier, even though it's smaller in size to the balloon sticker.

While I was experimenting with an even larger piece of chipboard in the bottom left corner, I decided to add two brads to bring the eye down from the white space on the left on the journaling card. Now your eye goes directly to the sentiment, rather than to the very large balloon element.

At this point, I'm feeling that my card is very close to being completed. I decided to use both of the chipboard pieces layered upon each other and tied with a whimsical twine bow with long ends. This adds additional texture, and wispy movement the card.

Here's where I began to wonder if my card was too red/pink. So I took a piece of the "Bingo" patterned paper and layered it under my journaling card to see how it would look.

I decided to make a small mat of the teal that helped to bring out the teal in the sticker sentiment and the blues in the balloon card. It also helps to create the feeling of more layers.

Last up, I took my journaling card to my sewing machine, I added a zig zag stitch to the balloon sticker and to both sides of the journaling card. This provides more texture and movement on the card.

Once I had this done, I used more foam tape to mount my journaling card to my card base. I then rounded the corners of my card base and adhered it to my card. Lastly I added three teal gems under the "Daughter" sticher to further balance the color throughout the card and fill the "hole" that I felt I saw in that area of the card. 

And there you have it. A simple and easy card full of color, dimension, texture and balance all by way of using layers. I hope you enjoyed learning more about my process of building layers into my work as much as I had creating this fun little card for you.

Give layering a try by placing elements on your layouts and cards before adhering them. Move and change the layers until you feel your project is complete. Layering adds sophistication and style to any project!