Why Sentiment Strips Are a Must-Have for Every Crafter

Key Takeaways

  • What are sentiment strips? Sentiment strips are pre-designed paper strips featuring versatile greetings, words, and phrases that add an emotional centerpiece or final touch to handmade cards and paper crafts.

  • The Altenew One-Go System advantage: Crafters can save time and streamline their process by using Altenew’s One-Go: Solid Sentiment Banners. This system allows you to mass-produce and die-cut multiple coordinated sentiment strips simultaneously in just one pass.

  • Versatile design placement: Sentiment strips can be used in various creative ways, including serving as a focal centerpiece for Clean and Simple (CAS) cards, acting as subtle visual dividers on intricate backgrounds, or being stacked into "layered sentiments" for extra impact.

  • The perfect finishing touch: A single, well-placed sentiment strip can effortlessly complete a card design, tying together background techniques like stenciling, embossing, and press plating with added embellishments like sequins or enamel dots.

  • Elevates emotional connection: While die-cuts and backgrounds create visual appeal, the text on a sentiment strip bridges the gap between artistic design and meaningful, heartfelt communication for the recipient.

Every handmade card tells a story, but the right words can transform a beautiful design into a meaningful keepsake. Whether you're celebrating a birthday, expressing gratitude, offering encouragement, or sending holiday cheer, the sentiment is often what recipients remember most. That's where sentiment strips come in.

sentiment strips for crafting

Combined with dies, die-cutting techniques, and coordinating crafting dies, sentiment strips offer endless creative possibilities. They help crafters save time while maintaining a professional and cohesive look across every project. If you're looking for a simple way to make every occasion more special, sentiment strips deserve a place in your crafting toolkit.

What are Sentiment Strips?

Sentiment strips are pre-designed strips featuring words, phrases, or greetings that can be added directly to paper crafting projects. They range from everyday messages and themes that you can select from to perfectly suit the handmade card you are working on. And to make things even better, Altenew offers sentiment strips within the One-Go System, an inventive opportunity for you to die-cut all of your favorite sentiment strips in one go

Handmade Card Inspiration with One-Go: Sentiment Strips

Now, it’s time to dive into a couple of project photos to give you crafty inspiration with sentiment strips! 

Simple but Elegant Accents

If there’s one thing that you can count on when it comes to sentiment strips, it’s that they are wonderful for completing your projects. There may be some instances when you feel like your handmade card looks wonderful, but there’s just something else that’s missing. In these cases, you can count on a trusty sentiment strip to tie things together perfectly

sentiment strips for crafting

The Perfect Finishing Touch

You can never go wrong with a simple card background. Whether you use stencils or press plates or maybe an embossing folder, a simple background often exudes an elegant vibe. To complete the look nicely, feel free to add small embellishments like the project we’ve shared below. This can range from anything like some enamel dots, sequins, thread, and of course, a sentiment strip of your choice. 

sentiment strips for crafting

The Perfect Pairing to Intricate Die Cutting Projects

When you work on a project with such intricate die-cuts, you might be opposed to the idea of adding another die-cut in the form of a sentiment strip. However, it can actually act as a visual divider of some sort that creates a neutral effect on your project. Take this card below, for instance, which is filled with stunning die-cut undersea elements like a jellyfish, starfish, and various kelp and coral. You might think a sentiment strip is the last thing you want to add, but in this example, you’ll see it’s actually a perfect addition to the design. 

sentiment strips for crafting

Gorgeous Centerpiece

If you want your sentiment or message to be center stage, you can definitely do it with sentiment strips! This handmade card below, for instance, features some beautiful, autumn-themed die-cut leaves on the top and bottom portions, while two sentiment strips are in the middle. Talk about the perfect way to create a heartfelt CAS card! 

sentiment strips for crafting

Layered Sentiments

Why go for one sentiment when you can stack it on top of one or two more? You can stack multiple sentiment strips in one project, or mix it up by combining a sentiment strip and a circular sentiment, like the image below. It looks amazing, and also reinforces the heartfelt thought that you want to share with your recipient. 

sentiment strips for crafting

Elevate Handmade Cards with Sentiment Strips and Dies

At the heart of every handmade creation is a message. While beautiful backgrounds, intricate die cuts, and decorative embellishments capture attention, it's often the sentiment that creates an emotional connection. 


That’s it, crafty friends! We hope you had fun looking through some of these project inspiration photos, and that they gave you a bit more creative juice to create your own handmade cards. Happy crafting! And don’t forget to check out Altenew’s blog HERE for more daily inspiration, tutorials, and all things paper crafting. 

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