Aloha, all!
Earlier this week I saw a project done by fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Mary Brown, in which she used a "color blocking" technique. I keep forgetting that this is a fun way to show off colors, either as the main focus of a card (or even a scrapbook page!) or as a background for another main feature.
Then along came the sketch challenge for this week's, Sketch Frenzy Friday, and there was my opportunity to do just a little bit of color blocking!
I also had another challenge from an online group to which I belong – to use a color combination I'd never used before. Even though I've not been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator THAT long, I still have made a lot of cards and other projects, and I couldn't imagine a color combo I'd never used. But once I had both challenges down on my work table together, it was hard not to at least try to come up with a fun color combo that I at least cannot recall having used. The other problem was that I actually had to like the color combo myself.
I knew from the beginning that I wanted the design on the bottom to be made up of cardstock cut with the new Scalloped Tag Topper Punch . But it was the color question that bugged me. After flipping through Stampin' Up! catalogs and going through the Color Coach, I finally decided to look through my collections of embellishments to see if something didn't reach out and grab me. And that's when the 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbons, yes, reached out and grabbed me! That ribbon would be perfect for tying through the slit in the Tag Topper Punched cardstock, and it didn't take me long to find Pacific Point, Real Red, and Wild Wasabi!
Whisper White Cardstock was the perfect background for this color combo, but I didn't want it just to be plain cardstock as the background – I wanted some embossing. Here's where I have a tip for you when it comes to embossing Whisper White Cardstock. This cardstock is thinner than the colored cardstock and, when you run it through an embossing folder, the piece of cardstock weakens enough that I don't find it to be satisfactory as a card front. So what I do with this, as well as with Very Vanilla Cardstock, is to cut a second layer of the cardstock to emboss, then adhere that to the front of the Whisper White card base. Now that's strong enough to hold other layers!
I punched each of the three colors of cardstock and added a bit of ribbon of the same three colors, mixing them up to make it more interesting, and then adhered them to the card front. I added the sentiment at the top, stamped with Real Red Classic Ink and "friend to friend" from the Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set.
But the design looked too plain to me. I first tried just putting a Candy Dot onto the upper corner of each tag. In fact, that's how I first submitted it to the design team. But I just felt it needed something more. This morning when I looked at the card again as I was writing this blog post, I had the idea to put a design in the middle of each tag. So that's how the flowers, punched with the Petite Petals Punch, ended up in the middle of each one. I trimmed the far right petal of the blue and red flowers – after all, everything was already adhered to the card front! But I think I would have done that any way to keep a bulge from appearing in the tag that would have been on top of it. I moved the candy dots to the centers of the flowers (the dots came off the card stock very neatly) and that was that!
So my challenges for the week are complete and now off I go to be creative all by myself. I can't wait to see what I come up with for you next – and I'll be sure to have fun with it!
Here are the products I used for today's project. Click on any one of them to go to my Stampin' Up! store to read more about them and buy some for yourself. Don't forget that Sale-a-bration, where you get a free product for every $50 you spend in Stampin' Up! products, will be over on Monday!
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This card is so cute. It looks like one that you could make very quick. Great Idea thanks for sharing.
You're right, Jam! So quick and easy – try it with lots of different colors!
I like your card. The colors are fun!! TFS
Thanks, Jenny! The colors were fun and made me decide I have to think of different colors more often!
I love the bright colors and how they pop against the white. I need to use the candy dots more often, they really add to the card!
Thanks, Diana! I love the Candy Dots and hope they don't go away!