Color Fusers Blog Hop – August 2017!

Aloha, all!

     Oh, my, didn't July seem like a really long month! It certainly did to me as I felt as if I spent a whole month at home, but I also traveled for 2 weeks. Part of it seeming so long, I think, is that it's not until today – August 7th – that we are having the first Monday of the month Color Fusers Blog Hop! The 7th is about as late as one can get with that.

     I've been so busy with traveling and recuperating from same the past several weeks that I wasn't sure how I was going to approach this color challenge. I kept putting this off, and finally I realized I had to do SOMEthing. When I get to that point with a project, my tactic is to make some other rules for myself. This time I set the rule that I could only use ONE stamp set for the project. Then I turned to my collection of stamp sets (not all that large, believe me) and pulled out the Oh So Eclectic Stamp Set and the coordinating Eclectic Layers Thinlits dies. I had never used either of these sets, and had bought them as a Bundle to round out a purchase I'd made last month.

     Once I'd had the stamp set and thinlits picked out, it was just a matter of how I was going to arrange them AND how I was going to use the colors! Believe me, I tried several different ideas before I hit on this combination.

     The primary color in this project is Berry Burst. The gorgeous new Berry Burst 5/8" Crinkled Seam Binding takes center stage in this card for me, even though it's in the lower left corner of the card front. Then there's the layer of Berry Burst Cardstock that I've die-cut using one of the dies in the Thinlits set. The die is mostly rectangular in shape, but I also cut the cardstock with the die a second time, this time at a bit of an angle to original cut. That gives this the look of a larger die-cut than if I'd just used the single die.

     After that color, the Powder Pink comes into play as both the background layer for the card front and for the background color in the three stamped flowers from the stamp set. For the background layer, I used Powder Pink Cardstock and stamped a flower onto it using Powder Pink Classic Ink.

     I was a bit sneaky in the way in which I introduced the Smoky Slate color to this project. If this had been any other project, I would have made the stems of the flowers some sort of green. But, as there wasn't a green in this challenge, guess which color I used to make the stems? Yup, Smoky Slate!

     The final two colors in this challenge are Basic Black and Whisper White. Both were fairly easy, especially the Whisper White Thick Cardstock that I used for the card base, as well as the Whisper White Cardstock on which I stamped the flowers. Basic Black was what I used to stamp the stems of the flowers and also to make one of the mats for the card's layers.

     Even though I had an embellishment in the ribbon that tied the flowers together, I still felt I needed a bit more for this project. So out came my new Rhinestone Basic Jewels. These are "new" because they're being offered by Stampin' Up! in a different configuration than they have the past few years. I like that we're not stuck with strips of rhinestones when all I (among others) wanted just some individual rhinestones to accent a card front, gift or tag. So I added some of those lovely single rhinestones to the top left of the die-cut layer, and I do like that touch!

     I do hope you've enjoyed my contributions to this month's Color Fusers Blog Hop! Here are the others who are involved in this fun monthly hop, and I hope you'll visit each blog to see what my compatriots have done with this color combo – marvelous all!

• Heather Osborne
• Paola Phillips
• Jo Anne Hewins
• Melissa Kerman
• Robin Messenheimer (you're here!)
• Pat Ertman
• Debbie Henderson
• Sarah Wills
• Barb Mulliken