Fun With a Color Challenge!

Aloha, all!

     This week at Create with Connie and Mary, the Thursday challenge is a Color Challenge.  When I saw the colors, one of them reached out and grabbed me before I had a chance to move on with my traditional, "Oooh, I don't like color challenges."  But this was a bit different as you'll see in a few days, because it included a color with which I spent a lot of time this week, and immediately made me think of one of the Stampin' Up! stamp sets that I'd been using with it.

     The color is Bermuda Bay, and the stamp set is By the Seashore. 

     I just LOVE this blue!  And living so near the ocean myself, I just LOVE this stamp set!  The other colors in the Color Challenge were Smoky Slate and Basic Black.  I knew immediately what I was going to do with this, though I wasn't sure how I was going to fit the Smoky Slate in.  To give myself a bit of time to think, I started to unpack my first order from the Stampin' Up! 2013 Holiday Catalog.  As soon as I saw the Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Pretty Print, I had my design finished – at least in my head!

     Back to the seashells, I decided that I wanted to emboss the shell designs from the stamp set, but I also wanted the shells to be stamped in Bermuda Bay ink, which is not an ink with which one can easily emboss, nor does Stampin' Up! carry Bermuda Bay embossing powder.  So, carefully using my Stamp-a-ma-jig, I first stamped each shell in Bermuda Bay on Smoky Slate Card Stock, and then overstamped it with Versamark.  With the Versamark in play, I could use clear embossing powder and achieve the look I wanted! 

     If you look closely at these shell stamp sets, you'll see that the fill lines are made up of lines that look very much like script writing – and so is the design in the Pretty Print Embossing Folder.  That's why the I wanted to use this folder for texture for this design – the stamps and the folder design are so complementary!

     For the Basic Black color, I added a layer of one of the Basic Black designs in the Neutrals Collection Designer Series Paper Stacks.  Finally, for my greeting I added one of the stamps from the Lots of Thanks Stamp Set.  While that's not in the Holiday Catalog, I included it in my latest order from Stampin' Up!, so it was right in front of me, too!

     The embellishment accent for this card is a Bermuda Bay Candy Dot on one of the Candy Dot Brad Bases.  I actually considered adding some ribbon – the Basic Black Chevron Ribbon would have been a cool accent for the Paper Stack pattern.  But the card would have been much too busy for that.  And, after the other card I'd just made, I definitely didn't want busy!  You'll see what I'm talking about in a couple of days! 

 

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