Trying Out Colors!

Aloha, all!

     This weekend is the last Blog Hop for my summer online Stampin' Up! stamping group, VC Rocks. The "VC" this year stands for "Virtual Cruise," as those of us in the group tried our best to enjoy swaps and one-on-one treat sharing as roommates on a cruise might do.

     But we undertake other activities during the summer, including a monthly blog hop. The theme of this month's hop is "Cruisin With Color," and we are supposed to focus on color in our projects. While there are lots of different ways to focus on color, I chose to make the very same card using different colors schemes. And, since we're getting towards the end of the summer and I need to start thinking about making all my own Christmas Cards, as well as designs for my tutorials and classes, I really had to make this month's blog hop project all about Christmas!

     I started with a card with traditional colors – red and green – and went from there. All the projects use sheets from the same Designer Series Paper set – This Christmas Specialty Designer Series Paper – and stamps from the same stamp set – Flurry of Wishes. There are Enamel Shapes on the first three cards, and Pearl Basic Jewels on the last.  The large snowflake was punched using the Flower Medallion Punch. All of these products are in the current Stampin' Up! 2016-2017 Annual Catalog, so you don't have to wait until September 1st to buy either if you'd like to try out my cards!

     The colors in the paper set are Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Basic Black and Very Vanilla, and those are the colors I used, with all of the cards Very Vanilla as the card base and for all the stamping layers.

     The first card uses both Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green.

     Then I split up the colors, first making a card just with Cherry Cobbler…

     … and then using only Garden Green for the third card.

     While you might think that Basic Black is only an accent color in this paper set, there is actually a Basic Black and Very Vanilla snowflake pattern, which is perfect for this set of cards!

     What do you think of these cards? I'd like to know which is your favorite!

     I have to tell you that these cards were VERY easy to make, especially once I decided on the measurements for the various layers. I'm going to include the layout sketch and instructions for making this card in my next newsletter, which I plan to send out by e-mail on Monday, August 22. If you're interested in this layout, please sign up for my newsletter up at the top left section of this blog and you'll get it soon enough to start your own Christmas cards in August!

     Here are all four cards in one picture – it makes comparing them a bit easier on the eyes!  And here are the products I used for the cards. Click on any of the pictures to go to my Stampin' Up! store to order any of these products!