Inspiration: Retro Rubber challenge #114 (Christmas in July) + Sketch Sunday #571
Quite a while ago, I had played with my glitter pastes and the Poinsettia Background stencil because I was curious to see if I could carefully apply three different paste colours to the same image, to have the leaves in green, the poinsettias in deep red and the centers in gold. The result is not perfect as the colors overlap a bit but I was not aiming for perfect anyway, so I was happy with the result. I left the piece aside to turn into a card later and today, I wanted to craft but had limited time, so I decided that using this piece would save me some time. It was also perfect for the Christmas in July challenge.
I wanted a big, bold sentiment and I reached for Joyeuse année, which came out I believe two years ago. I embossed the sentiment in gold, die-cut the cardstock, added some ribbon underneath, and a piece of polka dot paper to mimick the sketch. I still felt the card was missing something so to mirror the second circle from the sketch, I stamped some poinsettias from an even older stamp set, Souhaits gracieux, which is a good 3 or 4 years old, and embossed it in gold on watercolor paper. I then used an AquaPainter brush and inks to color the flowers. I have not watercolored in ages! It felt good to go back to it, and I made a mental note to revisit this technique more in the coming months. This was a set that did not have matching dies (which is a real shame as I feel all three images from the set would be perfect for die-cutting) so I had to recycle my gold ol' handcutting skills. The original image has a flourishy stem with two poinsettias at the top, but the image was not working as is, so I cut the three elements apart and started playing around the card with them. I found something I was sort of happy with and I left the card aside to go do something and when I came back to it, I was not happy so I actually unglued the whole panel that was over my stenciled image. Because of the texture of the glimmer paste, I was able to pull the glued pieces without ripping anything (which would have been impossible on cardstock). Initially, the paper strip had been centered, but by moving it up higher, I was liking the balance better and was showing more of the green paste, which made the whole card look better. Incredible how moving stuff a few inches sometimes can make the world of a difference in design.
Because I wanted to keep as much of my beautiful background as possible, I ended up with a 5-1/2" x 5-1/2" card, which required an handmade envelope, made out of Designer Series Paper. I used the leftover scraps from the stencil to decorate the envelope and the inside of the card.
I liked the unexpected colour combo - it was inspired by the glitter paste and it's not something I would have ever thought to put together: Fresh Fig, Berry Burst and Garden Green.
Color Combo: Fresh Fig + Berry Burst + Garden Green + Crumb Cake
Supplies
Stamps: Souhaits gracieux (Christmas Blessings), Joyeuse année (Wonderful Year - Stampin' Up!)
Cardstock: Fresh Fig, Berry Burst, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Watercolor Paper (Stampin' Up!)
Designer Series Paper Stacks: 2017-2019 In Color, Neutrals (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: VersaMark, Fresh Fig, Berry Burst, Garden Green Classic Ink (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, Aqua Painter Brush, Envelope Punch Board,
Chevron Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals ((Stampin' Up!); Vintage Shimmer Pearls (Studio Katia);
Poinsettia Background Stencil (Honey Bee); Golden Crystal, Seaweed Quartz and
Plum Spinel Glitter Pastes (Nuvo); Labels Nine Nestabilities Dies (Spellbinders)
The embossing paste and stencil background is spectacular, Cindy! Wow!. The tiny poinsettia and the bold greeting add even more oomph to your super-powered creation! Thank you for joining us again at Retro Rubber Challenge.
Posted by: Jan Clothier | July 12, 2019 at 15:29