Wednesday, March 9, 2022

BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS

The colors of today's card were a bit out of my comfort zone, but since the Heart & Home Suite of Products combines these colors in its products, I guess it must be OK.

I'll be honest.  I doubted that combining Cinnamon Cider and Basic Gray was a "good" idea, but I was pleasantly surprised when I tried it.  I actually like it!  What do you think?  Thumbs up?  Thumbs down?


Like the card I shared on Monday, I decided to make my own Designer Series Paper for the Cinnamon Cider cardstock on the left of the card front.  So, I got brave and started stamping the large flower from the stamp set in Basic Gray on the Cinnamon Cider Cardstock.  Once again, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I liked the color combination.  Sometimes, it is good to move outside of our comfort zone, and I love how I can use the guidance of the amazing designers at Stampin' Up! to encourage me to try something new.  

The Heart & Home Designer Series Paper that is part of this Suite of products is amazing. The reverse side of each of the floral patterns is a different woodgrain pattern in Basic Gray. I used one of them here to stamp my BIRTHDAY sentiment from Biggest Wish


Using my Stamparatus,  I stamped the sentiment several times with Basic Gray.  I wanted it to be dark and bold but not black, so it took about 3 - 4 times of re-inking and re-stamping to get it nice and dark.  Without the Stamparatus, I would not have been able to do that.  After I was happy with the density of the Basic Gray, I cleaned my stamp and stamped one more time with Versa Mark.  Then I heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder.  This intensifies the color a little more and also gives it a nice shine to make it really pop!


The Basic Gray doily behind the flower is another of the products in this Suite.  It comes in a package of three colors, Basic Gray, Misty Moonlight and Cinnamon Cider.  Now you can understand the color combination.  

I wanted to add a touch of color to the flowers, but I didn't want them totally colored.  I decided to just add a little color to the center and wanted to make it Cinnamon Cider, but I don't have a Cinnamon Cider Stampin' Blend.  I thought about water coloring like I did on Monday's card, but I had already stamped the image with Black Memento on Basic White cardstock, so a Stampin' Blend Marker was really the best technical choice.  So, I put my brain in gear to see what I could come up with.  I recently purchased the new Neutrals Collection of Blends so started playing with various combinations of those to see if I could get "close enough".  I tried about five different colors, and when I laid my scribbled test pieces next to Cinnamon Cider cardstock, I decided SU400 and SU600 were "pretty good".  Actually, more than "pretty good", don't you think?  If I hadn't told you I didn't use Cinnamon Cider, I bet you wouldn't have even known.  Needless to say, I was very excited about my discovery.  Now I'm curious how many other brownish colors of cardstock I can match with my Neutrals Stampin' Blends.

  

For the inside of my card, I layered two colors of cardstock, Basic Gray and Cinnamon Cider.  For the time being, I have left it sentiment free.  I'll decide which sentiment I want to use when I decide who is going to receive it.  Some friends can receive a sentiment with a bit of sass, but others -- well, maybe not.

If you would like a tutorial for this card, please use this link to download a FREE copy.

The products I used are listed below.


Product List

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