Magenta and Mustard- Fashion Inspiration!

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

I have mentioned in other blog posts that I frequently find myself inspired by fashion-the cuts, the patterns, the textures, the sparkle… I love clothes and accessorizing to look as cohesive and put-together as possible. My Grammy always made sure that she looked as perfect as could be when she went out of the house, from her Lancôme mascara to her pantyhose (that she wore nearly every day of her life, including to the beach, haha!), and so it is to her that I attribute my meticulous attention to detail. Color schemes are one of my favorite ways to play with stamps and dies; pairing interesting and sometimes unusual color combinations on every element of a project is like a puzzle to me. I have a dress that is the most beautiful shade of golden mustard yellow with big fat magenta blooms all over it. So unique, that I needed to recreate it on a card front using another of my illustrations for Simon Says Stamp: Celebrate Rose Corner!

I began by stamping the Celebrate Rose Corner onto some golden mustard cardstock found amongst my (copious) cardstock stash using white pigment ink. I angled it so that it was gracefully dripping down the front of my A2 card front and spilling over the sides. The large size of this image makes it great for creating full backgrounds as well as rotating to use part of the image on the corners of your card! I then used my Caran D’Ache colored pencils to do some no line coloring in shades of deep magenta and maroon, adding lots of white highlights to provide tons of contrast. The intense yellow cardstock beneath the pencil layers doesn’t completely disappear, but it’s very subtle; my husband said it looked almost like the roses had been dusted with pollen! The pencils do a good job of popping off the color saturated background with just a hint of yellow undertone.

Once I’d finished coloring, I die cut the image with the coordinating die. The image is complete on all sides, so it’s easy to rotate it and use as much or as little as you’d like!

After I’d finished with my bright pink roses, I used the Imperia Plate to die cut another panel of the same golden yellow cardstock. This cover plate adds a beautifully intricate pierced texture to the background, perfect for adding a little bit of extra interest behind the bold pink roses. I also die cut one of the biggest workhorses in my craft room: the A2 Thin Frames. I use these frame dies on a huge portion of my projects. They’re perfect for adding the most subtle of accents, especially in a situation like this, in which the tone-on-tone frame finishes off the visual rectangle provided by the floral spray draped across the front of the card, but doesn’t add any other color or much extra bulk.

I popped up all of the die cut pieces onto the pierced background die cut using foam adhesive, then die cut the Basic Trio Dies (which are currently out of stock but you can always sign up for email notifications when it comes back in!) three times from some coordinating green cardstock, adhering them together using liquid adhesive. I nestled the greeting amongst the foliage and popped them up with a double layer of foam tape to help give them some extra interest. Finally, I added a few matte gold pearls which coordinate beautifully with the golden background.

I hope you enjoyed this project! I love creating with such minimal colors, which I think creates such a cohesive, intentional design but definitely doesn’t skimp on the vibrancy. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!