This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! In the midst of my newfound rainbow craze using the new Rainbow Splash products from Simon Says Stamp’s STAMPtember release, I have found myself itching to get back into my more typical color palette as sort of a palate cleanser. (Don’t worry if you were enjoying the rainbows; I have more Rainbow Splash inspiration to share with you later this week!) I’ve spent most of my creative time this month creating projects that are a little more simplistic, a little more approachable, so as to be easily replicated by both new and seasoned crafters alike. Today’s project combines some simple techniques to create a really vivid, eye-catching card using the gorgeous Lilac Clusters Embossing Folder. Let’s get started with the details!
I began by running an A2 panel of Hammermill cardstock through my die cutting machine using the Lilac Clusters Embossing Folder from Simon Says Stamp. This 3D embossing folder creates such incredibly beautiful details that easily can speak for themselves on your card front. My initial instinct with these gorgeous floral folders is always to reach for my favorite coloring mediums to make as immersive and dimensional a card as possible, but today I thought I’d simplify the process and the amount of time spent by doing some ink blending. For the sky, I blended Cadette and Ocean Pawsitively Saturated inks, the combination of which creates the most luscious, summery blue sky. On the flowers themselves, I blended first Lilac ink with a larger blending brush, then blended Orchid ink with a smaller brush in some of the more shadowed places on the blooms. Using the lighter and darker inks helps to add a little extra interest and dimension to the flowers. I blended some Pearfection ink on the foliage, keeping things simple.
To accent the somewhat simplistic blended “coloring” on my lilac images, I used the new Karin Star Spark pens to add extra details to the individual flower petals, stems, and veins on the leaves. These pens are so shimmery and are basically opaque, so they make adding details on top of your stamped or colored images super easy! I accented the pretty purple blooms with a frame cut from purple foil using my favorite A2 Thin Frames dies, which I popped up using foam adhesive.
For the greeting, I used the Fancy Giving Thanks die, cutting the detail layer from deep purple cardstock and the outline background from heavyweight vellum. I also trimmed down a greeting from the Sassy T-day sentiment cards and lightly blended the strip with some residual purple ink left on my blending brush to help it work more cohesively with my super colorful card front. The final touch was a few shimmering gems for even more sparkle!
Well, that’s all for my project today! I hope you enjoyed this foray back into my more usual world of secondary colors (instead of primary rainbow colors, haha!). Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!
Emily, this is SO beautiful! I am itching to try it and am getting all of the supplies! YAY more shopping! I have a question….how did you get the beautiful sky colors of ink blended in so close without hitting the lilacs? Or if you did get blue on the lilacs, how did you deal with it? Thank you so much for any insight on this – and ALL of you amazing projects!
Amy
Hi Amy! Thanks so much for your kind words-I appreciate it very much! As for the blue blending on the flowers: I tried to keep the sky blending away from the flowers, but I made sure to keep a bit of a lighter hand the closer I got to the flowers, which is why there’s a bit of a white halo around the flowers. I wasn’t terribly worried about them getting a bit blue, though, because I went back over the top with the purple inks and the purple sparkle pen. The pen particularly is fairly opaque and covered up the bit of blue tint well enough! I hope that helps!