Emerald and Brown for Christmas!

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

Hi friends! Today, I have a project featuring one of the gorgeous new dies from the Simon Says Stamp DieCember release: Petal Medallion. This super detailed die is absolutely stunning and very generously sized, making it perfect for use as a focal point or to create a custom patterned background as I did here! This project was inspired by my wonderful friend Susan Opel, who sent me a card using a bright reddish orange and warm chocolate brown color palette, with a luxurious, silky brown bow on it. I loved the texture contrast between the silky bow and the cardstock, as well as the rich chocolate brown accents, and wanted to replicate that contrast on my project today. I am so happy with how well this background turned out! Let’s get started with the details.

Rather than copy Susan’s color palette completely, I chose to work with some deep emerald cardstock from Spellbinders as my base color. I follow several boutiques on Instagram, and one of the boutiques keeps showing me a gorgeous dress of intense emerald chiffon with a burnished brown velvet floral pattern. I haven’t found an excuse to buy the dress (yet), but thought that I could easily replicate that aesthetic with this Petal Medallion die!

I trimmed down a panel of emerald cardstock to slightly smaller than A2 size, then blended some Peacock ink around the edges for a bit of extra depth on the background. Once I had finished that panel, I die cut the Petal Medallion die from chocolate brown glitter cardstock from the Hero Arts Fall Glitter Paper pack. I arranged the die cuts on my blended card front, placing the first intricate die cut in the center, then working my way out from that center image to create a cohesive pattern. I popped the patterned panel up on a full size A2 card base of the same shade of emerald green using foam adhesive.

For the greeting, I heat embossed the chunky sentiment from Good Cheer onto some heavyweight vellum using Hero Arts Brass Embossing Powder. I die cut the greeting using the coordinating die, then popped it up on my patterned glittery panel using foam adhesive, hiding the adhesive behind the solid embossed areas. I created a luxurious chocolate brown bow using the Tim Holtz Neutral Velvet Trims and tucked it up next to the greeting. For a final sparkling touch, I added a smattering of Espresso gems.

This non-traditional color combination may not immediately scream “Christmas,” but I think that the rich colors, sparkles, and textures on this card make it super festive. Do you prefer more traditional color schemes for your holiday cards or do you like to switch things up occasionally? As we wind down on our holiday cardmaking for 2023, I find myself enjoying using more non-traditional, but no less elegant, color combinations for my projects. Gotta add some variety outside of the traditional red and green! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!