This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! As I was perusing some of the newer goodies from Simon Says Stamp, I realized that I had not used the fabulous Organic Leaves background stamp. Whenever I am presented with solid silhouette stamps, my mind automatically supplies a tropical sunset background. Perhaps it harkens back to my obsession with the movie The Little Mermaid from when I was a child; I see Ariel silhouetted against an ocean sunset sky very clearly in my mind’s eye. I also think of yummy drinks next to a pool when I think of tropical sunsets, and yummy drinks frequently are imbibed to toast something exciting, so I thought that I would combine a few of these elements to create some fun celebratory cards! Let’s get started with the details.
For both of my projects today, I kept the color palette simple and vibrant: a tropical sunset ombré, created by blending Dandelion Rainbow Splash Ink, and Cheeky and Rose Pawsitively Saturated Ink, accented with lots of crisp, intense black. I love the juxtaposition of the vibrant, almost neon colors with the stark black accents. I think the black keeps the vivid colors from being too overwhelming!
For my first project, I stamped the Organic Leaves background stamp on a panel of white cardstock using Obsidian Black pigment ink, then covered it with clear embossing powder. I think the clear embossing powder really enhances the black image and makes it even more crisp. After I had finished embossing, I took advantage of the embossing overlay to do some emboss/resist blending using Dandelion Rainbow Splash Ink, and Cheeky and Rose Pawsitively Saturated Ink. These three inks blend splendidly together and look magnificent with the crisp black leaf silhouettes!
For the greeting for my celebratory tropical sunset card (anybody else wishing that they were by the ocean in Mexico right now?) I paired a glittery, chunky die cut You Did It! cut with black glitter cardstock with the “fiesta like there’s no mañana” sentiment from Taco ‘Bout It. To accent the fun greeting, I couldn’t resist coloring up a sunset-inspired cocktail, heat embossing the glass and lemon onto some Pitch Black cardstock with white embossing powder, then using colored pencils to create my colorful cocktail. I added the shadow layer for the greeting using some vellum, then arranged all of the die cut components over an A2 Thin Frames die cut, rotated 90* and popped up with adhesive foam strips. Finally, I added a few Rainbow Pawsitively Dazzling Gems for added sparkle!
For my second card, I thought I would do the super popular embossing folder/ink swiping technique with the Sunrise Overlay embossing folder. I started by blending the same Dandelion Rainbow Splash Ink, and Cheeky and Rose Pawsitively Saturated Ink combination on a panel of white cardstock, then running the blended panel through my die cutting machine with the Sunrise Overlay embossing folder, making sure to run it through with the blended colors upside down so that I could do the fun ink swiping technique. After I had debossed the pattern on the blended side, I swiped the Obsidian Black pigment ink pad over the raised areas, creating a fun, almost distressed looking background. I allowed the black ink to dry completely, helping it along with my heat gun, then trimmed the panel down and used some leftover stamp packaging to create a flat shaker card. I filled my shaker card with Be Mine Sequins, which perfectly coordinates with my blended background!
After I had created my shaker panel, I mounted it on an A2 panel of Pitch Black cardstock, leaving a crisp black mat around the edges of my shaker panel. For the greeting, I trimmed down some sentiments from the Reverse Congratulations sentiment cards set, as well as die cutting the Yay You Words die set from black glitter cardstock and vellum. I adhered all of the pieces to the front of the shaker panel for a simple, fairly flat (and thus, easily mailed) congratulatory card!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! I have really been leaning in to bright, almost neon color palettes lately, and I think they’re so much fun for summertime. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!
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