Welcome to this month's Creation Station Blog Hop! Expect the unexpected today! You'll see unexpected color combinations and unexpected uses of materials. Be sure and click on or under the Next button at the end of each post so you can see all the fun we had creating the unexpected.
So glad you stopped by today and I am sorry my photos are not up to snuff--couldn't figure out where I messed up my settings. I took several batches of photos at different times of day, switching things up. They are what they are, but you can still see the details on my unexpected cards.
To decide on my color palette today, I pulled out a piece of card stock from each of my fullest packs of colors and moved the colors around on my desk until I was happy with a group. This color palette is way outside my comfort zone, but I so admire stampers who consistently use bold color combinations--some of my favorites are on this Creation Station Design team. I hope they and you like my color palette of Mango Melody, Shaded Spruce, Balmy Blue and Highland Heather. Definitely unexpected, especially from me.
I also threw in some unexpected uses for some of the dies in the Ornate Layers die set (#152726) which is part of the Ornate Garden Suite available now in Stampin' Up!'s Early Release Promotion. I also used the coordinating stamp sets Ornate Style (#152572) and Ornate Thanks (#149471) from this suite. Alas, the Ornate Borders dies are on backorder and I do not have them yet.
This is a 5" X 5" card. It started, as did all my projects today, with a piece of Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper (#149612) covered with a wash of Balmy Blue ink. Over this, I stamped the large floral bouquet from Ornate style in Balmy Blue spritzed lightly with water to result in a gradation of color on the background. For the focal point, I die cut the rectangular openwork die and used it as a stencil to watercolor the design in Mango Melody onto a piece of watercolor paper, also with a Balmy Blue wash on it. I layered this piece into one of the ornate frames in the die set. "You're amazing" was stamped in Shaded Spruce on Highland Heather card stock and embossed with clear embossing powder. A layer of Mango Melody, a card base of Shaded Spruce, a Holiday Rhinestone and a piece of Whisper White 1/4" crinkled seam binding colored with the Mango Melody Dark Stampin' Blend complete the card.
The second largest ornate frame die was used as a stencil two different ways on this card. I centered the frame over a piece of watercolor paper with a Balmy Blue watercolor wash, then used a sponge brayer to brayer over the the metal die to create the outline of the frame. Then I used a small stencil brush with Shaded Spruce ink over the metal die to create the die pattern on the paper. (Don't worry, the Shaded Spruce ink has disappeared from my fingers--another benefit of the COVID-19 hand washing routine!)
The embossed Mango Melody piece was created using a silicon pad under the bottom cutting plate with the long narrow openwork die. "Thank you" was stamped in VersaMark and embossed with gold on Highland Heather card stock and then was layered slightly over the embossed Mango Melody piece. Petal Pink 1/4" Metallic-edge ribbon (#151194) was colored with the Mango Melody Dark Stampin' Blend and tied under the Thank you piece. A Balmy Blue card base, layer of Highland Heather and three gold Gilded Gems (#152478) from the Ornate Garden Suite complete the card.
On this card the watercolor wash piece was die cut using the largest Rectangle Stitched die (#148551). Three daisy images from Ornate Style were stamped in a row in VersaMark, embossed with White embossing powder and watercolored with Mango Melody and Shaded Spruce. A long openwork die cut was used as a stencil to apply embossing paste tinted with Highland Heather ink under the daisy row. "My friend" from Ornate Thanks was stamped in VersaMark and embossed in white on Shaded Spruce card stock.
A card base of Whisper White, layer of Highland Heather, a bow of Whisper White baker's twine and three Holiday Rhinestones complete the card.
I hope you will try some of these unexpected colors and techniques on some of your projects. It was a lot of fun creating them for you. Now it's time to hop on over to Artisan Martin Stone's blog to see what Mad Hatter Madness he has come up with--it's sure to be unexpected and inspiring!
Have a great May!
--Sara Nell
Oh such pretty cards xx
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