A Study in Neutrals

For this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, Nichole Heady gave us this beautiful photograph of paints.  As you can see, this palette is filled with neutral tones from the whitest white all the way to black and everything in between since the paints have been mixed to make more neutral colors which go with anything and everything.  I ended up using a different card for the blog hop but I also wanted to share these. These are done in much more neutral colors than the one I eventually ended up choosing for that.

I started by stamping the Poppy Image from Botanical Blocks III in Versamark onto some Canson Bristol Watercolor Paper and heat embossed it using Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Power.  This embossing powder is a warm gold color rather than a cooler, more brassy looking color although I use both.   It is identical in appearance to the WOW! Gold Rich Pale Embossing Powder only you get twice as much for less than twice the price.  I'm always up for a better value.  After that I watercolored the image using Pine Feather and Berry Sorbet reinkers. Once that was finished and dry, I cut it out following the the lines on the block.  There is a die for this purpose but I haven't had any trouble cutting around it since the outline is all straight lines.

Next I got my decorative cardstock and centered up the design for the main background panel.  I made my card base a bit wider & taller (4.5 inches by 6 inches) so that I wouldn't be cutting off as much of the design.  I hate wasting any of this gorgeous foiled design! For the card base I used cardstock in the color "Shell" and it does remind me of a cameo that gets it's color literally from the inside of a shell. I love this foiled paper from My Mind's Eye's Fancy That Collection. I rarely buy patterned paper but I got a small sheet of it last year in a card kit purchased from Simon Says Stamp and loved it so much that I bought a few sheets of the 12 x 12 inch size before it was discontinued.  I could never find the smaller 6 x 6 inch size.  I love the nude/soft peach color of the background and with the gold foil accents it really makes a stunning looking card especially when combined with the gold foiled cardstock. I also added in some True Black, Close to Cocoa, and Dark Chocolate cardstocks just to show the versatility of these colors.

Since I always stamp two images in case I mess one up when watercoloring, I made a third card which fits in a Greeting Card Envelope.  It's hard to capture since it's so tall and not top folding but I took this one with it laying flat. I used Gold Metallic Cardstock for the brown mat and put the whole thing onto a Rustic White side folding card base.  I really love the Rustic White Carkstock and it brings a touch of elegance to my projects.  It's available from Papertrey Ink in 12, 24 or 50 sheets.

I forgot to add that I would be entering these cards in the Double D Challenge found here.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Come back soon to see my next project! I have several challenges I want to participate in this week with lots of great color combinations and themes.  I so appreciate it when you take time to leave encouraging and uplifting comments.  Thank You!