Color Throwdown #412 & the SSS Wednesday Challenge

We have some absolutely gorgeous colors for this week's Color Throwdown Challenge #412. While this has been one of the more tedious cards I've ever made, it was definitely worth the effort I put in to it.

I'm pretty sure I am not the only crafter or card maker out there who has a stash of Prima flowers. While I didn't use a stamp set today, my card was completely inspired by the Simon Says Stamp Stamptember set called Hydrangea Blooms.  When I got mine out to use it this morning,  I realized I had a branch die that was nearly identical in looks but a bit longer and I also have rows of jars sitting on shelves just full of Prima Flowers that I could use for this technique. So, using the stamp set as my guide, I set about creating some 3D Hydrangea branches for my card.

To begin with, I still had some card stock that was misted with some Pine Feather Color Spray I had made and added Gold Shimmer Mist to after the color had a chance to dry.  Those scraps were still on my work surface, just laying there. Since they were made with such a dark green ink, the were the perfect color for my Hydrangea branches.  I also had enough of this same dark green paper to cut out 4 of the leaves from the Simon Says Stamp Hydrangea Blooms Coordinating Dies.  The leaves are such a distinctive shape and I felt it was important to incorporate them.  

Next I gathered some of the Primas in Peach and Pink, using both small and large blooms and misted them in a coordinating color spray for a deeper, richer color. I have several color sprays made up in favorite colors so they are ready to go when I need one. I have a bright Pink, Coral, Sugarplum, Aqua and Dark Green. These are the colors I use most often and I re-purpose Shimmer Mist bottles after I empty the original contents.  Once the color spray was dry, I gave them a spritz with my shimmer mist (of course) and set them aside to dry again.  

While I was waiting for that, I did some ink blending on a piece of Fabriano #140 Watercolor Paper.  I don't care too much for this paper because of it's color (cream vs. white) but it takes a lot of water or moisture very well and if I'm doing ink blending, the original color won't show anyway. I used Salty Ocean and Lucky Clover Distress Inks to do my background panel.  As I usually do, I gave it a healthy dose of Iridescent Gold Shimmer Spritz to help move and blend the colors.  While this panel was just slightly damp, I ran it though my Die Cutting machine with a sandwich in this order from bottom to top:  A Plate, B Plate, Embossing Pad, background panel right side up and an unmarked B Plate over the top. This is an Embossing Sandwich that you will run through your machine. If you use a cutting pad that has cut marks in it for you top layer of the sandwich, those marks will transfer to your paper, so you want to keep an unmarked cutting pad set aside for just this purpose.  This really smooths out the texture in the paper and flattens it to minimize warping.  I discovered this quite by accident last December when I was working on a project for my sister-in-law, Vickie, but I have kept an unmarked cutting pad since that time for this purpose. Some people will not want to remove the texture but this is how I do it. Before I started assembling my card, I cut this panel with the largest Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle.  I used the Simon Says Stamp "Hello" and Bazzill Whirlypop Card Shoppe Cardstock for my card base.  

Then I began putting my layers of blooms onto the branches using the larger Primas on the bottom layer and the smaller ones for the upper layers.  Once I had all of those attached using Glue Dots, I went back to each one and put a little pearl on there. I must say, that was an important finishing touch for this card. 

I was inspired by and used several different Simon Says Stamp products so I will also be linking up to this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is "Anything Goes".  I hope I've inspired you to get out some of your crafty stash and use it to see what you can create.  When I first got this idea in my head, I wasn't sure it would work out as I had pictured but I am so glad it did.  Be sure to stop over at The Color Throwdown Blog and be inspired by all the projects from their Design Team and Challenge Participants.  It's always fun to see how many different ways and styles the same color palette can be used.  

Thank you so much for stopping by to see my project today.  I appreciate that you took time to look and for your kind and encouraging comments.  It means the world to me when you take the time to comment.