Color Throwdown #471

Today's card is for The Color Throwdown Challenge #471 where we are to use Grey, Gold, Black, and White for this challenge. Normally, I wouldn't think to put these colors together but when I saw the inspiration photo it reminded me (for a still unknown reason) of this really unusual Christmas paper that I have which has gold foil on a grey background.  I thought it would work great for this challenge!  The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes This Week and they are featuring Tim Holtz Products so I will also be linking up over there.  I keep thinking of a few more folks that I would like to send a holiday card to and that is what most of the challenges are right now, so it's working great for me to keep making them.


I always enjoy doing techniques but right now I am  focusing on making my cards using some of the beautiful foiled papers I have in my supplies.  I do love my gold and they make it so easy to pull a card together quickly for the most part.


For this card, I selected the foiled background paper and built the design around that for this challenge.  The color of the paper is a perfect match to Papertrey Ink Soft Stone Cardstock but I wanted more contrast that that without being too dark so I also cut a mat for that paper from SU! Smoky Slate Cardstock which is a medium grey color.  My card base is made from Papertrey Ink True Black Cardstock.

I wanted to give the impression that one of the trees was in front of (or closer) than the other so I used the Tim Holtz Woodland Dies and cut 4 layers from True Black Cardstock and glued them one on top of the other, then ran a 4.25 inch piece of gold cardstock through my Xyron 5" Creation Station Sticker Maker.  I die cut the sticky paper using the same Woodlands Dies.  This was a lot easier that trying to add dots of glue and is more affordable than using Stick-It adhesive sheets.  I personally don't have that much success with Stick It because I can't seem to get the release paper off.  I still have some Xyron Refills on hand and I'm thinking I might start using it more again.  I used to use it all the time for scrapbooking.  It definitely works better if you make your paper sticky and then die cut it.  Most of the time, Ranger Multi Medium Matte is okay, but it was easier to do it this way for so many layers and such intricate die cuts.  I used glue for the black ones but I was happy that I had done the Xyron for the gold layers.

The sentiment was stamped in Versamark onto a scrap of white cardstock and heat set with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder three times to make it really stand out and pop.  I adhered it with Thin 3D Foam Squares.

This is a clean and simple card with a lot of visual impact and the colors would make it a great choice for a masculine Christmas Card.  It is elegant without being too fussy.  This paper came from the DCWV Cranberry Christmas Mat Stack found at Michaels.  You can see it all online here but it is only available in stores at this time.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  The supplies I used are linked below for your convenience.

Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Maliblue Shop at: SSS	Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangles Dies Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin 3D Foam Squares Shop at: SSS
Papertrey Ink Keep it Simple Frames Shop at: PTI	Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS	Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
Papertrey Ink True Black Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Tim Holtz Woodlands Thinlits Shop at: SSS