HYDRANGEA LOVE

The last week or so, my daughter, Sarah, and I were horrendously busy getting ready for a village-wide garage sale at our home. Needing somewhere to display all our goods we had for sale, I lost all my work tables from my Creation Station. Boo.

On Saturday evening, after the sale was finally over, I got two of my tables back. Whew. Too tired and crabby at this point, however, to do any Creative Therapy. But at least, I had a work space. Yay.

Sunday, however, was a different story, and I was ready and raring to get some creating done. And what did I have a hankering to do?

Emboss resist!

I am in love with hydrangeas -- can never get enough of these beauties! -- so grabbed an old hydrangea stamp and embossed it in gold on Whisper White cardstock.. 

In my card, I feature several of the new Stampin' Up! colors. 

A beautiful color combination for some hydrangeas includes blues and purples. So . . .

The flower portion was carefully sponged on with Balmy Blue and Highland Heather. 

For the leaves, I combined Granny Apple Green and a new In Color, Call Me Clover. 

I have discovered that the ink in the new ink pads requires a bit of care when it comes to sponging. To make a smoother transition between colors and within the colors themselves, after I ink up the sponge, I tap it quickly and lightly on scrap paper before taking it to my good cardstock. 

I didn't want a definitive break between the colors of the flowers and the leaves, so I crept a little of the colors as invaders into the "wrong" space. 

The emboss resist piece is matted on a layer of Call Me Clover cardstock. The card base is made from the yummy Balmy Blue. Matted onto the blue base is a piece of Designer Series Paper that complements my color scheme and offers a subtle graphic interest.

Not a lot of dimension in this card. The diecut love is adhered directly onto the oval that frames the flower and adds some separation in the large sponged space. Thus, the only real dimension comes from adding Stampin' Dimensionals to the matted main piece before adhering it to the DSP.

To get the oval frame, I nested two sizes of oval dies together on top of the gold brushed metallic cardstock. I then used sticky notes to hold the dies in place to ensure a frame with an even edge, then ran it through the Big Shot. It worked really well. And I love the way it still allows the main piece to be completely sponged, but yet separates the flower itself a little to increase the awareness of the hydrangea as the focal point.

If you ever have any emboss resist questions, please ask me! I love this technique, and I'd love to get others obsessed about it too!

Hydrangea

Smiles.