WOODGRAIN LAUGH

Much as I hate to admit it, autumn is closer than we would like. With that said, late August brings to mind more of a fallish palette of colors to use in our cardmaking. Therefore, for this card I used Pumpkin Pie and Gray Granite for my cardstock choices. 

This card consists of multiple steps. First off, I started out with a 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" piece of Whisper White cardstock. Using stamping sponges with Pumpkin Pie and So Saffron inks, I gradually built up the background, lightening, darkening, etc., until I was satisfied with the overall look.

My next step was to stamp some leafy images randomly across this sponged piece. I used leaves from the Forever Fern stamp set (page 110 in the Annual Catalog), and Pumpkin Pie ink, stamping off gently each time. I wanted the leaves to show, but not to overpower.

The next step entailed stamping the large bouquet image from Ornate Style, found on page 67 in the Annual Catalog. I stamped it in Gray Granite ink. 

While working on this card, I made an awesome discovery! 

I had always used Memento Tuxedo Black ink any time I wanted to use Stampin' Blends on a stamped image. After stamping the image in Gray Granite ink, and liking what I had, I wanted to make the flowers stand out a bit more. How would I do that? By adding some extra color with Stampin' Blends, of course.

But wait! I didn't stamp it in Memento Tuxedo Black ink! To test it out, I stamped something on a scrap in Gray Granite ink and took a Stampin' Blend marker to it. Surprisingly, it worked well! Yay! A discovery that I shall use often in the future!

So, I proceeded to work with Light and Dark Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends, as well as Dark So Saffron to enhance my flowers. The enhancement is subtle because these were the same colors I used in my sponged background. But I love the look!

The finished card possesses a modest amount of dimension.

Wanting to add a die cut of "laugh", I spent quite some time with various scraps of Designer Series Papers that I thought would work well. After lots of laughs (die cutting the image in different DSPs), the strong winner was this woodgrain word. 

I used narrow strips of Dimensionals to add my word near the top of the large flower image.

To finish off my creation, I added a thin margin of black cardstock on top of a 4" x 5 1/4" piece of Gray Granite cardstock, and popping it up with Dimensionals to the Pumpkin Pie card base.

Finally, I used the Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends to add a little color to some of the basic Rhinestones, and dropped them into the centers of the flowers.

Give my new discovery a try! 

Laughing

Smiles.