FOUR SQUARES

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you already know that I LOVE TO COLOR! No, not in a coloring book. That sort of thing brings me no joy whatsoever.

What does bring me joy is using my Stampin' Blends in my paper crafting. They make such a difference in creating beautiful cards. So much fun and really easy to use. 

While coloring in stamped images is wonderful, what I find even more wonderful is coloring in Designer Series Paper images. Those that Stampin' Up! makes that feature metallic embossing are definitely the most pleasing to work with.

Recently I sifted through my stash of DSP and discovered a few of these. One was from last year's Sale-A-Bration. Remember the bee DSP? Luscious stuff, and, of course, I had some left. The other one featured lots of small flowers and is a current product, Ornate Garden Specialty Designer Series Paper on page 149 of the Annual Catalog (on sale now because it's retiring!)

The two uncolored pieces of DSP I used in my project:

I took a chunk of each of the designs and went to work with  my Blends. I used the same color combo for both designs to give it some continuity. The Stampin' Blends I used were Dark Mango Melody, Light and Dark Calypso Coral, Dark Seaside Spray and Dark Mint Macaron.

Of course, it took quite a lot of <pleasant> time to color in enough of these pieces in order to get two 1 3/4" squares of each. I did love every minute of it though.

As I stated, I cut two 1 3/4" square of each of the designs. To make it into a card, I mounted the squares onto a 4" square of black cardstock, leaving even margins all around.

Since I am keeping this card as a decorative piece, I opted for no sentiment. To finish it off, I die cut a couple of silhouettes of floral stems from black cardstock. I carefully mounted these stems centered onto the panel of four squares..

To follow through with the delicate gold metallic outlines on the DSP I mounted the panel onto a brushed gold card base that measures 4 1/4" square.

The photos do not do the richness of the colors and gold metallic justice at all. I wish you could see it in person.

Have you ever colored Designer Series Paper with Stampin' Blends, whether metallic or regular? So much fun! 

Blended

Smiles.