COLOR & CONTOUR

Here I am again, sharing with you something that I truly love to do: Using garbage in my creations!

For Mother's Day my husband gave me a pretty blue hydrangea. While that was wonderful enough, the flamboyant bow that graced the plant was the icing on the cake. It was a very loosely woven super wide mesh ribbon with sparkles built in. Those of you who dabble in florals are probably familiar with what I'm trying to explain. But I immediately pegged it as a cardmaking material.

I created the crisscross background of this card with this piece of wonder, using it as a stencil and positioning it haphazardly all over the white cardstock. It was so much fun to do and there was really no way to mess it up unless I got a little too heavy handed. 

After I fiinished creating this spiffy background, I simply rinsed the mesh out and it's all ready to use for another project! Win Win for sure!

The floral stem stamped over the background in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then colored in with Stampin' Blends, was pretty and didn't cover up just too much of my garbage-y work.

Following is a tutorial for you. Read on!

SUPPLIES:

Basic White cardstock

Old Olive cardstock

Petal Pink cardstock

Basic Black cardstock

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Petal Pink ink

Stampin' Blends in Light Calypso Coral and Light Old Olive

Color & Contour stamp set (page 98, Annual Catalog)

Widely spaced mesh netting

Blending Brush (page 129, Annual Catalog)

Sequins

Old Olive 5/8" ribbon

DIRECTIONS:

Fold a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" piece of Petal Pink cardstock in half, creasing it well with a bone folder.

To this card base, add a 4" x 5 1/4" layer of Old Olive cardstock, then a 3 3/4" x 5" piece of black cardstock. Set this aside for now.

On a 3 1/2" x 4 3/4" piece of white cardstock, stamp the flower stem from the Color & Contour stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink in the center.

Lay a workable size piece of mesh netting anywhere on the background and sponge through the mesh with Petal Pink ink. I used the Blending Brush to do this. Keep moving the piece of mesh around the background all willy nilly, turning it frequently and sponging through it. Continue in this vein until you have a nice crisscross background against the white.

Color the flowes and leaves in whichever manner you choose. I used Stampin' Blends in Light Calypso Coral and Light Old Olive.

Take a length of 5/8" Old Olive satin ribbon about 8" long and tie a flattish knot in the center of the ribbon. Place the knotted ribbon across the stem of the flowers. Attach the ends with tape on the backside.

Add this panel to the card base.

Finish with three sequins around the flower.

Now, it's your turn to share with us: have you used any garbage in your papercrafting lately?

Garbage-y

Smiiles.