Gorgeous greens

Have you ever made a card with too many layers??? Yeah, me neither... HA!! I just can't help myself when there are so many yummy things to play with. Today's card is no exception:

Aaron's bus driver (one of the sweetest ladies you'll ever meet) asked me to make her a few cards, for events that happen to fall on St. Patrick's Day. This card is for her sister's birthday, so I used color to tie the two celebrations together.

I'm going to take you on a little side trip here, and talk about color for a minute. Yesterday, I mentioned using the Color Coach to help me when I'm stamping, and I wanted to share some design tips related to that.

The Color Coach is held together with a post that screws together. After I got mine, I took it apart and rearranged the cards in "rainbow" order. This makes it easier for me to use my limited "color theory" knowledge. For example, if I want to make a project using the classic Primary color combination, I can easily select the tint or shade of red, yellow, and blue that best fits the style or theme of my project.

Knowing that I wanted to start with green, my project began by selecting three "neighbor" cards in my Color Coach. If I had stopped there, I would have a mono-chromatic color scheme.
But I wanted an extra "zing" since this was for a birthday, so I added a few pops of green's complimentary color - red. (Complimentary colors are directly opposite each other on the color wheel.)



So there's some basic color theory info for you. I love how choosing just the right tint, tone, or shade of a color can add just the right "feeling" to a project  :}

Using the Create a Cupcake stamp set, I stamped the wrapper image in Pear Pizzazz, the frosting image in Certainly Celery, and the sprinkles image in Lucky Limeade. I used the Cupcake Builder punch to punch out those images. I adhered the cupcakes to a layer of Certainly Celery card stock, that has been dry embossed using the Perfect Details Texturz Plate and the Big Shot.
There are a ton of other details, so I'll just note a few... The birthday sentiment is stamped in Lucky Limeade ink onto the same color card stock. I stamped a subtle background onto the 4-1/8"x5-3/8" layer of Pear Pizzazz card stock using Pear Pizzazz ink and a stamp from the Creative Elements stamp set.

Special cards have to be pretty on the inside, too! Plus, it's a good idea to add a light-color layer when your card base (Poppy Parade) is pretty dark. Distressing and sponging the edges of the Very Vanilla card stock adds nice detail. And I just love this sentiment stamp: "It's not about how many candles you blow out but how many cupcakes you get!" Perfect  :}

It's also pretty perfect that the theme for SUO Challenge 39 is "a birthday card." Nothing says "birthday" more than cute cupcakes!
And if you think this card has lots of layers, just you wait! The card I'm posting on Thursday is really over the top!! Thanks for dropping in today  :}

hooked on challenges :)

Oh my goodness! I just can't help myself... I found another challenge... actually a whole blog focused on Stampin' Up! projects. What drew me in to the SUO Challenge 38, were the "parameters" - use two colors, plus a neutral or two. Here's what I came up with:

The Twitterpated Product Suite helped me see how gorgeous Blushing Bride and Riding Hood Red look together. Basic Gray and a touch of Whisper White are the perfect "neutrals" to pair with that combination.
The card base is Riding Hood Red card stock. I added some details to the layer of Blushing Bride card stock by stamping the large floral image from Bordering on Romance in Blushing Bride ink, and then distressing the edges.
The two layers of Twitterpated DSP are matted with Basic Gray card stock. And check out the large layer on the left... it's fabric!! I think the Twitterpated Fabric is my favorite so far (well, maybe a tie with the Spice Cake fabric). I simply used SNAIL adhesive and wrapped the edges of the fabric around a layer of Whisper White card stock, then adhered that layer to the Blushing Bride card stock with a liberal amount of adhesive.

After tying on some Basic Gray Satin Ribbon, I went to work on the focal point. I stamped the images (also from Bordering on Romance) in Basic Gray ink onto Whisper White card stock. Then I colored in the images with markers: Pear Pizzazz, Lucky Limeade, Blushing Bride, Regal Rose, and Riding Hood Red. I distressed the edges, and sponged them with Blushing Bride ink. Then I adhered the pretty focal point to a layer of Riding Hood Red card stock, which I snipped out after dry embossing it using one of the Designer Frames Embossing Folders. Because of all the bumpy layers, I needed a "double-stack" of Dimensionals to attach the focal point to my card.  At the last minute, I added two Blushing Bride Twitterpated Buttons to push my card over the top  :}
By the way, do you recognize this card layout? I revisited a previous Mojo Monday sketch, and "tweaked" it  :}  So fun!!
Thanks for checking in today - hope you have a wonderful weekend, with lots of time to stamp!!