Stampin' Up has gone all pastel with the new 5 in-colours. I had a big pout with the recent colour revision, as they got rid of MANY of my favourites. The replacements aren't making me happy, but I am trying to work with them none the less. Here is a card using 3 of them: Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding and Burnt Brown Sugar. While I was in the UK, I picked up a magazine, Simply Handmade, which came with a set of stamps. The dressform stamp comes from that set, as does the pistachio gingham paper used to spotlight the dressform body. The argyle background is a Tim Holtz. The ribbon is a scrap of Certainly Celery, which is far enough away from the Pistachio to look related. This is an uncharacteristically clean card for me.
We had a lot of retirements at school this year, and this card is one that I made for a retiring VP. It uses a technique that I learned from another UK magazine, PaperCrafting. It involves outlining the stamped image with a really soft black pencil or charcoal. It gives a shadow to the image, and really makes it pop. The stamps are all SU: Everything Eleanor, Papaya Collage and You're a Gem. Colours are Pool Party, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso. I spritzed the card first with water and lightly dragged a sponge loaded with Crumb Cake into the water droplets to give the background some texture. A single line of embossed cross stitches gives the edge some definition.
Thanks for looking!
