Yesterday while thinking of other things I decided to play with a four colour combination for a design challenge. The colours chosen by the Hand Stamped Sentiments team were Grapefruit Grove, Terracotta Tile, Mint Macaron and Pretty Peacock. My immediate thought was to create something with an autumn feel, maybe with leaves and berries. Then I decided that was a bit obvious.

Instead I grabbed some Saran Wrap (cling film) and started stamping an abstract background, and everything fell into place.

FOUR COLOUR BACKGROUND

To create this abstract background I simply scrunched up some Saran Wrap in my hand and gently tapped it onto an ink pad. Then I gently tapped it onto a layer of Whisper White Card. After stamping all over with one colour I then used fresh Saran Wrap to stamp the next until I’d used all four.

As so often happens when I use the Saran Wrap technique, I was pleasantly surprised by the results. So I decided to use this abstract design as the coordinating feature for my project.

Taking another layer of Whisper White Card I masked off all but a 3/4″ strip down the right-hand side. Then I stamped the four colours over the strip.

With that done I stamped the fours colours over the flap of a Whisper White Medium Envelope too.

IT’S ALL MESSY

Next I went looking for a sentiment that would fit the four colour background. After a little searching I spotted the perfect one in the Here’s A Card Stamp Set.

I stamped “It’s all messy, the hair, the house, the heart, life” onto a piece of Whisper White Card with Pretty Peacock ink. Then I punched it out using the Everyday Label Punch.

I liked the contrast between the colourful background and the white sentiment but it needed something else, something messy. So I took some Grapefruit Grove 1/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon and attached it to the back of the sentiment with Tear & Tape Adhesive. Bizarrely it took me a little while to get the ‘messy’ look I wanted but in the end I was happy. Now all I needed to do was put everything together.

I created a card base from Grapefruit Grove Card and on the inside used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the piece with the four colour strip.

Then with more liquid glue I mounted the main panel onto some Terracotta Tile Card , and then onto the card base.

Finally I added the assembled sentiment with Stampin’ Dimensionals and I was done.

HSS CHALLENGE

PURPLE POSY IS HERE!

If you’ve been waiting patiently for the new Purple Posy ink pad and/or refill, wait no longer.

Late yesterday afternoon Stampin’ Up! announced that the ink pads and refills with the reformulated ink are now in stock and available to order. Prepare to see an abundance of projects using this pretty pale purple!

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