After my last card which was dominated by a very colourful watercoloured sunflower I decided that my next card project would be completely different. And they don’t get more different than this. Using the Full of Love Stamp Set I’ve gone from bright colours to much calmer shades of grey. There’s no die-cutting and no special techniques involved either. Instead it’s simply straight cut layers and easy colouring with markers. In fact I didn’t even colour the whole image, but included simple lines and dots, and left some areas empty.
I LOVE GREY TONES
Choosing grey tones for this card wasn’t a hard decision for me. I love the elegant look of grey which appears less harsh than stamping in black. So I started with the more rounded of the two large images in the Full of Love Stamp Set and a Basic Gray ink pad.
After stamping the image towards the top of a 3-1/2″ x 4-1/2″ piece of Basic White Card I decided to use the flowers as my coordinating feature. So avoiding the envelope part of the image I stamped some flowers in the bottom corners on the front of a Basic White Medium Envelope. Then I stamped some flowers along the bottom edge of a 4″ x 5-1/4″ layer of Basic White Card.
With that done I chose the Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers and began to colour. First, using the dark shade I coloured in the clusters of tiny flowers buds. Then I swapped to the light shade and coloured in the large blade-like leaves. At this point I was worried that if I continued with these markers that everything would end up looking the same so I had to think outside the box.
Pulling out my Neutrals Stampin’ Write Markers I selected the Smoky Slate marker. Then using writing up I drew a C shape in the centre of each of the open flowers. On the large closed flowers I added simple diagonal lines to add shading. Finally on the small oval ‘berries’ I added some tiny dots. And that’s where I stopped.
I just needed a sentiment and for that I went back to the Full of Love Stamp Set. I chose “sending love your way” and stamped it beneath the large image using Basic Gray ink. Now I was ready to begin putting the card together.
SIMPLE LAYERS
For the card base I chose Basic Gray Card to coordinate with the stamped ink. After using my Paper Trimmer to cut and score the card, I folded it along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Then using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) I fixed the stamped and coloured 4″ x 5-1/2″ Basic White layer on the inside. That just left the front of the card to do.
In my scraps of card I found a 1/4″ x 5-1/2″ strip of Smoky Slate Card. This created a nice contrast between the darker grey of the card base and the white of the main layer. However I thought I needed a second layer to tie it all together.
I considered adding another neutral colour, and experimented with Basic Black Card however nothing seemed right. But then I found a 3/4″ x 5-3/16″ scrap of Vellum Cardstock. When I sandwiched the Vellum between the card base and the Smoky Slate Card it added just the subtle change in grey tone I was hoping for. From there the card came together really quickly.
Using liquid glue I first attached the Smoky Slate strip to the Vellum piece. Then I flipped the Vellum over so I could add a line of liquid glue to the back where it would be hidden by the cardstock. With that done I attached the strips to the front of the card base about 3/8″ from the fold.
Finally I glued some scrap card to the back of the main stamped piece to add strength (but left a gap where it would need to sit over the strips already glued to the card base). Then using Stampin’ Dimensionals I fixed the finished layer to the card front and my project was complete.
I really love this card, it’s so simple to create and yet so very elegant. But what do you think?
For some other examples of a simple gray colour palette check out these previous blog posts:
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