March Color Play

Good morning, crafty friends, and welcome to this month's Color Play post! I'm so glad to be continuing with this newsletter feature for another year. Finding photos and creating the challenges each month has been a joy for me. I've used colors for these posts that had previously languished on a shelf in my studio. These challenges have taught me that it can be a very good thing to push yourself once in awhile. In fact, I'm doing a little bit of pushing today.

It's no secret that I'm not Raspberry Fizz's biggest fan (I'll leave that to Dawn; it's growing on me, by the way), but when I saw this photo I just knew it would be a fun combo to use. The daring pink door and shutters were so striking, especially when viewed against a fairly neutral stone background. Add in a few pops of bright, leafy green and classic black and white for a solid combination that can go from traditional to trendy and back again.

I began my card today by die cutting a card front overlay from Soft Stone cardstock using the Center Stage Cover Plate. I adhered it in place over a white card base and set it aside. Next, I die cut two of the Garden Grace floral spray shapes from white cardstock. On those shapes I stamped my solid leaves with New Leaf ink and the open blooms with Raspberry Fizz ink. Then, I carefully watercolored my blooms with diluted Raspberry Fizz ink refill. I set them aside to dry while I stamped my sentiment shape. I die cut a Boutique Borders: Sympathy shape from white cardstock and stamped it with the coordinating image in True Black ink. The scrollwork of the Boutique Borders image reminded me of the wrought iron in the inspiration photo's window. Next, I stamped the Mother's Day sentiment from Blooming Button Bits onto the frame. By this time my floral sprays were mostly dry, so I gave them a quick blast of heat with my embossing gun and then stamped the open blooms over the watercolored areas for a second time. I did this because the watercoloring softened the original lines and I wanted the crisper, fresh ink for a bit of contrast.

After all that, I felt like the blooms could use a little something. I finally decided to paint over each flower with shimmer spray. To do that I simply shook up the shimmer spray and poured a small amount onto a paint palette and used it like any other paint. A small detail brush made the process much easier. The result is a very subtle shimmer that I'm very happy with. Finally, I adhered the flowers and sentiment frame to the card front with a combination of foam adhesive and Scor-tape. A tiny self-adhesive pearl that I colored to match finishes off the card nicely.

Thank you for joining me today! I hope you'll share your projects using this month's color scheme over on the brand new Inspiration Archive post on Nichole's blog. You can go there all month to link up your projects made with the newsletter inspiration features in mind. Nichole also has all sorts of news over on her blog today, so you'll definitely want to check in over there. I hope to see you all again soon! Have a great weekend!

Recipe:
Stamps: Garden Grace, Boutique Borders Sympathy, Blooming Button Bits - Papertrey Ink
Cardstock: Soft Stone - Papertrey Ink; white
Ink: Raspberry Fizz, New Leaf, True Black - Papertrey Ink
Other: Center Stage Cover Plate, Garden Grace Die Collection, Boutique Borders Sympathy Die - Papertrey Ink; Pearl Glimmer Mist - Tattered Angels; Self-Adhesive Pearl - Kaiser Craft; Foam Tape - Scotch; Scor-Tape