A Summer Bouquet

The Sprinkles of Life stamp set is hugely versatile, and has so many possibilities!  Today I have used the flower bunch and the cupcake bottom stamps to make a basket of flowers.  The mojo sketch seems to have taken up residence in my brain, because when I thought of making a basket of flowers, I immediately pictured it in this layout, which is just a slight variation of this week's Mojo.

www.mojomonday.com

Even tho' it's a "tall" sketch, I made the card to the standard A2 measures. 

I wanted to use my Two-Tone Trim in Tangerine Tango and Whisper White for the handle of the basket.
I love the orange for a bright, summery color, but the heat we've been having lately has made me in the mood for cool tones--thus the Pool Party and Lost Lagoon.

Of course, orange and blue are complimentary colors, so this works quite well.  I like the emphasis the orange makes in the flowers and basket.  The layout spotlights them, but the colors really make them pop. 

I stamped the images in Stazon, trying to keep the outlines of the flowers as light as I could.  I used Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler, Real Red and Daffodil delight for the floral arrangement.  I used Tangerine Tango, Pool Party and So Saffron for the basket.

Ok--why not just use all Tangerine Tango? I found that the flowers came out too dark.  The Pumpkin Pie kept them a bit brighter.  Now, these two oranges are not simply a lighter & darker shade of each-other.  The Tang-tang has a lot more red in it.  But, you can cheat a lot when you're dealing with depictions of flowers or plants, and with differences in texture, like paper vs. ribbon.  You might not even have noticed that the color of the flowers doesn't match that of the twine.  I did use Tang-tang ink for the sentiment, but layered it onto a Pumpkin Pie flag.  Again, a lighter color just looked better and more balanced. I can get away with this here, because the two oranges already appear in the design, and the sentiment is in small lettering.  Same with the Garden Green vs. the Pear Pizzazz.  These two greens do not normally match, one being cool and one warm.  However, in a floral arrangement, they play very nicely together.

The Ultimate Color Challenge

Many of you enjoy doing card challenges.  Participants might be given a layout sketch, a theme, or a collection of colors to work from, and they make a card with those elements.  It is great fun seeing what everyone comes up with. 

I  happened to Google "color challenge," and to my delight, I found this fun little test by X-Rite, a color manufacturer.  It is scored from zero to 100, with a LOW score being better than a high score.  I scored 4 on my first try, which maybe should have pleased me, but I had to try again and got a perfect score.  Yeay!

Try for yourself!  Click the link below; post your score in the comments.
Ultimate Color Challenge

image from www.designbloom.com

 

Friends in the Garden

Have you seen the English Garden designer series paper yet?  It's so pretty, and the color combinations are super.  I can easily see cards for spring, summer, or fall from the various sheets.

This week's Mojo Monday sketch calls for tall & skinny, and it just so happens that I found a stack of extra-long greeting cards envelopes in a drawer.  They measure 4-1/4" x 7-1/4", so I made my card just 1/8" shy of that in each direction.

Here is this week's sketch, and here is my take on it: 

Did I mention how pretty the English Garden DSP is?



The stamp set is called Friendly Wishes, and the butterfly is from what is probably the most "go-to" set I own, Papillon Potpourri.  It's so great when you want to add a little accent...












You could do this card with more or less layering.  I like the Blushing Bride layers under the Whisper White areas; this card would also work with Not Quite Navy as a card base and layers, or double layers with both colors.  You could also choose to pull out the Hello Honey and Mint Macaron, or  substitute with Bermuda Bay; or go with Honey and Old Olive for a more autumny feel.  So many great possibilities.

Supplies List: