W+Nine Color Cue # 5

W+Nine's Color Cue Challenge #5 uses aqua, brown, orange and green.

I love this color combination. I had just ordered some dies and Simply Chartreuse paper, ink and felt from Papertrey Ink (PTI) and knew I wanted to use these in the challenge. I hope you like the results.

I don’t normally use this many layers but I must admit that I am happy with the look. I think repeating the colors really helped to finish the card. I kept auditioning the pattern paper on one color and then another and it just wasn’t right. I finally decided to use the three colors you see here. At first I had them all proportional. The pattern paper was cut at 4.75”, the brown at 5”, the cream at 5.25” and the green at 5.5”; this 1/4th inch difference in each left a 1/8th inch border on all sides. While I loved all the colors together the sizing wasn’t right. I settled on trimming the brown down to 4 7/8” and the cream to 5”.  The result was tighter spacing around the focal point with a more significant outer border acting as a frame; I liked that spacing much better.

I have seen several of the felt flowers made but this is my first attempt.  Not bad for the first time. I like the addition of the brown stitching on the leaves—gives a little character to the felt. What do you think?

The frame was made using two Spellbinders Label 2 dies that were two apart in sizes. I taped them down (tape adhered to the paper outside the frame just in case it tore when it was removed) and cut once. I tried to stamp the text while the paper was still in the dies to leave a small non-stamped border. Unfortunately, I got very little ink transferred. The surface I was stamping on was probably too hard and didn’t give enough and the two metal dies kept the stamp from going down deep enough to reach the paper. I removed the paper from the die and it stamped fine. I used the size of the Label 2 die that was between the two I used for the frame to cut the filler. Using the in between size gave me enough overlap to adhere the two (I used scotch tape of the back) but was small enough that I didn’t have to worry about it being seen around the edges. Next time I might try stamping the frame and the filler paper at the same time to get a contiguous image across the two papers and see if I like the looks of that better.

I also pushed myself and used two different stamps and colors to create the background for the sentiment. I used Ranger Distressed Inks in Antique Linen for the text and Spiced Marmalade for the flowers. The spiced marmalade color was too strong for a background with the initial stamping; what you see here and on the inside of the card is the second and third stamping after the initial inking and stamping off. I like that muted look much better.

Here are the details:
Paper: Solids—PTI’s Hawaiian Shores, Terra Cotta Tile (for the base of the flower), Dark Chocolate, and Vintage Cream; Pattern—from SEI’s Addison
Stamps: PTI’s Background Basics Text Style and Hero Art’s Thoughtful Messages (for the sentiment and the flowers)
Ink: VersaMark, Ranger Distressed Antique Linen and Spiced Marmalade, and ColorBox Chalk Dark Brown
Other: Spellbinders Label 2 and PTI’s flower dies (Beautiful Blooms and Delightful Dahlia), felt (PTI’s Simply Chartreuse and Orange from Michael’s), brown DMC floss, and button from stash.