TWO FOR ONE: STRETCH YOUR DESIGN

I don’t know about you, but design decisions are usually the most time consuming aspect of creating for me. Choosing the perfect color combo, the layout, what to do in the background, sentiment placement – I can spend ages going back and forth between options. So why not make the most of a design once your made the major decisions?

Today I have a pair of cards that I created using the same basic supplies and layout. I just changed a few details to switch it up a bit. I started with a classic Christmas color combo of red and green using our Rose Builder and Hellebore Builder stamps and dies. Tip: This is also a great way to stretch your everyday supplies and use them for holidays as well!

I stamped the images in a variety of Distress Oxide and Wplus9 PURE COLOR inks. Now, I stamped a variety of colors all at once using a jig, so I’m going to do my best to remember exactly which colors. I shared this in a live in our Facebook Group, in fact, I made both of today’s cards over a couple of lives, if your interested in seeing how the came together. For the red roses I used a combination of Candied Apple and Fired Brick Oxides, and Cranberry Crush PURE COLOR ink. For the hellebores, I used White pigment ink, Hickory Smoke Oxide, and Fairy Dust and Silver Lining PURE COLOR ink. For the greens I used Mojito, Appletini and Last Leaf PURE COLOR inks, and for the blues, Faded Jeans Oxide and Bo Peep PURE COLOR ink.

Once all of my stamping was done, I die cut all of my images and created little clusters of florals. I felt like the background needed a little something. Nothing too overwhelming, just a hint of interest. I decided to create a distressed background of wood grain and script using our Wood Planks and Script Background stamp sets stamped in Fairy Dust and Hickory Smoke.

I pulled out our Poinsettia Bouquets for the sentiment, heat embossed in gold and die cut. I wanted to tie in that gold throughout the rest of the design and added some gold embossing to the centers of the hellebores using a Distress Embossing pen. I also added a bit of gold splatters with watercolor and a little gold floss nest behind the sentiment.

The floral clusters were adhered using foam squares of various heights (my personal favorites are linked in the supply list below), and any portions that extended beyond the card, I trimmed and added to the edges to fill out the design. I went with a mini-slimline card design adhered to a Gina K. Designs Stormy Sky cardstock base.

As I mentioned, I already had a bunch more of the florals stamped and cut in different colors. So rather than start from scratch, I decided to make another using the same basic design and tweaking it a bit. Since the first card has a more traditional color palette, I decided to go with a non-traditional one this time, with an icy feel for the details – swapping out the gold for platinum.

This time I used a variation of pinks for the roses – Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick Oxides, and Shell Pink and Gala Red PURE COLOR inks. For the greens, I used Shabby Shutters, Bundled Sage and Scattered Straw Oxided inks and Appletini PURE COLOR ink. The blues are Speckled Egg and Weathered Wood Oxides. I created my little floral clusters again, and this time I filled them out using some images from my “bits and bobs”. That’s just a container (or five) that I have filled with leftover images from past projects. The pussy willow from Spring Blessings and the Pine from Bells and Boughs were perfect for my color scheme.

For the background, I used the same two stamps sets. But this time I heat embossed the script using Liquid Platinum embossing powder from Ranger. My pine bough images already had a little silver sparkle, so carried that to the edges of my panel as well. I used the Embossing Dabber by Ranger to swipe along the edges of my panel, not too much – just a little here, a little there – and then heat embossed using WOW! Metallic Silver Sparkle embossing powder.

I finished her off with another sentiment from Poinsettia Bouquets embossed in Liquid Platinum. I honestly love them both and can’t decide which one is my favorite. How about you? Do you have a favorite?

Featured Supplies

Here is a list of the featured supplies used in today’s project(s) along with links to purchase for convenience. Please Note: this list contains affiliate links.

Wplus9 PURE COLOR Lake House Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Shop at: SSS | EH	Ranger Embossing Powder LIQUID PLATINUM Shop at: SSS	Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun Hero Arts Shop at: SSS
EK Success CRAFT TWEEZERS Precision Tip Shop at: SSS	Wplus9 Rose Builder Stamp Set Shop at: WP9	Wplus9 Rose Builder Die Shop at: WP9	Bo Peep PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Cranberry Crush PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Fairy Dust PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Silver Lining PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Mojito PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad WORN LIPSTICK Shop at: SSS	Appletini PURE COLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Tim Holtz Tonic GLASS MEDIA MAT Shop at: SSS	Gala Red Pure Color Dye Ink Shop at: WP9
Gemini Junior Shop at: SSS	Wood Planks Shop at: WP9	Old Gold PURECOLOR Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Gina K Designs Connect Glue Shop at: SSS | GKD
Tsukineko 25 Sponge Daubers Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Bundled Sage Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Candied Apple Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Hickory Smoke Shop at: SSS
Poinsettia Bouquets Shop at: WP9	Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares mix Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares mix Shop at: SSS	Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cardstock Shop at: SSS
Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Weathered Wood Shop at: SSS	Hellebore Builder stamp set Shop at: WP9	Hellebore Builder Die Shop at: WP9	Script Background Shop at: WP9
Hero Arts Pigment Ink Unicorn Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Scattered Straw Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Faded Jeans Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Pen Shop at: SSS
Gansi Tambi Starry Colors Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Speckled Egg Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Shabby Shutters Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Tattered Rose Shop at: SSS
Spring Blessings Stamp Set Shop at: WP9	Spring Blessings Die Shop at: WP9	Bells & Bows Stamp Set Shop at: WP9	Bells & Bows Die Shop at: WP9
WOW! Metallic Silver Sparkle Embossing Glitter Shop at: SSS