Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Serenity and Joy

Yep, that's what I am giving you for free today, Serenity and Joy. Want some? Don't we sometimes wish it were that easy? Well, here's a card I made that implies just that at least! I'm sure you've seen by now the fabulous inspiration photo of THESE beautiful turquoise and yellow pillows. Although I tend to use a lot of yellows and mustards in my cards and projects, mixing it with a turquoise or teal color was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone!

I knew I had the patterned paper that would be a great match for the gold tones, so I paired it up with More Mustard. That was the easy part. I looked at the pillows some more and grabbed for Not Quite Navy as my blue and was "quite" pleased with that combo. I had not had a chance to work on Julee's Mojo Monday sketch, so I employed it here, and changed it to a square card to match the pillows' dimensions.

I just started by cutting and layering all the pieces. I ran the More Mustard square through my new Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder for some nice texture, pulling it from some of the dotted portions of the pillows. I stamped the main image with my Serenity set using inks of the same colors and then the sentiment in Not Quite Navy as well. I loved how some of the embroidery on the pillows seemed to wrap around the edges, so I tried a new (to me) look of pulling the little ribbon tabs to the front of the main panel and affixing them with Crystal Effects. I used a Nestability Circle Die for the scalloped tag and semi-cut the sentiment with my Creative Memories Circle Cutting System. I then cut the "hanging over" parts by hand for a neat look. I finished it off with some plastic baubles along the left edge.

It was a bit of a challenge putting these colors together, but when all was said and done, I fell in love with them (not to mention the pillows)!!! Now you know you are feeling all inspired and stuff, so go forth and conquer your color fears! HERE'S a little Verve challenge for you with a little prize involved. Link your cards HERE...we want to see!!