Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #20 Gray Granite

Gray Granite with Prized Peony and Fancy Phrases 

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 20th Colour Creations Showcase for 2020 with members of the Art with Heart Team.

So glad you are joining us as we focus on a rich neutral that, as the name suggests, is a colour similar to granite. Gray Granite sits within Stampin' Up!s Neutrals family of colours. Gray Granite can be found in Stampin' Up!s card-stock; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads, re-inkers & Stampin' Spots); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin' Blends;  Water-colour Pencils, a range of Designer Series Papers, incl Peony Garden DSP, In Good Taste DSP, Feels Like Frost DSP; and Shimmer Ribbon. There is so much gorgeousness.

This week I have created 2 cards with different colour combinations. The cards look quite different given the variations in colour ways, but the Gray Granite does give them some commonality. Both "Get well" cards were created with 2 friends in mind. One friend underwent surgery a couple of days ago and the other had an accident and ended up in hospital. Here are this week's projects:

CARD 1:

My first card used Gray Granite card-stock as the card base, also the beautiful Peony and the sentiment were stamped in Gray Granite Classic Stampin' ink.

The top flap of the Gray Granite card base and a Whisper White card-stock front were cut with the large Many Medallions die. A piece of Window Sheet was cut a tad smaller. This was adhered to the tiny front flap and then the Gray Granite medallions were adhered on the underneath side. The white medallions were adhered to the front of the acetate together with the small top and bottom pieces forming the card front. Prior to die cutting the Whisper White card-stock, a piece of Adhesive Sheet was attached. This made it so easy to remove the backing sheet and adhere the die cut medallions to the acetate. 

It may be worth noting that initially I added a light water-colour wash in Petal Pink Classic ink, however, as I was creating the card front design I felt the Petal Pink wash didn't look right. It had been adhered in place, so a second Whisper White medallion piece (with Adhesive Sheet) was die cut and adhered over the Petal Pink water-coloured piece. The two layers of medallions adds a little extra dimension.

The Peony came from the Prized Peony stamp set. It was coloured with a number of Stampin' Blends, ie Light & Dark Rococo Rose, Light & Dark Petal Pink, Light & Dark Old Olive Blends and the Colour Lifter. I used the Colour Lifter to enhance soft highlights to the petals and leaves. 

Once coloured, the peony was die cut using the Peony dies. The peony bud was trimmed off and then added in a different position, peaking out from beneath the flower to allow room for a sentiment which came from the Many Mates stamp set. The sentiment was stamped directly onto a die-cut label using one of the Hippo & Friends dies. The label was adhered directly to the medallions panel and the peony was popped up on Dimensionals.

The card inner was decorated with a piece of Gray Granite DSP from the Peony Garden DSP and the same label shape that was used on the card front was added inside the card, ensuring it sat exactly beneath the front label. The Gray Granite medallions add a beautiful effect when opening the card. The large peony was also stamped in Gray Granite Classic ink onto the Whisper White C6 envelope.

The card was finished with the addition of five delightful Elegant Facetted Gems with one of the larger ones partially tucked under a leaf.

CARD 2:

My second card also used Gray Granite card-stock as the card base. The floral arrangement and sentiment were stamped in Gray Granite Classic ink and the card was embellished with Gray Granite Shimmer Ribbon.

 

The card front was created from Fluid 100 Water-colour paper that had a light Pool Party Classic ink water-colour wash. Following the water-colour wash and prior to it having fully dried, the paper was embossed with the Scripty 3D embossing folder. This was mounted on a slightly larger piece of Pool Party card-stock at an angle, that was then adhered directly, at an angle, to the card base.

The floral spray from the Fancy Phrases stamp set was stamped four times in Gray Granite Classic ink onto a piece of Whisper White card-stock. Two of the floral sprays were considered as the two base sprays and the smaller open flowers were coloured with Light & Dark Pool Party and Light So Saffron Stampin' Blends. These two floral sprays were fussy cut. 

On the other two floral sprays, the larger rose flowers were coloured with Light & Dark Bermuda Bay and Light & Dark Pool Party Stampin' Blends together with the Colour Lifter. A few of the smaller flowers were also coloured. The coloured flowers were fussy cut, lightly shaped and adhered over the same flowers on the base sprays. The smaller flowers were adhered with a tiny dot of Multipurpose liquid Glue, while the roses were lifted on Mini Dimensionals.

The sentiment came from the Fancy Phrases stamp set and was stamped on Whisper White card-stock. This was die cut using one of the rectangular Stitched So Sweetly dies. The die was positioned to align with the bottom of the sentiment and passed through the Cut and Emboss Machine. Then the die was moved to align with the top of the sentiment so the label edge was cut close to the sentiment. This two-step die cutting process can give more flexibility than simply die cutting with one pass through a Cut & Emboss Machine. The sentiment was adhered with Dimensionals over a doubled over piece of Gray Granite Shimmer Ribbon.

The card inner was made from a piece of Whisper White card-stock which was similarly stamped in Gray Granite Classic ink using the floral arrangement from the Fancy Phrases stamp set. A very thin strip of the water-coloured paper was added to the side. A Whisper White C6 envelope was also stamped with the same floral stamp in Gray Granite Classic ink.

I hope my cards have provided some ideas and inspiration. I have enjoyed creating them to share. I love Gray Granite as a colour. As a neutral, it coordinates with many colour combinations.

I have a beautiful girl for my fur family - Gemma is such a sweetie. She was groomed this morning and is looking so gorgeous, so I thought I would take a photo of my cards with her in the close background. I set the cards on the ground and Gemma moved away and sat with her back to me. I don't think she wanted to be photographed with the cards. 😉 

Thank you for spending some time with me at my blog. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any queries, would like me to send you a Stampin' Up! catalogue or if I can help you with any products.

Catherine Proctor is our amazing host of the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase. If you haven't finished visiting all of the team's colour creations, you can visit/revisit Catherine's page at What Cathy Made, where she hosts all the links to the other Showcase participants. I'm looking forward to checking out everyone's Gray Granite creations. It is always inspiring to see the amazing projects created by my colleagues and their application of the nominated colour.

I hope to see you again next week when members of the team will share projects that hero Highland Heather. 

Do look after yourself and your loved ones. Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others in these strange times. 

Andrea 💕🐾

#colourcreationsshowcase