Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #40 Real Red

Real Red with Love You Always Suite & Many Messages

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 40th 2020/2021 Colour Creations Showcase by members of the Art with Heart Team.

The week we are showcasing a strong primary colour, Real Red. Real Red is part of Stampin' Up! Regals colour collection. This colour is a true red. Real Red is produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads, re-inkers & ink spot); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin' Blends, Watercolour pencils; a number of Designer Series Papers, including Snail Mail & Playful Pets Designer Series Papers; Resin Hearts embellishments and Double Stitched Satin Ribbon and Red Rhinestones Basic Jewels.

Red is a great colour and one I used to love to wear when I was young. These days it isn't my "go to colour" especially when creating, however, I still love it as a colour. I have a bright red rose in my garden and it is currently flowering again (which is quite something as I hardly water my garden). This beautiful rose inspired my choices this week and led me to use the True Love Designer Series Paper with my Stampin' Blends.

I have created two cards using similar products, so they are similar but different.

CARD 1: I started by colouring flowers on one of the sheets of True Love DSP. This DSP is so gorgeous and only uses black and white. A number of the designs are great for colouring. I coloured a few groups of flowers using the Real Red Stampin' Blends combo, together with light Flirty Flamingo, dark So Saffron, light Mossy Meadows and Old Olive combo and of course, the Colour Lifter.

I coloured a piece of Basic White card-stock using a Blending Brush with Real Red Classic Stampin' Ink, giving an ombre effect. This sheet of hand coloured card-stock was then flicked with water. The effect isn't noticeable on this card but one of the photos of the second project provides a close up. A label was cut using the larger elongated die from Hippo & Friends dies.

A card front was cut from Basic White card-stock and de-bossed with the Dainty Diamonds 3D embossing folder. De-bossing means the "other" side of the embossed card-stock was placed up-ward to be seen. Both sides are equally gorgeous - it just depends on the desired effect for your design. I was wanting some subtle interest, so decided the flatter side worked well. The de-bossed card front was adhered directly to the Thick Basic White card base.

A background of a white with black dot design from the True Love DSP was mounted on a slightly larger Basic Black card-stock mount. This was centralised and adhered with Dimensionals on the de-bossed card front. The hand coloured die cut label was also attached with Dimensionals.

The coloured flowers were all fussy cut out and arranged over the label and card front. The flowers were shaped a little with fingers and a Bone Folder. This gives added life and dimension. The flowers were adhered with Tombow Multi-purpose Liquid Glue.

A previously prepared sentiment strip was added using Mini Dimensionals together with 3 Matte Black Dots as the finishing touch. The sentiment label was created at a recent card class on the Stamparatus using Versamark ink on Basic Black card-stock and heat embossed using a Heat Gun and White Stampin' Emboss powder. The Stamparatus is brilliant when stamping the Many Messages stamp as it is a large stamp and if all of the sentiments do not come out clearly, the Stamparatus enables the image to be stamped again in the same place over the initial image. A whole set of messages is created when the messages image is die cut with one pass through the Cut & Emboss Machine using the coordinating dies. All of my students went away with a set of sentiments to use on other cards. They were delighted.

The card inner was created from Basic White card-stock with a thin strip of Basic Black card-stock and a very thin strip that had been trimmed off when neatening the piece of red blended card. An arrangement of partial flowers from the edge of the DSP were fussy cut. They are perfect for the card inner.

A C6 Basic White envelope was stamped with flowers from the coordinating stamp set, Forever & Always stamps. I so love Stampin' Up!s coordination of products.

CARD 2: As mentioned, the same/similar products were used for this second card but he card layout is different. As with other strong colours, I wanted to hero Real Red but didn't want it to be overpowering. I added a second challenge to creating these projects, that is also working with black. For some reason in the past, I have avoided using black on my projects, instead using dark colours that coordinate with the projects colour scheme. Of late, I have consciously endeavoured to incorporate black. I really appreciate the dramatic effect of black in project designs by others, but for some reason, I have had an aversion. Basic Black and Basic White can be stunning with Real Red, so I decided to use this as the base colour way for this week's projects.

A Basic White card front was also embossed with the Dainty Diamonds 3D embossing folder. This was adhered directly to the Thick Basic White card base.

A strip of the hand blended Real Red card was adhered to the embossed card front and a thin strip of Basic Black card-stock was adhered over the edge. See below for a close-up of the effect of water being sprinkled over the Real Red blended card. I love the way the water droplets lift the colour and in this case, there is an orangey edge around the lighter circle. I find colour and the effects of various techniques fascinating.

A double flower spray, that had been coloured with blends (at the same time as flowers from Card 1), was fussy cut. Another leaf was coloured with light Mossy Meadow, light & dark Old Olive Stampin' Blends and the Colour Lifter. Leaves and budded twigs from the coordinating Always In My Heart bundle were die cut from Basic Black card-stock. The flowers, leaves and die cut pieces were arranged and adhered with Multi-purpose Liquid Glue.

A different sentiment from the pre-prepared sentiments using the Many Messages bundle was adhered with Mini Dimensionals along part of the black card-stock strip. Matte Black Dots were added as the finishing touch.

Similar to the first card, the card inner was created from Basic White card-stock with a thin strip of Basic Black card-stock. An arrangement of partial flowers from the edge of the DSP were fussy cut and adhered abutting the black strip. The perfect touch for the card inner and the partial flowers are not wasted.

A C6 Basic White envelope was stamped with flowers from the coordinating stamp set, Forever & Always stamps, as with the first project.

As i was taking photos of my projects late morning, my fur family, Gemma was relaxing watching me - from a distance. Normally she would be much closer, but she was reinforcing her earlier communication - that it was time for a walk. So cute. (Thank you for indulging me with a tale of my fur companion.)

I love colouring and enjoyed creating these two cards - and am becoming more comfortable using black. Thank you for spending time on the Valley Inspirations blog. I hope you have found something of interest.

Catherine Proctor is the wonderful 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 every link to the participating blogs so you can find everyone's Real Red creations. Checking out everyone's creations and their interpretation of the amazing Stampin' Up! colours is always a highlight. 

I hope to see you again next week when members of the team share projects that hero Rich Razzleberry. 

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others as these strange times continue. Hopefully life with settle to an improved normality before too long. 

Andrea 💕🐾

#colourcreationsshowcase