Friday 8 August 2014

Secret confessions of a crafter

I'll share today's card, and then let you into a little secret. (I'm sure some of you already do what I'm going to confess to, but if not, it may be a little tip!)

I love colour coordinating my embellishments, and try to pick a minor colour from the papers.  In this case I wanted to pull out the blue from the flowers.  The blue didn't seem to catch the eye on the papers, so I wanted to highlight them with the embellishments.

I used some vintage style ribbon which was the perfect shade and also coloured the flowers in my image and sentiment in the same shade.

But I came a bit unstuck when it came to the matting card behind the image and middle paper panel.  Hunting through my 'blue' paper drawer (yes I have drawers for each colour of card!) everything was either too aqua or too dark.

So I cheated improvised.  Here's the result ....



So here's the tip:

I cut the matting layers from white card, and then coloured a strip around each edge with the wide nib of a blue copic.   I used the same blue as I'd used in the image, but then toned it down a bit using W3 grey on top, because it was otherwise a bit brighter than the blues in the papers.

The following pics were taken before adding the grey, but the photo of the finished card above was taken afterwards.  Hopefully you can see it is a bit more muted and matches the ribbon and papers better.  I did the same for the panel around the image, and the sentiment.





Whilst I've got your attention, the new Wild Rose Studio Christmas papers and dies have been released and are on the Stamp Basket website with a special offer of 10% off for all pre-rders placed this weekend only.  Pop over there to grab your discount before the end of the weekend.

Card Recipe:
I've been inspired by:
Happy crafting
Annette
xx



14 comments:

Squirrel x said...

Gorgeous hun! That is a neat trick and so handy with difficult to match papers. Hugs xx

Jacee said...

Fab card, love the colour and the image is adorable.
Hugs Jacee
Simply Paper Card Design

Carole Pollard said...

Gorgeous card today and thanks for the tip I've done this on flowers but not card certainly give it a go Love and Happy Crafting Hugs Carole x

Chrissy said...

Gorgeous Annette..and what a great tip..I'll put that in my memory bank and hope it stays..

Luv CHRISSYxx

Whisper said...

Oooo what a super idea, there are so many times, when i have to compromise with colour and a gorgeous image and layout too, Luv Sam x

Sarah said...

What a lovely stamp Annette, beautifully coloured and perfectly coordinated!! xx

Mojca said...

wow what a great trick Annette! I find myself in the same tricky position so many times! your card looks beautiful as always! hugs! Mojca

Carol S. said...

Gorgeous card and love the colours. Yes I do that trick quite a lot too!! Have a great weekend. Hugs, Carol S.xx

Kat W said...

Your cards are always so beautifully co-ordinated and perfectly embellished - another stunning bow on this one!
Great tip for getting the matting layer to match so well... my answer is pretty much to just mat everything on Kraft! But that isn't always the right look for a card so I may well give this a go :-)

Big hugs, Kat xx

Christine L said...

What a wonderful improvisation - one I've had to do a few times!! But then again, I'm never one to be organised enough to choose colours first! Love this little image and your wonderful double bow... as you can see by my yesterday's card, I haven't quite mastered it yet! LOL!

Have a lovely weekend hon..
Christine x

Linby said...

Beautiful card and a great tip.

Thanks so much for sharing with us at Penny Black & More this month.
Lynn x
DT

Ellibelle said...

So very cute!
Thanks so much for sharing with us this month at Penny Black and More. Good luck and hope we see you again soon!

Larissa said...

That is great trick! Love the adorable card, that bear is really adorable.

-xxx-
Larissa

Wendy Nicola Jackson said...

Love that clever fix Annette. Had to do exactly the same thing on my Bengali Princess card. (Just posted). I use my alcohol inks a lot this way. Colouring flowers, edges of mats, pearls! Brilliant fix for a gorgeous card. Hugs, Wends x