Welcome to week nine of our Art With Heart 2024-25 Colour Creations blog hop!
This week we’re featuring a dark gray neutral called Basic Gray. Although this is a great colour for landscape scenes and masculine cards, I decided to show how it can also work well for a feminine card.
This is the colour combination I’ve used for my card.
I can’t stop using this stunning Layers of Beauty bundle. For masks 1, 2 and 3 I’ve used Pretty in Pink. The colour gets darker every time I add another mask layer.
The leaves in the main stamped image are masked in Basic Gray.
After stamping and colouring the large floral image from the Layers of Beauty stamp set I cut it apart and arranged it on the card behind the white heat embossed “Happy Birthday” sentiment.
I’ve added some extra die cut Smoky Slate leaves using dies from the Layers of Beauty dies, finishing the card with Basic Gray Pearls.
Now it’s time to hop in over to our next participant, the lovely Ros Davidson – I can’t wait to see what Ros has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Welcome to week twelve of our Art With Heart 2023-24 Colour Creations blog hop!
Last weekend our Art With Heart team combined with Michelle Grech’s team and were lucky enough to be the only Australian teams to be one of the 35 for 35 events, celebrating 35 years of Stampin’ Up.
And would you believe that non other than the incredible Sara Douglass, Stampin’ Up! CEO, flew all the way to Australia just to attend our event!
Short on time, as I was flying interstate for the big event, I decided to kill three birds with one stone. My Berry Burst project this week used the Masterfully Made Designer Series Paper as it was the colour theme for the 35 for 35 event. And it was also a project for the 3D display table as well as packaging for some thank you gifts.
Here’s the 3D table at the event with my five homemade gift boxes using the Masterfully Made Designer Series Paper.
And here’s a close up of four of the boxes – it was really had to get a good photo under the artificial lights. The gift tags on top of the boxes are die cut using the Tailored Tag dies.
To make a gift box to fit any size box, you simply need to measure the depth, the width and the height of the gift you’d like to place in the gift box. I was “gifting” (is that really a verb, I wonder???) boxes of Haighs chocolates, so my dimensions were taken from the boxes.
I love how the inside of the box lid has another lovely pattern thanks to the DSP.
The Paper florist dies are such a versatile product. They allow you to make paper flower embellishments in coordinating colours to match any Designer Series Paper or card stock.
I had a pile of left over die cut Paper Florist pieces, as well as extra pre-cut pieces from the Make and Take, so I quickly assembled this extra card.
I love using the More Dazzle 6″ x 6″ (15.2 x 15.2 cm) Specialty Paper to add dazzle to any of my projects – it’s going to be fabulous for Christmas cards!
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Kate Morgan – I can’t wait to see what Kate has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Welcome to week eleven of our Art With Heart 2023-24 Colour Creations blog hop!
This week we are showcasing Basic Gray, which is a colour I rarely use, so it was a bit of a challenge! The darker gray is a good colour for natural elements such as stone or animal fur/hide or for metallic objects.
I settled on making a dark gray metal postbox as I wanted to see if I could successfully combine the little envelope stamp from the “Just My Type” stamp set with the “Stamped With Love” stamp set.
To create a border that reveals the Basic Gray card stock card base underneath I’ve stamped a vertical row of the “Just My Type” envelopes in Basic Gray and then fussy cut the right hand edge of the envelopes using paper snips.
The postal box was stamped in Basic Gray onto both Basic Gray cardstock and Basic White cardstock. The Basic Gray cardstock postal box is fussy cut and adhered to the front of the card, with a white envelope fussy cut out from the Basic White cardstock postal box.
Although I’ve deliberately kept this card very monochrome to showcase Basic Gray, I couldn’t resist using the heart stamp to add a tiny pop of Poppy Parade to the card.
I’ve customised all the sentiments on my card by masking part of them off with washi tape and removing the washi tape after inking the stamp but before stamping.
The Basic Gray Stampin’ Write Marker was used to add an ellipsis after the sentiment on the front of the card, another way to further personalise sentiments.
Inside the card I’ve personalised and mixed together two more of the sentiments from “Stamped With Love” to perfectly fit inside the larger envelope stamp.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Kate Morgan – I can’t wait to see what Kate has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Welcome to week seven of our Art With Heart 2022-23 Colour Creations blog hop! This is a weekly blog hop where we showcase the stunning range of Stampin’ Up! colours in alphabetical order over 12 months and this week we are featuring Basic Gray.
The stunning Heart & Home Designer Series Paper retires soon on June 30 so I really wanted to use it for my cards tonight. I love the different widths of the Basic Gray wood grain patterns and I’ve roughed up the edges of this DSP with paper snips before I adhered them to my Basic Gray card bases.
The darkness of the Basic Gray cardstock really makes this woodgrain DSP pop and I’ve coloured the flowers and leaves with Fresh Freesia and Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Blends using the light Basic Black Stampin’ Blend for the centre of the largest flowers.
The larger floral spray stamp from the Blessings of Home stamp set has been stamped in Basic Gray and coloured with Stampin’ Blends. The Blessings of Home bundle also includes the Flowers of Home Dies which I’ve used to cut out the larger floral spray stamp as well as die cut the Basic Gray sprigs on my slimline card.
I’d also stamped and coloured the smaller spray of flowers from the Blessings of Home set but decided not to use it on the slimline card, so I quickly made a second card with it.
The flowers on this thank you card are layered on top of one of the Heart & Home Doilies and these doilies will also retire on June 30.
My layered bow consists of three different ribbons: Gray Granite Shimmer ribbon and Fresh Freesia Open Weave Ribbon that have been cut in half using my paper snips as well as linen thread.
Matte Dots in Basic Gray and some Wink of Stella in the middle of the largest flowers complete my cards.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the lovely Tina Gillespie – I can’t wait to see what Tina has made this week!
If at any time you find a broken link, you can find the complete list of all participants below.
Welcome to week 3 of our Colour Creations blog hop format for 2020-21!
Today we are showcasing a very dark neutral – Basic Gray – and I’ve teamed it with other neutrals to make an all-purpose masculine slimline card. I’ve deliberately left the inside blank so I can use it for a variety of occasions.
My friend Kate has been making the most fabulous cards with the new Hats Off bundle so I finally caved in and bought it too. I’m so glad I did – what a great bundle for masculine, teenager (and feminine) cards!
There are so many cute little elements in this bundle and options for decorating the emblem on the front of the cap and you can make this cap in any colour you like! I’ve got some great ideas for this bundle…watch this space!
If you take a closer look at the emblem I chose for my cap I think you’ll understand why I decided to pair the Hats Off bundle with the Mountain Air Stamp set and Majestic Mountain dies.
They really were made to to be used together, don’t you think?
To make a quick and easy matching envelope for my slimline card I’ve simply decorated a standard business envelope by adhering a stamped panel of card Sahara Sand card stock to the front of the envelope. I deliberately trimmed the Sahara Sand card stock layer to be smaller than the envelope so there was a border of white that matched the design of the card itself.
The sentiment also perfectly matches the Mountain Air stamp set and was stamped in Basic Gray and die cut using a stitched rectangle die.
Now it’s time to hop on over to our next participant, the very talented, Rachel Palmieri.
If you find a broken link or have come to this blog hop from a different entry point, you can view the participants below:
This week our AWH Colour Creations team showcased one of the versatile neutrals: Basic Gray. If you missed the blog hop you can take a look at all the amazing projects here.
If I’m totally honest Basic Gray is not a colour I use that often but I found that once I started playing with it I couldn’t stop. So I thought I’d share with you today a couple more cards I made with Basic Gray.
Both cards feature a tiled background – one background is created with an embossing folder and the other one is with a tile stamp. But both use the lovely Country Home stamp set.
All the colours on both cards are from the Neutrals family, but mainly different shades of grays with just a tiny pop of green .
This tin tile embossing folder is a favourite of mine and it co-ordinates beautifully with this stamp set. I love this little white jug and the flower arrangement which I’ve used my Stampin’ Blends to colour in with Smokey Slate, Gray Granite and Mossy Meadow.
A little bit of shading underneath the jug with my Gray Granite blend really grounds this image and a simple bow of linen thread is the finishing touch.
For my other card I stamped a tile background and layered the other rustic jug onto an oval before fussy cutting the flowers with my paper snips
Once again I shaded underneath the jug – this time with my Smoky Slate blends – and added a bow of crinkle seam binding.
I hope I’ve inspired you to use this versatile neutral. I’ll be back next week with the AWH Colour Creations team to Showcase Bermuda Bay.
To purchase any of the products featured in today’s post, simply click on the product links below.
If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the 2020-21 Stampin Up! Annual Catalogue, the 2020-21 Beginners Brochure, or to simply find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm…and keep on crafting xxx
Welcome to week two of our 2020-2021 Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase.
Each week various members of our Art With Heart Colour Creations team will be bringing you weekly colour inspiration as we showcase our range of over 50 beautiful Stampin’ Up! colours in alphabetical order.
Week 2 – Basic Gray
Basic Gray is what I would call a “gunmetal” gray and part of the Neutrals collection of colours.
It is available in the following products.
Like all of the versatile neutrals, Basic Gray works with any colour, and today I’ve chosen to pair it with some other neutrals as well as two colours that really pop beside Basic Gray: Mango Melody and Crushed Curry.
Mango Melody and Crushed Curry are two colours I rarely use, but for some reason they are the first colours I seem to reach for when using any shade of grey.
All three of my cards today are CASED from the brand new 2021-22 annual Catalogue as I excitedly wait for my order to arrive!
Luckily, as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator I was able to place a pre-order for the new catalogue so I already have some of the new products, including the Lovely You punch bundle.
I love this card on page 22 of the new catalogue because it uses one of my favourite techniques – stamping your own DSP. There are seven little floral stamps in the Lovely You stamp set and they are just the perfect size for creating homemade DSP.
And here’s my CASE of this card, using the Basic Gray palette of colours that I’ve chosen for my cards today.
Strips of card stock give a ribbon effect and gilded gems add a touch of bling.
I also wanted to make a strong masculine card using Basic Gray and I was inspired by a very neutral card layout on page 124 of the catalogue. The card on the bottom right of this photo uses one of the dies from Tasteful Touches bundle and the lovely wooden papers in the “In Good Taste” Designer Series Paper .
I love taking a shortcut where ever I can, so for my card I decided to use a punch instead of a die. Using the Tailored Tag punch enabled me to make a card with a very similar layout…only much faster.
I’m very happy with how this card turned out and I’m going to make a couple more cards using this design but with different coloured card stock.
The “Happy Birthday” sentiment is from the new Blossoms in Bloom Stamp set, stamped in Versamark Ink and then heat embossed using White embossing powder.
My final card was CASED from a card on page 84 of the catalogue that features the stunning new Peony Garden Designer Series Paper. The blue card in the photo below is the one I decided to CASE.
I cannot wait to get my hands on this paper, but in the meantime I’ve recreated this card using the two of the stamps from the Tasteful Touches Stamp Set and my Mango Melody Stampin’ Blends.
This is such an easy and fun design and also a great way to add a colour to your card if you don’t have any card stock in that colour.
I’ve simply randomly stamped the flower and the branches of the card onto Whisper White card stock using my Basic Gray ink. I then carefully traced around the outline of each images with my Mango Melody Stampin’ Blend before colouring in all of the white area between each image.
The “you are so special” sentiment comes from the Tasteful Touches stamp set.
Basic Gray is such a versatile neutral – I could easily replace the Crushed Curry and the Mango Melody in any of these cards with pinks, red, purples, blues, greens, or even some foil or other neutrals. Any colours would pop really nicely beside Basic Gray.
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Art With Heart team have come up with today.
Just click on the links below to see what they’ve all made.
Thanks so much joining the Art With Heart Colour Creations Showcase. I hope we’ve inspired you to look at Basic Gray with fresh eyes.
Next Wednesday we’ll be showcasing one of the brights: Bermuda Bay. We hope you can join us all then.
To purchase any of the products featured in today’s post, simply contact your Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, any of the ladies in the AWH Colour Creations Showcase or click on the product links below.
If you’d like me to post you your very own copy of the 2020-21 Stampin Up! Annual Catalogue, the 2020-21 Beginners Brochure, or to simply find out about more about Stampin’ Up! contact me.
In the meantime, wherever you are in the world, stay safe, stay calm…and keep on crafting xxx
Welcome to week 2 of the Art With Heart Colour Creations Blog Hop!
This week we are showcasing one of the most versatile neutrals: Basic Gray.
As a quilter, I know that gray is one of the best neutrals to use as a background colour because it really makes other colour pop, but I wanted to make the Basic Gray the focus for my projects today so I’ve deliberately paired it with other neutrals, even though it looks fantastic with any colour.
For all of these cards, I’ve used one of my favourite new stamp sets: Dandelion Wishes.
For the first 2 cards, I used silver and gold foil with the Basic Gray. I stamped onto the Basic Gray cardstock with Versamark ink and then heat embossed using white embossing powder. The gold facetted gems, and a bow made of gold metallic thread and Whisper White bakers twine finished off the gold foil card. You can see the silver card in the group shots of all the cards.
I then decided to contrast the Basic Gray with black and white, and even though there are a few heat embossing mistakes on this card, I still like the contrast in the colours. I used the white Stampin’ chalk marker to draw over the Dandelion stamp. The new black cord ribbon is stunning but slippery so I made the shape of a bow (without tying it) and used glue dots to make it stick to the card. The tiny hello sentiment is from the Beautiful Bouquet stamp set.
I also just couldn’t resist pairing Basic Gray with two of my all-time favourite colours: Night of Navy and Crumb Cake. For this Night of Navy card, I used some fantastic new DSP that comes in every single Stampin’ Up! colour (you can see the different patterns in the Basic Gray example I’ve included at the start of this blog). The happy birthday sentiment is from a new hostess stamp set: Hand Delivered.
But finally, I think this last card, pairing Basic Gray with Crumb Cake, is my absolute favourite!
It was really hard to get a shot of all the cards together, but I think laying them on the different contrasting cardstocks gives a good idea of how versatile this neutral really is.
I’m really looking forward to using Basic Gray with lots of different colour combinations and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Art With Heart team have come up with today.
Just click on the links below to see what they’ve all made.
