PP141: Just Be Happy

It’s Sunday.  Let’s all say it together – “it’s time for another Paper Players Design Challenge!”

This week, Anne Marie Hile selected four amazing colors for this color challenge:  Island Indigo, Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake and Rich Razzleberry.  Wowzers!  That’s quite a combination of colors: one subtle, one neutral, one bold and one in-color.  I love all of these colors on their own, but it was a certainly a challenge to put them all together in a card.  I love the end result, though.  Here’s what I made:Pursuit of Happiness, Clockworks

And here’s the banner for the challenge (you can click on the image to see the other design team inspiration cards:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders:

  • A Muted Background.  I kept the background colors as muted as possible.  While Island Indigo and Rich Razzleberry are beautiful, I didn’t want them to steal the show from the soft combination of Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze.  I stamped the light Clockworks image in Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze.  Most of the images shown are second generation stamped (stamped off on a scrap sheet of paper and then stamped on the Very Vanilla cardstock).  I added a little “flair” with a second generation stamp of Rich Razzleberry with the water spot stamp from French Foliage.
  • Building the sentiment background.  I was excited to use the Basic Label single stamp I recently purchased, and I was happy how wonderfully the sentiment fits inside.  But the cropped image needed some layers behind it.  I trimmed some rectangles with my trimmer and added two punched circles (I used the 1″ and 1-1/4″ Circle punches).  They really add a lovely element to this sentiment.
  • Front and center.  I mentioned that I tried to mute the brightness of Island Indigo and Rich Razzleberry – and I think I succeeded at that.  Here’s the funny thing – these two colors are front and center on the card.  I stamped the sentiment with Island Indigo and stamped it again with Rich Razzleberry.  I snipped the word “happy” in Rich Razzleberry and added it to the Island Indigo sentiment.  Funny that these colors are kinda missing in the card – yet they are both front and center.

Stamp sets:  Clockworks, Pursuit of Happiness, Basic Label, French Foliage  Inks:  Rich Razzleberry, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Island Indigo  Papers:  Baja Breeze, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla  Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, 1″ Circle punch, 1-1/4″ Circle punch, 1/2″ Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon, 3/16″ Neutral Brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Brian

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26 Comments

  1. Love the patchwork effect Brian. A perfectly pretty, gentle card for a Sunday morning!

  2. I love it ! I love the sentiment (I don`t know why I don`t have it ) and the softness of the colors . I was expecting a color explosion as I scrolled down but, was surprised to see such muted and soft combinations ….Very pretty !

  3. Barbara ! I received your beautiful card and thank you Brian for sending it to me . I like what you did with the color over the embossed image . I am going to try that and hope it turns out as pretty as yours . And who wouldn`t love those pearls ….!

  4. Very beautiful card, Brian. I too love the soft colors and the way you combined them. The water spot stamp alone is worth getting that stamp set and in this card, those water marks look really lovely. I love the sentiment, it’s so true, sometimes we kind of forget to enjoy what truly makes us happy because we are to busy to notice the beauty of the simple things.
    Oh Brian, I too received one of my swap cards yesterday and this one came all the way from Essex, England!!!!! Thank you so much Vicki for your beautiful card. I love the way you built that little nest, OMG!! so cute and the little bird perched on that branch is precious. You guys will see what I mean when our dear host posts all the cards he received for this swap. Thank you again, Vicki.

  5. Such a beautifully soft background you’ve stamped, Brian! The stamping-off was a great idea for this color pallet – I do love them in their “natural state”, but muted, they are such a lovely setting for your focal point. And aren’t you clever the way you matted the sentiment stamp!?!?! I LOVE it! I just got that label stamp, too, and I will definitely be using your matting idea. Thank you!!!! The “happy” stamped in Razzleberry and “snipped & popped up” is the perfect touch … otherwise, I think even the darker Island Indigo wouldn’t be enough to give “happy” the spotlight in the sentiment that it needs to get the message across. Well done all around, Mr. King! 😉

  6. This is SO beautiful, Brian. I too expected the colours to be a little garish, but they’re so muted and pretty. Definitely one I will CASE. Thank you for sharing.

  7. Great job, Brian. I kept thinking, where did he find that DSP? Hope all is well.

  8. The circles were genius. I am going to remember that little trick. And your 2G stamping for the background, love that, too!

  9. I never would have thought of building the layers the way you did with the circle punches and rectangles. Absolutely brilliant Brian. You’ve done it again!

  10. I’m always impressed with your way of using tools to make something coordinate, such as the addition of circles to the rectangle on this card. Brilliant!

  11. Such a soft and beautiful card! I love this one.

  12. I LOVE this card!! Everything about it, especially the background. I want to do one like this. Beautiful!! Go Brian!

  13. Wow! This card is gorgeous – you really have a flair for the artistic style, while keeping the card un-fussy. I love it!

  14. Another up and over the top, Brian. Your card is absolutely gorgeous and I love the way you did the layers and BG. Sorry that I totally forgot about the swap, but you understand why. Maybe I’ll be able to join the next one. God surely has blessed you with talent! ;D

  15. Thanks for the building the sentiment background info–can’t wait to try it out!

  16. Use of the circles to match the mat of the die is genius. I will have to keep that in my memory file for future use. Nice use of color to have it end up soft and gentle. I’m going to have to play with those colors myself.

  17. Brian, you are a geniius!!! The tip for the circles to mimic the layering is brilliant. Thanks for ll your inspiration and smiles.

  18. This is really cool….I love the muted effect! I just used this set yesterday at the Baltimore Regionals, and I am hooked! It was on my wish list but was at the bottom…now I think it’s right at the top!

  19. Great way to show the versatility of these colors!

  20. You really pulled off creating a bold card in a subtle way, Brian. I love to create layers behind framelits too. I especially am fond of making a layer between the Window Frames Collection with squares and circles! Love this card as I do all of your creations. Oh, during a late night surf, I watched your Dimensionals video and the next day- used your tip on how to lift off a panel without messing up my card. For that little tip- I am thankful. I have ruined a few cards that bent when I tried to remove something- now, just a paper snip underneath!

  21. Gorgeous….love the softness of your design/colors and your layers….very clever!

  22. I love the way you chose to go the muted route with this card Brian! That’s a clever way to make a mat for that fabulous label too and I like the pop of Rich Razzleberry you’ve used for the word ‘happy’.

  23. Such a beautiful background, Brian! I LOVE it!

  24. Clever way to do the layers and I love Clockworks! 🙂

  25. What a fantastic way to showcase the colors, Brian! I love that background! Wowza! SO perfect with the layered sentiment. Awesome job! 🙂

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