Festive Fireplace for PPA278

There are so many wonderful greens in Stampin’ Up!’s color families.  The most vibrant and most festive is Cucumber Crush, one of the 2015-2017 In Colors introduced earlier this year.  I haven’t used it very much, but it’s certainly perfectly paired with Real Red and Crumb Cake in this week’s Pals Paper Arts color challenge.  Fun and festive were made easy with this bright and brilliant green as a base.  Here’s my card:

And here’s the banner for the challenge that inspired my card:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders

• Quick Snip.  I picked up the Festive Fireplace photopolymer stamp set some weeks ago after some hemming and hawing.  I had some Stampin’ Rewards left after an order and just added it in.  I didn’t pick up the coordinating Framelits (the bundle is a good buy), knowing I would have to snip away at anything I needed to crop.  With that in mind, I stamped the mantle and stockings on Thick Whisper White card stock.  I stamped the mantle again on Crumb Cake and gave it a quick snip – nothing difficult about that.  Just a quick snip.
• Small Circles and Twice.  These stockings are stamped with Archival Basic Black ink and colored with Stampin’ Write Makers.  For a bold, bright look, I colored the stockings in tiny circles all the way through.  I then let the stockings dry and colored them again.  Even close-up, they have a solid appearance that makes them stand out on the card.   While there are three patterns of stocking in the set, I used the same one for the stocking on the left and right – it allowed me to showcase the bold colors and achieve the balance I wanted.  The other stocking is designed with thin, vertical stripes – nice pattern, but it just didn’t give me what I was looking for with these colors.
• Finding Balance.  There are lots of off-center elements on this card, but the project is still very balanced.  While the mantle is centered in the oval and the largest stocking is centered between the smaller ones, that’s about it.  The stockings are off-center on the mantle, but the Real Red circle (with the sentiment) helps to balance that out a bit.  The red circle was a little heavier than I anticipated, so I placed the oval-and-circle combination a little farther to the right than center.  When I squinted, it all looked balanced to me.  I smiled and gave myself a nickel.  (If you’d like to see my Squinting Technique video – click here).

Stamp Sets:  Festive Fireplace  Papers:  Real Red, Crumb Cake, Thick Whisper White, Cherry on Top Designer Series Paper Stack  Inks:  Archival Basic Black, Stampin’ Write Markers (Cucumber Crush, Real Red, Crumb Cake)  Accessories:  White Stampin’ Emboss Powder, 1-1/2″ Circle punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I hope you’ll pop over to the Pals Paper Arts site to see the cards by the design team members and to play along with this week’s challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian