May Good Things Grow for the Candy Heart Blog Hop

Candy Ford is a member of my InKing Royalty team and has a great group of her own, The Candy Hearts. I don’t participate in a lot of blog hops, but I’m happy to participate in today’s Candy Hearts Blog Hop.

Welcome to the Candy Hearts Blog Hop for March! Today we are sharing Spring-themed projects. After reading my post, I hope you will hop to the next person on the list below. Be sure to hop around to see ALL the great projects the Candy Hearts have created for you!

May Good Things Grow

Today’s card features a mix of soft colors, a Springtime sentiment and a beautiful collection of flowers and butterflies. Does it get any more Spring-themed than that?! Here’s a look at my sweet card for today’s hop:

Dragonfly Garden, Butterfly Beauty Dies, Blending Brushes, Stampin Up!, Brian KingThis is a familiar layout, right? We’ve been sponging circles and ovals for years with Stampin’ Up! inks and Stamping Sponges, so I’ve been creating this layout for years. The addition of Blending Brushes in Stampin’ Up!’s January – June 2021 Mini Catalog gives us a perfect excuse of blending beautiful colors together inside our circle and oval templates. Yay! Here’s a look at the Blending Brushes (you need them, but they are not orderable until inventory levels are replenished close to the end of March):

Blending Brushes, Stampin Up! 153611The Blending Brushes allow us to add soft layers of ink or create gradient background without lines. I cropped an oval with the Layering Ovals Dies and used it as a template to layer in three colors of ink with my Blending Brushes. I also added a soft So Saffron border around my focal point by applying So Saffron ink with a Blending Brush to Basic White cardstock.

After I created the soft oval of colors on the Basic White piece, I stamped the image of wild flowers in the lower, left corner with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, allowing the flowers to overlap the soft oval. I then added the sentiment (also with Memento Tuxedo Black ink). Both of the stamped images are from the Dragonfly Garden stamp set. Here’s a look:

Dragonfly Garden, Stampin Up!, 154411I added three teeny tiny butterflies that I cropped from the Butterfly Beauty Dies. All of the GORGEOUS butterflies in the newly released Butterfly Bouquet Collection are too big for this card, but the Butterfly Beauty Dies had some small butterflies that gave me just what I needed. Love! Here’s a closer look:

Dragonfly Garden, Butterfly Beauty Dies, Blending Brushes, Stampin Up!, Brian KingI gravitate toward Stampin’ Up! colors that are featured in Designer Series Papers and product suites in the catalogs. So Saffron and Rococo Rose have been featured a lot, so I’m using them a lot more lately. They came together perfectly in this sunrise combination of soft yellow, soft pink and soft blue. Score! If you like this mix of So Saffron, Rococo Rose and Pool Party as much as I do, I hope you’ll save this for future reference:

Stampin Up! Color Inspiration - So Saffron, Rococo Rose, Pool Party

Stamp Sets: Dragonfly Garden  Papers: So Saffron, Basic Black, Basic White  Inks: So Saffron, Rococo Rose, Pool Party, Memento Tuxedo Black  Accessories: Blending Brushes, Layering Ovals Dies, Butterfly Beauty Dies, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Thank you for hopping with the Hearts today! Be sure to hop around to all the stops. You do not want to miss any of the creativity in this talented group of stampers! If you get lost, use the list below:

Thanks for stopping by today! Tomorrow I’m sharing another card I created with this similar layout and color technique – I hope you’ll come back!

Brian

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Here are links to the products I used on today’s card:

 

 

36 Comments

  1. I love the colors you chose for this serene and beautiful card. And the butterflies are perfect for a finishing touch. Thanks for hopping with us today.

  2. Your soft blended oven is so pretty! Perfect backdrop for your stamped image!

  3. Stunning design. Love the idea of blending the mat border, too. Brilliant! ❤️

  4. Love the florals stamped in black and the white butterflies. Very artistic!

  5. Really love this card, your colors in the ink blending are just perfect and those tiny butterflies really make this card sing!

  6. Love how soft you blended the background. Lovely card!

  7. Beautiful blending on this stunning card. I love the look of the oval with the flowers in black. Very pretty. Thanks for your tips. Enjoy your day!

  8. Brian, this is a stunner! Beautiful!

  9. I love this card…elegant, peaceful.

  10. It’s a beauty Brian. Colors are perfect as is the blending.

  11. Your card just SCREAMS with a Spring theme my friend.

    • Thank you so much, Kadie! I was hoping for it would SOFTLY WHISPER Spring vs. SCREAM Spring, but I’ll take what I can get. 🙂 Thanks! ♥

  12. I agree with every comment above. I don’t know what’s left to say except this card is exceptional! Soft and bright at the same time. Smoothing and exciting at the same time. How DO you continue to impress me day after day after day?

    • Thank you so much, Grace! You are one of the reasons I can keep going day after day – it’s kind comments like yours that challenge me to share. ♥

  13. This sweet card is soft as a whisper. It’s really lovely. Thanks for hopping!

  14. Such a sweet card ! Love the soft dreamy colors and baby butterflies .

    • Thank you so much, Sonny! The butterflies are full-grown butterflies (not babies) – maybe they look so small since they are beside the ginormous weeds? 🙂 Thanks!

  15. Thanks for making me remember that I used to LOVE doing these types of cards. How can I forget? Yours is sweet and lovely as can be. TFS

  16. Nice pop of soft color against the black stamped flowers. So pretty! I am totally addicted to rubbing my fingers over those little soft brushes. I need to use them to make a card one day…lol.

    • One day…one day. Thank you so much, Pam! It was a fun card to make. I do love a sponged oval – made especially wonderful with these brushes.

  17. Brian, this card just exudes peace. Love it!

  18. A lovely card–so soft. I’m thinking it looks like a layer of very vanilla behind the black, but I don’t see that listed anywhere.

  19. This is absolutely stunning, Brian! I love your softly blended sky!!!!

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