Color Hues Challenge – Red & Grey

I’m always a bit slow when it comes to entering card challenges – last year I think I only entered ONE! I will try to do better this year hahaha.

I noted a friend had entered a card in this Color Hues Challenge and I was inspired to try it out for myself. Red and Grey – couldn’t be too difficult right? Well. 5 different things cut out, coloured, inked etc and I was no closer to completing a single card than when I started!

You can enter here too – this challenge closes on January 14, 9am (EST)

I finally settled on this – a card using the Simon Says Stamp layered stencil set. The stencil set is so cool, I saw it featured on Jennifer McGuire’s blog and promptly ordered it – and of course it has sat in my stencil box for over a YEAR without being used! So this challenge fulfils another of my personal challenges, to USE my stash.

I started off with Gina K Designs Soft Stone cardstock, which is a soft, pretty grey. I used my cute little Concord and 9th mini inks in both Poppy and Cranberry for the flowers, Hero Arts Unicorn White Pigment ink for one of the leaf stencils and Silver Glacier paste for the other leaf stencil. I used Nuvo Red Glimmer paste for the berries layer. I was really happy with the final result. I cut down the panel to around 4″ x 5.25″.

To finish, I stacked the Gina K Designs Hello die a few times, inking up the top layer with the Concord and 0th inks again, added shimmer and a generous layer of Nuvo Morning Dew crystal drops for shine. This is placed on a strip of Platinum Vellum stretched across and a little sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words.

I felt it needed a little lift with a darker grey, and I used Lawn Fawn Narwhal as a mat layer behind, which is then adhered to the card base.

I cut the pieces out of red, grey and white cardstocks and played out with it until I had it in layers that I liked. I created a panel with Gina K Designs Soft Stone cardstock, heat embossed with the MFT Numbers background stamp and placed on a darker grey cardstock. This time, I used a cardstock from my local stationery store, called Wrought Iron.

The big Birthday is from Hero Arts and I die cut it and stacked it a few times with a black glitter layer on top. The tiny Happy Birthday is from the Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Birthday set. The card base is a dark red, Gina K Designs Red Velvet.