The Frilly & Funkie Design Team is apparently overwhelmed by all the color in the past few challenges and, on April 25, challenged participates to take on a "Neutral Point Of View"! Colors available for use are black, white, gray, brown, beige, cream, ivory; even gold and silver. Although some points or pops of color are permitted, the neutrals should be the main focus.
As I read the challenge, I didn't see the "pops of color" part and decided to go totally monochromatic. Now I have done some monochromatic cards for past Frilly & Funkie challenges, and one or two of them were even neutral (eg. May 13, 2015 "Snap Crackle Crackle" was in browns; June 21, 2017 "With This Ring" and July 19, 2017 "Christmas in July" were in blacks and silvers) but this one gave me trouble from the get-go.
I decided on a black-grey-white-silver color scheme, but I didn't have a card theme --- I decided to just let the card tell me what it was going to be.
My first step was a smooshed Distress Ink background using "Pumice Stone", "Hickory Smoke" and "Black Soot" rubbed on an acrylic block, spritzed with water and then "smooshed" over a cut of Neena Solar White card. A little touch of "Hickory Smoke" and "Black Soot" Distress Oxides blended around the edges finished it off::
As I read the challenge, I didn't see the "pops of color" part and decided to go totally monochromatic. Now I have done some monochromatic cards for past Frilly & Funkie challenges, and one or two of them were even neutral (eg. May 13, 2015 "Snap Crackle Crackle" was in browns; June 21, 2017 "With This Ring" and July 19, 2017 "Christmas in July" were in blacks and silvers) but this one gave me trouble from the get-go.
I decided on a black-grey-white-silver color scheme, but I didn't have a card theme --- I decided to just let the card tell me what it was going to be.
My first step was a smooshed Distress Ink background using "Pumice Stone", "Hickory Smoke" and "Black Soot" rubbed on an acrylic block, spritzed with water and then "smooshed" over a cut of Neena Solar White card. A little touch of "Hickory Smoke" and "Black Soot" Distress Oxides blended around the edges finished it off::
Now for a second piece of Neena Solar White, Versamark and white embossing powder, a WOW! floral background stamp, and blended Distress Oxide "Hickory Smoke" for a resist look:
Here is where this card flummoxed me... see that blotch in the bottom left flower? Well, I was trying a technique I had seen from Jennifer McGuire where she removed/altered Distress Oxides with a water brush. Well, either I did it wrong, or "Hickory Smoke" doesn't show that much different when wet, but some of the paper started rubbing away! Ooops. In order to "fix" this piece, I tried using "Picket Fence" distress Marker to lighten the larger flowers (leaving the smaller ones untouched) and that helped a little... I then painted (with a water brush) "Hickory Smoke" Distress Oxide between of the flowers to set them off from each other.
Next step was to fussy cut this background so it was only half as big...
Next step was to fussy cut this background so it was only half as big...
Now this floral panel didn't stand out well against the background. My attempt to remedy this was to glue the panel to a strip of textured matte black card and fussy cut a black border.
Then I had to trim both the floral panel and the background to the same width, and layer them on white card and then on a black greeting card blank, trimmed to size. By now, the "Hickory Smoke" Distress Oxide in the spaces between flowers had dried and had lightened a little TOO much for me so, I went back in with a "Black Soot" Marker" on a few of these spaces so the flowers stood out more and the black edge at the top of the floral panel wasn't as "different" and stark...
Then I had to trim both the floral panel and the background to the same width, and layer them on white card and then on a black greeting card blank, trimmed to size. By now, the "Hickory Smoke" Distress Oxide in the spaces between flowers had dried and had lightened a little TOO much for me so, I went back in with a "Black Soot" Marker" on a few of these spaces so the flowers stood out more and the black edge at the top of the floral panel wasn't as "different" and stark...
It needed a little somethin' somethin' so I added some white flowers with white pearl centers for dimension:
Finally, I had a theme! Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil! But did I have stickers, rub-ons, stamps, dies that would say something like that? Of course not! So I resorted to printing out words on our ink jet printer, trimming them down, applying them to a glossy black and then a glossy white layer, and I had my sentiment! A pair of flowers to set off the banner and I had my card... but it still wasn't right.
I smudged some Distress Crayon "Picket Fence" on the lighter flowers to whiten them even more and added some silver paint to the centers of all the stamped flowers to add some shine:
I smudged some Distress Crayon "Picket Fence" on the lighter flowers to whiten them even more and added some silver paint to the centers of all the stamped flowers to add some shine:
Notice that the smudge in the lower left flower is less obvious so THAT fix worked. But my sentiment makes the card a little top-heavy and the ...Oh well...
Products used in the making of this card were:
Products used in the making of this card were:
- Stamps: WOW! “Tropical” (STAMPSET28)
- Inks: Distress Oxides ”Hickory Smoke “ and “Black Soot”; Distress Inks “Hickory Smoke”, “Black Soot”, Pumice Stone” and “Picket Fence”; Distress Markers “Picket Fence” and “Black Soot”; Distress Crayons “Picket Fence:, Marvy Uchida “Liquid Silver”; Versamark
- Papers: Neena Solar white; DMD Greeting Card “black” (GRC01027); scraps of black, gloss black and gloss white
- Embellishments: Prima Flowers “Pura - Alexa” (655350)
- Adhesives: RedLine 1/8” Embossing Tape,; Distress Collage Medium
RSS Feed
