I love the Shaded Summer stamps and the coordinating Summer Shadows Dies. The florals are just exquisite, and they coordinate wonderfully even though they offer great design opportunities separately.
Tone-on-tone designs are wonderful choices for formal cards. But if the method is easily done, why not treat ourselves to it on many other occasions? And so, I played around with a die cut version of tone-on-tone with this card.
I love pink and gray – and yellow and gray – and probably a lot of other colors with gray…I really like gray, apparently! But pink and gray is among my favorite – and Stampin’ Up!’ Smoky Slate is a beautiful soft gray with blue undertones. It is perfect with Blushing Bride.
There are very few card cuts for this one – but it doesn’t take away from the richness of the design:
| # | Measurements | Notes | |
| Stampin’ Up! Blushing Bride Card Stock | 1 | 5-1/4” x 8-1/2” | Scored along the long side at 4-1/4”. |
| Stampin’ Up! Basic White Card Stock | 1 | 4” x 5-1/4” | This panel will be a matt on the card face. |
| Stampin’ Up! Basic White Card Stock | 1 | 4” x 5-1/4” | Inside message panel. |
| Stampin’ Up! Smoky Slate Card Stock | 1 | 3-3/4” x 5” | This is the base for the tone-on-tone panel on the card face. |
| Stampin’ Up! Smoky Slate Card Stock | Scraps | You will need enough Smoky Slate card stock scraps to create the flower die cuts that will be the tone-on-tone design. | |
| Stampin’ Up! Basic White Card Stock | 1 | 1” x 4-1/4” | This will be the mat for the sentiment strip on the card face. |
| Stampin’ Up! Blushing Bride Card Stock | 1 | ¾” x 4-1/4” | This strip will provide the sentiment strip as well as the mounting for the floral image on the card face. |
| Stampin’ Up! Basic White Card Stock | 1 | Scrap | This scrap needs to be large enough to stamp and die cut the focal floral image on the card face. |
I started with the stamped images. First, I used the large floral image from Shaded Summer to create the die cut image that will be the focal point of the card face. It is stamped with Blushing Bride ink and die cut using the coordinating die from the Summer Shadows die set. But if you have the ink out, you may as well do the stamping on the inside panel. I used the smaller floral image, stamped in the upper right corner of the sentiment panel.
Memento Black ink provided the crisp sentiment on the inside of the card as well as on the message panel for the card face.
Now comes the fun part of this design! I decided to use a Stampin’ Up! Adhesive Sheet on the reverse side of my Smoky Slate cardstock. With this technique, you will find that adhering the images will be much easier than gluing these very detailed images.
I used the open flower, open leaf stem, the small flower, and the solid leaf dies from Summer Shadows dies. My usual habit is to create a lot of the same die cuts in a single session so that I have them for more than just one card. But that is your choice for sure! If I have leftover images after all of my cards are made, I store them in a clear plastic bag with the die set so that they are there when I reach for the set again. (Why you ask? Because otherwise, I will forget that I even made them in the first place!!)
Once I had enough images, I did a dry layout so that I could arrange the flowers and leaves in a way with which I was happy. A number of these images will hang off the page – but you can trim them later on. And often the pieces that you trim are usable elsewhere!
I started adhering the larger images first and then adhered the smaller ones around. Once that was complete, I turned the Smoky slate panel over and trimmer the “stickie-outies.” (I believe that this would be called a “stickie-outie-ectomy” – if I were using a more technical term…)
Be sure that you make this panel look continuous and without “bald spots” on the edges. You will see that I have some very tiny pieces of design in the corners and on the edges. A number of these were the leftovers after I trimmed.
At this point, it is all about creating and mounting the front panel.
One other note: I never like the look of paper strip edges on layered cards. It is a very fussy thing and probably involves my overthinking this stuff…but it does bother me. So, all of my paper strips are cut longer than the card width so that I can wrap them around the panel. I think that it is more finished look – but…. well…perhaps obsessive. I mention it because I always avoided this type of design until I tried it like this. Now, I love it!
Once assembled, I used a very simple arrangement of 3 White Basic Pearls – I mean, really…doesn’t gray and pink call for pearls? It was definitely a Jackie O thing…
I mounted the completed front panel to the face of the card, using Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Thanks so much for stopping in to see today’s design. I think that this combination of Shaded Summer Stamps and the Summer Shadows Dies have some great potential and I’m thinking that you will see more from me on that!
Here is a list of the products that I used for this card. Please give me a holler if you have any questions or if you find a better way to do this:
Very pretty! Love the colors and the layering is perfect! 🙂
Thank you, Amy! I am apparently just an 80s holdout…I still love my pink and gray! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Lovely card. Tone on tone is a favorite of mine as well. The way you wrap a strip around the panel is a finished look for sure. TFS
Thanks, Sue – I think that pictures and the reality of cards is often different – with reality making us look and say “well, THAT’S not as perfect as I want”. Or maybe it’s just a sign of an obsessive mind!!! And like you, I just love the elegance of a tone-on-tone card! Thanks so much for commenting!! It’s so nice to see you again!