NC Demos December Blog Hop – Ending the Year with Designer Series Paper!

Hello everyone!  I’m so glad to be back in the lineup for the monthly NC demo blog hop!  I really messed up last month by not having my post ready to send to Tracie Evans Langley (our Blog Hop Fearless Leader!) in time for the hop 🙁  I hate to miss these events because there are always so many talented demonstrators who participate and I always come away with new ideas.  So, having said that, you probably just came here from Tracie Evans Langley’s blog and I know she shared an amazing project 🙂

Our guidelines this month were to use some of our beautiful Designer Series Papers and embellishments from the Annual Catalog.  We usually have 2 active catalogs at any given time, our Annual comes out in June, and then we have 2 mini catalogs that come out in the 1st half (Jan – Jun) and 2nd half (Jul-Dec) of each year.  And sometimes we get really excited when the mini’s come out and our Annual catalog products don’t get the love they deserve.  So this is a good time to delve back into that catalog and feature the beautiful projects there.

One of my very favorite suites in the Annual catalog is the Peony Garden Suite.  And I absolutely love the DSP colors!  Gray has become one of my favorite neutrals.  And while this DSP has some beautiful floral patterns, there are some pretty awesome geometric patterns as well.  And they are perfect for stamping directly onto those patterns.  So that’s what I did for my projects.  I created one card that used monotones, and the other I added a little color to.  (My designs are based on a card I saw from Ronda Wade, I just made a few adjustments to my versions)

For both cards, I started with a base of Gray Granite cardstock, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2, scored at 4 1/4.  Next, I cut the first DSP pattern showing the floral side at 5 1/4 x 2 1/2.  The Gray Granite Shimmer ribbon was wrapped around the DSP and then a bow was tied on the front for the monotone card.  I tied 3 separate pieces of ribbon for the colored version.

Then for the focal image, I used a piece of Whisper White cardstock at 4 x 3, and a geometric pattern of DSP at 3 3/4 x 2 3/4.  I stamped the Peony image directly on the geometric DSP using Memento Black ink.  You could use Gray Granite ink, but I wanted a little more emphasis for the image.   Stamping on top of a pattern gives the image more depth, I think.  For the colored version, I used Old Olive and Calypso Coral inks and a Q-tip to add a little color to the image.  The focal image panels were added with dimensionals to the card front and finished off with the Elegant Faceted Gems.  I used the Dark Calypso Coral Blend marker to color the white gems on the colored version.  And I used 2 different sentiments from the stamp set to finish off the card.  And of course, a card of mine would not be complete without Wink of Stella, which I applied to the darker parts of the Peony.

The monotone version great card for a casual stamper as it uses minimal supplies and steps.  The colored version would be a slight step up.

Here are a few more pics:

Thanks for visiting my blog and please continue on to see what the rest of our talented group has to share.  Tina Lesson is next and she has a great fun fold card to share with you!

Toni Campana===YOU ARE HERE!
Tina Lesson
Amy Kinler
Laurie Meier
Dawn Colby
Jo Anne Hewins
Tracie Evans Langley

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