SSS Color Coordinates: Shari Carroll's Purple | Love Card featuring Lawn Fawn

I came across a post from Shari Carroll either on Instagram or Facebook, and was fascinated by the combination of colors! Blues, greens, and purples :)

Beginning with this concept, I began to look through my paper stash for comparable colors as I only have a few SSS dye inks. Most of my dye inks are CTMH and Stampin' Up! Once I got together the colors, I looked through my box of new stamp sets and decided these colors would go great with the Octopi My Heart stamp set from Lawn Fawn. I stamped out the Octopus onto Strathmore Bristol Smooth Paper and pulled some Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers that followed the color combo and would look great on the octopus.

Unfortunately, despite my many tries to make a purple octopus, I was unsuccessful. I tried using two colors of zig markers, using 2 colors plus water, 1 color plus water, and mixing water and the color to apply it right to the octopus. No matter what, I ended up with some wonky coloring that just wasn't right. The purples may have just had too much pigment, I'm not really sure. I ended up using all the colors and finishing a card - but in the end, there were a lot of things I wanted to change so I started over!

I took some critical feedback from my hubby (yes, he takes my card making as seriously as I do, lol), and I came up with a similar concept but a new direction of getting there. Unfortunately, the end product would NOT include all the coordinating colors listed above, but instead, just some purples and blues.

I began my card over by re-stamping the octopus image and trying some new colors to color it. I went with more a hydrangea color this time by blending Zig 302 Haze Blue and 803 English Lavender, and the amount of pigment in the colors I used wasn't as wet or concentrated, making it possible to blend smoothly. I worked on a few, and in the end, I had two good-looking octopi, so I decided to use both!

Next, I decided to recreate my waves using a different technique. Instead of just solid color waves and vellum covering them, I created waves with CTMH's Lagoon Cardstock and ever other wave with Bazzill Vellum Paper. This looked A LOT better and made it possible for me to incorporate the octopi and have them more visible than when they were placed behind the vellum. In order to hide the adhesive holding down the vellum, I used MFT's Stitched Rectangle Frames Die to die-cut the medium rectangle in Stampin' Up!'s Wisteria Wonder Cardstock and used that as a border around the waves.

Next, I decided to create my own background for the sky as previously I had used the same color cardstock as the waves since the vellum made the waves appear as a different color - that wouldn't work with this new design. I pulled my distress inks and Ranger Watercolor Paper, then blended together Dusty Concord and Broken China for a winter sunset type of look. I then cut this down to be adhered to the top part of the frame.

Because I didn't want to completely hide the sky I created, I decided to die-cut a small white banner using MFT's Stitched Fishtail Flag Dies and stamped the sentiment "you octopi my heart. I then adhered that to the sky part of my card with foam tape. I ended up popping the frame up as well with some 3M Foam Adhesive and adhering the whole piece to a 4.25x5.5" piece of Stampin' Up!'s Elegant Eggplant Cardstock. I finished off the card with some Clear Wink of Stella and created a bow from the Elegant Eggplant Cardstock for my girl octopus. I also added some die cut vellum hearts using SSS's Mini Hearts Outline Dies to represent "love bubbles" in the ocean ;) I was much happier with the way this turned out!

This challenge showed me that sometimes I may have a great idea, but it doesn't come out so great the first time when I try to create it - doesn't mean I can't just TRY AGAIN! I did not completely give up on my original idea; I just modified some things to make it work. Card making really does involve a lot of improvising, and I did this a lot while creating this card. I made some mistakes, some things didn't work out as I had imagined, so I modified my idea and went with the flow of creating. That's what makes us card makers creative! Now, my final card may NOT include all the colors above, but I made it mine :)

Because I used some new products to me, I am entering this into the Simon Says: New Something card challenge :)

Thanks for stopping by! Happy crafting :)

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