Sugar and Spice — and Holly
NEW RELEASE from Simon Says Stamp! Sugar and Spice is here! It is a lot of holiday, a lot of winter, and some wonderful stamps (including some very good greetings) and dies and more for everyday.
You can take a look at the complete Sugar and Spice release from Simon Says Stamp HERE!
Techniques:
This card showcases the Narrow Holly Cluster and Fancy Joy & Cheer dies. This is actually a simple card, since it is created mostly with die cuts, but I liked the clean and modern feel that the arch gives the design.
I die cut an arch using the Nested Domed Arches dies, and used that as foundation for the Holly Cluster. I used navy blue inside, to create a sense of depth or window. (Use your imagination…) The dark center balances with the lighter shade of the Fog A2 Folded Card Base.
Having the Holly branch come from within the arch, but extend beyond the frame of it creates a dynamic energy in design. I cut both from the same shade of olive green, and let the dimension and detail of the Holly leaf die provide the differentiation between the two.
I appreciate that the die set comes with the stem with leaves, but also a separate leaf die, so it is easy to add on more leaves where I want to.
I added in some additional berry clusters in chocolate brown, and used the berry die to cut a bunch of berries from metallic gold cardstock. I added those at the top and bottom of the holly stem - on top of the berry clusters and even a couple of others so I could create the flow that I wanted.
The greeting cut from bright white cardstock stands out from the rest of the card, though the flared serifs on the ascenders of the letterforms related nicely to the shapes of the holly leaves. They felt like a perfect match for each other, in terms of style.
Techniques:
On this card I took advantage of the long straight stem of the holly branch as a separation line between two sections of a color blocked background. The stem wasn’t quite long enough to reach the whole 5.5” of vertical length that I wanted (though it would have fit fine horizontally) so I used the separate leaf die that’s part of the set and extended it in line up at the top of the branch. It extends beyond the card panel intentionally to bring a dynamic energy to the design. I cut those holly pieces from metallic silver cardstock.
The blue panel to the right is embossed with the Cubical Illusion embossing folder. The geometric pattern is a good contrast to the organic shapes of the holly leaves, and the scale balances well with both the holly and the color blocked spaces because it is a smaller scale and more of a background pattern size than either of those.
As I chose my colors for the color blocked background, I intentionally chose two that were nearby on the color wheel, but of different value. The green (Concord & 9th Evergreen) is much darker than the dusty blue (Concord & 9th Lakefront).
A few red holly berries add a warm pop to the design.
To tie in a greeting, I cut the inner “joy” die from the Holiday Duo dies from the same metallic silver as the holly. (There’s also a shadow die for the word in the set.)
Thank you for visiting! More to come.
I hope you get to create something soon.
Links are below if you’re interested in any of the products I used.
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