For this card, I drew inspiration from the gorgeous Inkspirational mood board, choosing a warm and natural color palette of Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Azure Afternoon, and Balmy Blue. The layers and textures truly brought the design to life, combining embossing, die cuts, and the rich sentiment from the Grateful Blessing stamp set.
I began by running a piece of Crushed Curry through the Cut & Emboss Machine with the Changing Leaves Hybrid Embossing Folder. This created a lovely, detailed texture that sets a natural tone for the card. The sentiment, “You Are Loved,” was stamped in Misty Moonlight on Basic White cardstock. I then used the Stylish Shapes dies to cut out the sentiment, giving it a clean, polished look. To complement this, I die-cut some leaves from Early Espresso using the Changing Leaves dies.
For the layout, I created a base with thick Basic White cardstock, layering a piece of Early Espresso and then the beautifully embossed Crushed Curry on top. I added strips of Azure Afternoon and Balmy Blue across the card, balancing the warm, earthy tones with cooler blues. On one side of the card, I adhered the sentiment circle, tucking the die-cut leaves underneath and fanning them out toward the side with the blue strips. This added depth and interest to the design. As a final touch, I scattered some Neutrals Adhesive-Backed Sequins in a rich brown color to tie the whole look together.
This card is also my entry into several challenges:
- Cut It Up #314, where I was inspired by the song “Unconditionally” by Katy Perry for the challenge theme of Inspired By a Song and used a die cut as required.
- The Paper Players #710, where the theme “Love is in the Air” aligns perfectly with my sentiment and design.
- Inkspirational #326, where the mood board guided my color choices and overall style.
Measurements (in inches):
- Base (Thick Basic White) – 11 x 4-1/4
- Crushed Curry (Embossed) – 4-3/8 x 3-3/8
- Early Espresso (around Embossed piece) 4-1/2 x 3-1/2
- Azure Afternoon – 3/4 x 3-1/2
- Balmy Blue – 1/2 x 3-1/2
- scrap of Early Espresso and scrap of Basic White for leaves and sentiment to be die cut
- Inside – Basic White 4-3/8 x 3-3/8, coordinating cardstock 4-1/2 x 3-1/2 and 4 x 5-1/4
Don’t forget to check out the shorts video for a behind-the-scenes look at this project.
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The subtle leaf embossing, mixed with those striking dark die cut leaves and the strong block of colour all add up to a stunner! Thanks for joining in my theme challenge at The Paper Players.
Thank you, Jan! What a wonderful challenge this week at The Paper Players!
The embossed leaves are gorgeous! This color combo is fabulous and those dark die cut leaves just pop! Lovely! So happy you joined us at The Paper Players this week!
Thank you so much! I really enjoyed the challenge at The Paper Players this week!
Julia those embossed leaves are lovely and the diecut leaves accent your sentiment (which I love for its simplicity) beautifully. A great card! Thanks for sharing with us over at The Paper Players this week!
Thank you so much, Joanne. I appreciate your comment.
So pretty!! I love your black accents; they really pop and that embossed background is fabulous!! Thanks for playing with Cut It Up Challenge.
Thanks, Heather! The Cut It Up challenge was a really good one and fun to play along.
Your card features a lovely combination of images, colours and textured inspired by the mood board. Such pretty results. I’m especially smitten with your embossed background; beautiful! Thank you for joining us at Inkspirational.
~carol
Thank you so much, Carol! The mood board from Inkspirations was amazing and I really enjoyed this challenge!