Thursday, September 22, 2011

Silver And Blue.....

What is your colour scheme at Christmas time?  Do you have one?  Are your decorations all red, reds and greens, golds, coppers, pinks and greens, silver and blue?  The list goes on and on but the beauty of Christmas is, there are no rules! 

So many wonderful combinations are used in homes around the world at Christmas time and up until now all my Christmas projects have been the ever traditional colours of red and green.  Today, I thought I would create something a little different.




A hanging wreath in Silver and Blue.  



For this wreath, I started by embossing a circle on my card giving me something that resembles a metal ring like you find on the back of most wreaths.  This way I will be sure that my wreath will end up round by the time I'm finished.  Nothing worse that a wonky shaped wreath, trust me!




I chose 3 different shades of silver.  The top group of leaves as you can see is very shiny.  The group on the bottom left has a bit of sparkle and a slight shine and the last group on the right is a mat silver.  The three colours together will give the wreath a bit of depth and interest which I like.




So here I've created the first row and I used all one colour for this.



For the second row, I once again used all one colour.  I used the silver with a bit of sparkle for the first (inside) row and the mat silver for the second (outside) row.  You can now see the wreath beginning to take shape.



For the third row I used the last colour, the shiny silver.  The reason I used the colours as I did was to create a pattern.  It helped me to make sure I got all three colours on the card and not too many of the same colour in one spot.  Now that I have a good start I am able to build from here.  I will finish the wreath with the remaining leaves and having that great foundation like I mentioned in my previous posts makes for a well balanced, pleasing to the eye creation.  From this point on I will carefully add the stem from each additional leaf added, under one of the previously glued leaves.  By doing this all stems will eventually be covered, I promise!!



Here is a look at the finished wreath and you can see there are no stems showing.  I also wanted to show how I carefully slid a piece of ribbon under the leaves to create the look of the wreath being hung by a ribbon - so easy! 




I love adding bows....



Once again...here is my card.   I'm really thrilled with the look of this one and the colour combination is just lovely.  I took pictures of the wreath straight on but the shiny silver leaves came out this awful brown colour and it didn't look very nice.  Maybe Santa will bring me a new camera????

I hope you've enjoyed this little tutorial and were inspired to create your own wreath.  If I can add just one little tip...don't try to make it perfect.  Too much fussing causes problems and just letting it flow is when the best results happen. 

Items used for this card are as follows,
Paper - Card - Brocade Blue from Stampin Up (cut at 6 1/2" X 10" scored at 5" on the long side)
           Three different shades of silver for the wreath
Ribbon - Curly ribbon from a spool
Punch - Martha Stewart leaf punch

Wherever you are in your day, I hope you're enjoying it!
Wishing you many wonderful creations


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6 comments:

  1. Beautiful and very classy looking.

    Toni xx

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  2. How fantastic! And what a brilliant tip to emboss the circle - you clever little Elf!! Congrats on your G Niece's arrival (on my birthday too!). As you say, goosebumps over Annie's daughter M - fingers and toes still crossed here but news sounds better. Big hugs, Di xx

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  3. I love this - the way you've added layer upon layer. It's so pretty. My Christmas colors tend to be pretty traditional, red and green but I have added more jewel tones in recent years and I lean more toward silver than gold. That's probably why I'm so drawn to your card! :)

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  4. That is beautiful! And thanks for sharing in process shots. :)

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  5. I love all your Christmassy things, especially all that greenery. Our Christmas theme is just a mixture of all the things we have had around for years, including ornaments which I had as a child, so colours are totally mixed up. Christmas to me is red and green and glittery.

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