Elevate Your Greenery with Bold, Dark Ink Blending & Shading | Rachel Alvarado

Hello friends! It's Rachel here with a vibrant card that features the beautiful foliage from the Grateful Greenery Product Suite.

When I first started making cards, using dark colors on my projects intimidated me.  Over time, I have come to learn to embrace the darker colored inks (and markers) and use them to achieve greater depths in shading and dimension.  The motto when using darker colors is that "a little goes a long way".  Because red can be such a difficult color to shade, I like to use small amounts of dark browns or black to add that extra depth and dimension.

Disclaimer: All products are linked below as clickable images. If a product isn't listed, it's been discontinued.

How to recreate this card:

1.  Trim a piece of dark red card stock to 4.25" x 5.5" and run it through your die cutting machine with the Stitched Basket Weave Coverplate Die.

2. Die cut an octagon from white card stock using the second largest die from the Blanket Stitched Octagons Die Set.

3.  Blend some red inks onto this octagon piece starting at the lower right hand corner and work your way toward the top left corner, eventually fading to white. (I used Candy Apple and Fruit Punch Inks for this step.)

4.  (Optional) Add some white ink spatter for some extra texture and let dry.  Once dry, adhere this piece to your red card base from step one.

5.  Use the second and fourth largest octagon dies from the Blanket Stitched Octagons Die Set and layer together to make a frame.  Use this frame to die cut six octagon frames from white card stock.

6.  Use one of the frames as a guide and temporarily place it on top of the ink-blended octagon to see where to stamp your sentiment.  I used Pinkfresh Studio Detail Black Ink to stamp mine (from the On My Mind Stamp Set) in the top left corner, inside the frame.

7.  Glue five of the frames together with liquid adhesive and then adhere this dimensional frame to your card base, surrounding the ink-blended octagon piece.  

8.  Add your shaker embellishments inside the octagon frame and seal it with a piece of clear acetate that was die cut using the second largest octagon die.  Cover this piece with the final octagon frame die that was cut in step five.

9.  Stamp two pieces of paper (I used Neenah Solar White 110lb Card Stock) with the greenery from the Grateful Greenery Stamp Set and add color to these images with the Grateful Greenery Stencils and Pinkfresh Studio Inks.

• Stencil 1: Mango Sorbet (entire piece), Fruit Punch (in the middle to center of the leaves), Candy Apple (in the center portion of the leaves), and a small amount of Licorice Ink in the center of the leaves to give them deep shading.
• Stencil 2: Candy Apple, Licorice
• Stencil 3: Fruit Punch

10. Use the coordinating Grateful Greenery Die to die cut the two greenery pieces.   

8.  Adhere the greenery to the right front section of your card and trim off any excess that hangs over the bottom of the card.  If desired, you can also trim off any overhanging leaves, but I left mine since my card will be hand-delivered.  If mailing, you could also use a larger envelope if you don't want to trim off the overhanging leaves.

I hope you enjoyed my card today and will be inspired to make a similar one of your own!

I would love to see what you create!  Make sure to tag us on Instagram with your personal creations using these products!

Please feel free to leave a comment below as well as any questions you may have.

- Rachel