Courage for Neat & Tangled

Hi everyone!  I'm sharing this card over on the Neat & Tangled blog today.  It features my Wonky Chevron cover plate and Have Courage stamp set. 

I had been plotting this card in my head for a while now. I love how bold the Wonky Chevron cover can be, but I wanted to do something very soft and pretty with it.  However, when I was looking through my papers, I couldn't find soft enough colors (this is shocking because I have so.many.papers).  

My solution was to create them for myself.  I cut several panels of watercolor paper and then using Kuretake Gansai watercolors in a light blue, and yellow gold (from the Starry Colors set), added a very light, soft wash to them.  Once they were dry, I die cut the cover plate from them as well as a plain piece of watercolor paper.

I used the soft gold for the outline/webbing, and then inlaid blue and plain pieces within the cover.  The cover plate is just a smidge smaller than A2 which I like sometimes because you get a really nice fine mat when you mount it to a card base, but for this card I wanted just the cover to show, so I trimmed the card base down accordingly.

The gingko branch from the Have Courage set was stamped and clear embossed on watercolor paper, and then I colored it using a Distress Marker (Forest Moss) and water brush.  I added just a bit of color to the leaves with the brush side of the marker, and then softened and spread the pigment out using the waterbrush.  

I also added a very light light wash of color around the branches/stems so that the clear embossing would stand out a little better.  Once the piece was dry, I die cut it and popped it up over my cover plate with some foam adhesive.  The foam adhesive was added only towards the center of the piece because I like the movement you get from the leaves when they aren't fully adhered.  They curl up a bit and it looks more natural.

The sentiment is also from the Have Courage set.  The large sentiment was stamped in Versafine on watercolor paper and clear embossed (mostly so I wouldn't accidentally smudge it), and then I fussy cut it.  The secondary sentiment is stamped on a banner from the Skinny Strips die set which I die cut from a scrap of watercolor paper that I had colored/painted using that same distress marker and water brush.

I used two layers of the foam adhesive on the courage sentiment for some extra dimension.

Incidentally, the Have Courage set is part of the March Madness sale going on now through Saturday in the Neat & Tangled store.  Everything in the March Madness category in the store is 30% off with code MARCHMADNESS!

Thanks for visiting, hope your week is going well!

*Affiliate links below to Ellen Hutson and in text to Neat & Tangled

Wonky Chevron Cover Plate, Neat & Tangled Dies

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Have Courage

Neat & Tangled Dies, Have Courage

Skinny Strips, Neat & Tangled Dies

Kuretake Gansai Tambi, 36 Color Set

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors, 6 Color Set

Ranger Distress Marker, Forest Moss

Ranger Tim Holtz Water Brush, Detailer/Fine Brush Nib

VersaMark Ink Pad

Ranger Super Fine Embossing Powder, Clear

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

Scotch Foam Mounting Tape

Neat & Tangled January Release & Giveaways - Day 3

Hey everyone!  It's Day 3 of the Neat & Tangled January release and today we're showing off my latest cover plate, Wonky Chevrons.

This cover is perfect for bold backgrounds and masculine cards.  It's designed much like my Inlaid Squares and Squares and Chevron cover plates, where part of the design is the webbing, so the individual pieces aren't all separated by webbing.

One of my goals this year is to incorporate more patterned paper into my cards.  For this first card, I cut the cover plate from two patterned papers - black and blue.  The black webbing piece was adhered to a piece of white patterned paper.  The blue pieces were then inlaid into the piece.  

Because there isn't webbing for all the different piece, you've got more options, so for example, the large blue chevron piece lowest on the card is supposed to nest right next to the black with a second piece sitting next to it in that open space.  Instead, I left one of the pieces out, and centered the blue piece in the opening to create a different pattern.  I also moved the second blue piece up just a tad so that it covers a bit of the black above it and leaves some more white exposed below it.  Finally, I altered the top blue piece, cutting 1/8" off the top edge so that I could see some more of that white below that.

The cover plate is just smaller than a full A2 card, but I trimmed my card base down a touch so that there isn't a margin.  I use the Love You dies featured on Monday for the sentiment, cutting the sentiment three times from red cardstock to get some dimension, and adding the xoxo from the Just Because stamp set.

As I mentioned before, I love this cover for simple, bold, masculine cards.  I thought that the chevron was a bit reminiscent of mountains, when pointint upwards, so for this card, I die cut three different green patterned papers and then inlaid them.

The sentiment is from my Topography set and I placed it just above one of the chevron points so that your eye is drawn directly to it.

This is a really quick and easy card to create and you can get three for the price of one.

Be sure to head over to the Neat & Tangled blog.  Danielle is giving a cover plate away to one lucky commenter.  Leave a comment here too as I'll be choosing a random commenter to win this cover plate.  For extra chances, head over to my Instagram (@mprantner) and follow the directions there.

See you back here tomorrow for our last day of reveals!