Teddy with Gerbera (and a 'cheats' tip)

I'll share today's card, and then let you into a little secret. (I'm sure some of you already do what I'm going to confess to, but if not, it may be a little tip!)

I love colour coordinating my embellishments, and try to pick a minor colour from the papers.  In this case I wanted to pull out the blue from the flowers.  The blue didn't seem to catch the eye on the papers, so I wanted to highlight them with the embellishments.

I used some vintage style ribbon which was the perfect shade and also coloured the flowers in my image and sentiment in the same shade.

But I came a bit unstuck when it came to the matting card behind the image and middle paper panel.  Hunting through my 'blue' paper drawer (yes I have drawers for each colour of card!) everything was either too aqua or too dark.

So I cheated improvised.  Here's the result ....

So here's the tip:

I cut the matting layers from white card, and then coloured a strip around each edge with the wide nib of a blue copic.   I used the same blue as I'd used in the image, but then toned it down a bit using W3 grey on top, because it was otherwise a bit brighter than the blues in the papers.

The following pics were taken before adding the grey, but the photo of the finished card above was taken afterwards.  Hopefully you can see it is a bit more muted and matches the ribbon and papers better.  I did the same for the panel around the image, and the sentiment.

Whilst I've got your attention, the new Wild Rose Studio Christmas papers and dies have been released and are on the Stamp Basket website with a special offer of 10% off for all pre-rders placed this weekend only.  Pop over there to grab your discount before the end of the weekend.

Card Recipe:

• Image - Teddy with Gerbera from Wild Rose Studio
• Dovecraft Curiosity Corner papers
• Colouring - Copics
• Cardworks Card base
• Neenah Classic Crest White Stamping Card
• Momento Stamp Pad Ink
• Vintage Style Ribbon
• Pearls

Happy crafting
Annette
xx