Autumn Colours with Premium Craft Brands

Good Morning, Are you in the mood for some creative fun? How about joining in with our new challenge over at the Premium Craft Brands Pan Pastel UK Challenge Blog?  Don't have any Pan Pastels?  Don't worry, you don't need any to play along, you can use whatever you like, you just need to make a new creation inspired by our Challenge Theme.

This week's theme is 'Autumn Colours'

I do love Autumn Colours, so warm and rich, and so many to choose from; in fact I was a little spoilt for choice, so went on a wee trip to Design Seeds to help narrow down my selection.  They have some truly wonderful colour palettes to inspire you, and I loved this one;

Not only did I love the colours, but I love the knitted pattern, and this inspired me to create my own background for my card.

To create my background I layered stripes of the following Pan Pastels onto some smooth card stock;
270.5 - Yellow Ochre
280.5 - Orange
340.3 - Permanent Red Shade
780.5 - Raw Umber
780.8 - Raw Umber Tint.

I blended them together and then sprayed with hair spray.  In case you didn't know hair spray makes a wonderful fixative for Pan Pastels, the cheaper the better, I find Extra Strong Hold gives a really nice finished!

I then took some Maimeri Matt Gel Medium and applied it through a 'knitted' mask.  I removed the mask and left to dry (takes a good 24 hours of so to dry), once dry I replaced the mask over the image, and added a little Pan Pastel to the dried medium.

To create the other background paper used on this card, I simply used the same colours and covered a sheet of smooth white card with the Pan Pastels, using a circular motion to blend the colours together creating a smooth progression of colour.

After creating my background papers, I needed an image for my focal point, and I remembered this gorgeous digital stamp by Nikky Hall, available at Polkadoodles called 'Maria Thistle Fairy'.  Such beautiful fairy, and I do love her sweater wearing Pony, perfect for my knitted inspired background.

I coloured my image using the following Graph'It Markers;
Skin - 3210, 4120, 4170, 4180, 5110
Hair - 5280, 6150, 6160
Dress - 8150, 8160, 8180, 8190
Fairy Wings - 8110, 8270, 8290
Pony - 3150, 3210, 3245, 3250
Sweater - 1210, 1250, 2110, 2150, 5260, 5280
Thistles - 6140, 6175
Background - 2105, 2110, 3210, 8280, 8290.

To embellish my card, I used some Green Leaf Ribbon along with some paper flowers and roses.  A few golden yellow pearls and a Whimsy Stamped Sentiment (stamped with GI 5280) die cut with a Ticket Shaped Die.

I obviously spent a lot of time on this card, but I do think it was worth it, such a wonderful feeling of satisfaction when you look at a card, and know that you've created the background papers, as well as coloured the main image. Creating the background papers was a lot of fun, and the Pan Pastels blend together so easily, it was a joy to use them.  I can't wait to create some more background papers.

Thank you for visiting with me today, and taking the time to read my rather long blog post.  I hope you'll be inspired to join in our challenge over at the Premium Craft Brands Pan Pastel UK Challenge Blog, we do love to see your creations.  Don't forget to become a follower of the blog to be in with a chance of winning an awesome package of crafting goodies.  Now hop over and check out the beautiful creations from the rest of the DT, and to get full details on how to enter our challenge and candy draw.

Have a Wonderful Day
Bye for now
Suzi
xxx