Working with Dusy Durango

Okay….we’re down to the second last of Stampin’ Up!’s In Colors.  Although the combos I’ve been showcasing are by no means a comprehensive list I wanted to give you guys at least a starting point for each color.  Now before I dive into today’s post I did want to mention that I had an EXTREMELY hard time capturing this color combo on camera – I tried all sorts of different settings and had no luck –  it’s just not the greatest picture and the Dusty Durango in the picture looks a bit redder than on the actual card itself. 

Today’s color combination happened by accident.  I had been working on sorting my CS sampler ring in order of color intensity rather than by color family – and it just happened that Blush Blossom was the CS color on top.  I had  a sheet of Dusty Durango CS laying on my table and when I saw it next to the Blush Blossom they looked beautiful together. So that’s the color combo I went with.

The challenge with Dusty Durango is that because it is a sort of rusty red color I think our natural tendency is to pair it with earthy tones and save it for fall (it looks fantastic with Creamy Caramel). In fact at first, I started reaching for one of my fall sets and then veered away from that and settled on Bloomin’ Beautiful.  Bloomin’ Beautiful is a stamp set that I have loved since it was first released, but then made SO many projects with it that I got bored with it.  It’s been sitting on my shelf for almost a year now.

 Directions:

1. Cut a 5 1/4″ x 10 1/2″ piece of Basic Black CS and fold it in half using your bone folder to create a 5 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ card (*see note at the end of the post).  Set it aside for a moment.
2. Take a 5″ x 5″ piece of Dusty Durango CS and dry emboss it with the Big Shot and the Stampin’ Up! Backgrounds 1 Texturz Embossing Plate. 
3. Sponge the edges of the embossed Dusty Durango CS with Really Rust and Creamy Caramel Classic inks. Mat it onto a 5 1/8″ x 5 1/8″ piece of Blush Blossom CS.
4. Pierce a hole in each of the four corners of the Dusty Durango CS and insert a black brad from the vintage collection into each hole.
5. Mat the Dusty Durango/Blush Blossom piece to the Basic Black card front.
6. Stamp the flowers in the vase from Bloomin’ Beautiful in Black StazOn ink onto a 3″ x 3″ square of Whisper White CS.
7. I colored the vase in several steps.  First I lightly scribbled the Creamy Caramel Watercolor Wonder Crayon (WWC) all over the vase and blended it with a blender pen. I then used my blender pen and colored directly on top of the Creamy Caramel with Dusty Durango Classic ink.  When I colored, I deliberately created a lined effect rather than it being smooth (to do this color back and forth with the blender pen rather than in small circles).  Finally I lightly scribbled Close to Cocoa WWC in a back and forth motion across the vase and blended that with my blender pen.
8. Color in the flowers with Blush Blossom and shade with Dusty Durango Classic inks.  Color in the leaves with Certainly Celery and shade with Old Olive Classic inks (I used a blender pen for both).
9. Mat the Whisper White CS piece onto a 3 3/16″ x 3 3/16″ piece of Blush Blossom CS and then matted this onto a 3 3/8″ x 3 3/8″ piece of Basic Black CS.
10. Center and mat the image onto the card front. 
11. Stamp the greeting from the Oval All stamp set in Black Staz On ink onto a scrap of Blush Blossom CS.  Punch it out with the large oval punch.  Punch out a scalloped oval out of Basic Black CS using the Scallop Oval punch  Mat the Blush Blossom oval onto the scalloped oval.  Center the matted oval greeting underneath the image piece and mount to your card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.  You’re done!

Before I end my post I wanted to take a minute and answer a question someone had about the size of CS I buy.  Because I make so many 5 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ cards with textured CS she was wondering if I buy mainly 12″ x 12″ CS.  Actually I buy both.  Shortly after I signed on with Stampin’ Up! 5 years ago, I initially bought a few packages of the 8 1/2″ x 11″ assorted CS in each color family so that I would at least have a few sheets of every color.  Afterwards, every month I would buy as many individual packages of colors of the 8 1/2″ x 11″ CS as I could.  Once I had completed my 8 1/2″ x 11″ collection I started buying the assorted 12″ x 12″ packs.  Over the last 6 months I’ve bought three packages of each of the assorted textured CS pack.  Also, because I use Simply Scrappin’ Kits a lot I tend to have textured CS left from there.

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Stamps: Bloomin’ Beautiful (111490), Oval All (113790)
Inks: Black StazOn (101406), Blush Blossom Classic ink (102609), Dusty Durango Classic Ink (115654), Certainly Celery Classic Ink (105217), Old Olive Classic ink (102277), Earth Elements Watercolor Wonder Crayons (106696)
Paper: Basic Black CS (106532), Whisper White CS (100730), Dusty Durango CS (115321, Blush Blossom CS (103318)
Accessories: paper snips (103579), Mat Pack (105826), Paper-Piercing Tool (116631), Bone Folder (102300), Snail Adhesive (104332), Stampin’ Dimensionals (104430), Vintage Brads (109109), Large oval punch (107305), Scallop Oval punch (114889), blender pen (102845), Big Shot (113439), Stampin’ Up! Backgrounds I Texturz Plates (114512)