Gears & Textures Bundle meets Real Red: Crafty Collaborations Instahop

This week I’m hopping along with the Crafty Collaborations crew for a Monochromatic Challenge, and we’re turning up the volume from the soft Bubble Bath pastels from last week to the “look at me, look at me” Real Red from Stampin’ Up!®.

Gears & Textures Bundle…

I have paired the vibrant Real Red with the industrial look Gears & Textures bundle and the boho feel of the Sunshine Vibes stamp set. Some bright grunge (is there such a thing), the happy sun image and the industrial gear dies make for a busy card. To tone it all down, I have added the neutral Smoky Slate and lots of white.

Working with a bold monochromatic …

Working monochromatically could be a little flat especially with such a bold shade, so I have added texture and depth by varying the intensity, adding layers and including neutrals to break up the red.

Some of the ways I have done this ….
• Blended Real Red panels with soft white centres
• Stamping some images off (second generation stamping) and others at full strength.
• Adding the die cut gears and mesh elements adds dimension and a focal point in all that red.
• A pop of silver metallic card and embellishments give some shine and highlights.
• And that bold “HELLO” in black ink is the first thing your eye is drawn to so the sentiment doesn’t get lost.

Here is my step by step process:

• The card base is Basic White Thick card … a standard C6 (or A2 Card in Imperial), folded and portrait mode.
• Real Red cardstock panel in the back is 5 cm x 14.3 cm (2″ x 5-1/4″) with the leaf image from Sunshine Vibes repeat stamped with Versamark and white heat embossed. I did also add some white splatter with White Craft Ink (because splatter makes everything better).
• The square panels are cut from Basic White card using the Stylish Shapes Dies. The smaller two squares are 4.7 cm (1-7/8″) square and the larger square is 6cm (2-7/8″) square. I stamped them with various textural images from Gears & Textures in Real Red and Smoky Slate. Remember to stamp some images in full strength ink and some stamped off to create that depth.
• Blend Real Red ink around the edges of the two smaller Basic White panels, keeping the centre lighter and the edges richer. I used a Small Blending Brush which gave me a pinky red shade, and then added extra Real Red depth around the very edges with a sponge dauber.
• For the focal panel, I stamped the small sentiment “Hello” from Sunshine Vibes with black ink. This sentiment is a crisp, bold font, perfect for this card. There are others in the stamp set that will also work well.
• I added that striking sun image from Sunshine Vibes in Real Red, and other textural images in both Smoky Slate and Real Red, this time all are stamped off so they don’t compete with the focal images.
• I lightly ink blended with Smoky Slate around the edges of this panel to make it stand out from the other two squares. Note that ink blending over the rainbow image meant that the red ink blended in with the Smoky Slate … a happy mistake as it created a “sun like glow” around the sun image.
• Adding the die cut gears in Smoky Slate, Real Red and Silver Foil , along with the mesh die in Silver Foil really brings this panel to life.

The little extras:

• I added a fine Real Red Cardstock matting layer around all the squares. This really made a big difference.
• The focal panel is popped up with dimensionals … all the other layers are flat to the card front.
• The adhesive embellishments are a mixture of Adhesive Backed Metallic Gems in Silver and Natural Matte Dots in White (coloured with a Real Red Stampin’ Blend).

If you would like to see loads of Real Red inspiration, hop on over to my Instagram page, look for the post at the top of my grid and then follow the Instahop tags all the way through.

xx Cheryll

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