Challenge: Pastels

From soft shabby chic colors to white washing with gesso, being inspired by Easter to using actual pastels, this week we challenge you to be inspired by the softer side of the color wheel…

Andrea created a notebook with a soft and subtle color palette.

pastel_andrea

Enough with the tweed and the wool and the mittens! I’m ready for Spring and love how the world explodes with color. Flowers are among my favorite things to look forward to, so I made a notebook with a floral theme. I used fabric with the Tim Holtz’s Tattered Florals die and created some more abstract-looking blooms with the fabulous new Scribbles dies from My Favorite Things. And where would Spring be without all sorts of lovely shades of pink, like Spun Sugar?

Michelle was inspired by a new ink pad.

pastel_michelle

I normally don’t use pastel green, but the Viridian Green ink pad caught my eye. I’m not sure what prompted me to use it with the Envelope Liner Background stamp, but I did it anyway. This is the first time that I’ve ever made an envelope before I made the card. It was easy with the We R Memory Keepers Envelope b\Punch Board. Dina Wakley’s Scribbly Flowers made fun embellishments with the richly colored Zig Kuretake paints.

Suzz thought of shabby chic and lavender for her pastel inspired card.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I decided it had been awhile since I had created a shabby chic card. A perfect opportunity to use pastels to create a card for my mother in law for mother’s day. I created my own background using a damask from Stampers Anonymous Distress Damask. My MIL loves lavenders which inspired me to use the Ranger Archival inks Blue Violet and Watering Can.

Mona was inspired to create a shabby / vintage style greeting card.

Pastel_Emma

One can never have too many greeting cards on hand so I thought this challenge was a great time to pull out the beautiful pastel Victorian Velvet Distress Ink pad and put it do good use. The background of the card was stamped with the text image from Papillon, heat embossed, then Victorian Velvet and Iced Spruce Distress Inks were randomly applied. For the focal point, a Mini Cabinet card was adhered in place and embellished with a crackled die cut Mini Butterfly. For the sentiment, a Remnant Rub was applied.

Emma created a pretty shabby chic gift box full of Easter treats.

paste_emma

I adore creating my own seasonal decorations and I had so much fun making this little gift box and filling it with chocolate eggs in readiness for Easter. I began by making my own matchbox from kraft card which I then covered with card stock painted in Tumbled Glass and Picket Fence Distress Paint which makes the most beautiful shade of pastel blue. I added texture paste through the Lace Layering Stencil before decorating my box with handmade paper flowers created from the Jumbo Tattered Pinecone die and an altered Trophy Cup.

Meihsia was inspired to use the soft color scheme on her mixed media canvas.

I always love soft and feminine colors on my projects. After creating textures on the background with Liquitex Modeling Paste and Prima Flowers Raindrop Stencil, I colored the canvas with Distress Spray Stain and distressed it with Distress Paint. Some beautiful Prima Flowers were attached using Prima Flowers Heavy Gesso.

Sandra is in love with the new Cracked Pistachio color.

Cracked Pistachio looks like a green minty pastel color, so I went with this color for my tea boxes. I made them from scratch with foam board. I cut all the pieces out with a Craft Knife and gave them 2 coats of paint. The doily is made with the Ring Doily stencil and Cracked Pistachio colored Embossing Paste.

Ashli was inspired by spring for her card this week…

pastel_ashli

My garden is in full bloom and I just can’t get enough of the pretty colors and textures. That inspired my card this week! Using some lovely paper bits from the Amy Tangerine Stitched Paper Pad, along with some black alpha letters, I created this card of pastel leaves. Some sprinkles of Color Shine and this card is ready to go!

Anna-Karin made a layout for the new little family member.

I wanted to make a first layout welcoming our baby boy into the world, and pastels works great for baby themed projects. For the background, I used Pearlescent Pan Pastels together with a new background stamp by Tim Holtz. The butterflies were die cut from vellum and heat embossed. I also love the Simon Says Stamp Sketch Heart die, and will certainly be using it a lot.

I (May) have been playing a lot with watercolors.

115 copy

With my favorite watercolor set and a floral stencil I sat and colored each and every piece of the design. What I found was, I then had too bold of an image and this is where it gets really fun – I sprayed with water and “stamped” the image onto more pieces of cardstock! I just love how this turned out and how easy it was to make several similar Easter cards at once.

For more inspiration click on our design team’s blog links so you can see more photos (and full supply lists) for their projects. Leave them a little comment love while you’re there so they know how they’ve inspired you too, if you’re so inclined.

50dollar_voucher_600px

As always, Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $50 gift voucher that will go to a random entry chosen by random generator. To qualify all you need to do is create a new project that ties in (in any way!) with our theme and post it, along with a link back to this challenge, and add a link here. This challenge will end at 11:59pm on Sunday April 5th Eastern time. We will also be choosing some of our entries to put in the spotlight – a special honor where we talk about why we loved that entry in particular and award a special badge too! For the full rules, read the “challenge rules” posted in the side-bar here on our blog.

[raw]

[/raw]

  1. Your inspiration projects are beautiful. LoVe the pastels. Thanks for sharing.
    Crafty hugs,
    Dawn
    DesignsByDragonfly {blogspot}

  2. Fantastic array of projects. Spring is here with a beautiful weather today. Celebrated it with my hubby by sitting in our garden while enjoying a milk shake. Squeezing some time to make a card between homework assignments, that would be a bonus. Cheers

  3. Beautiful first one there. How were the roses made please? I would love to know.

  4. Such beautiful work by the design team! Thank you for the inspiration and another wonderful challenge. See you again soon :)

We use cookies to give you the best online experience. By agreeing you accept the use of cookies in accordance with our cookie policy.