A bit of an early autumnal colour palette challenge over at Less is More for the next fortnight… orange. I toyed with the idea of taking it literally and plonking a representation of the fruit onto the card. However, inspiration didn’t fully materialise and I decided to go with a technique-based card instead:

making notes

Firstly, cut a strip of card a little larger than your finished piece needs to be. Stamp your sentiment and heat emboss with white powder. Go on to choose all the orange tones from the distress palette in your choice of application method. I used some spray stains and liberally covered the strip of card, not worrying about the sentiment being covered and starting with the lightest tone. Spritz with water, dab against your craft mat – whatever you need to do to mush the tones together and create interest and depth. Dry with a heat tool and then splatter spray with more stain to add even more interest. Dry thoroughly and then wipe any stain from the embossed sentiment (which resists water-based media). Edge with your darkest orange shade of distress ink. As distress inks/stains are still water-reactive even when dry, I like to seal them with matte solvent-based spray varnish/sealer. This prevents inadvertently lifting the colour on damp fingers and transferring it to nice bright card blanks… Trim square to the sentiment, then trim to the card width and stick down to your card. I played around with putting the strip at an angle and with the sentiment in the centre of the card but didn’t like those options.

Used for this orange-themed card

• Sentiment: bespoke laser-cut rubber stamp
• WOW! Embossing Powder: Bright white SF
• Versamark ink pad
• Ranger / Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain: Dried Marigold / Spiced Marmalade / Ripe Persimmon / Carved Pumpkin
• Ranger / Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Crackling Campfire
• DecoArt Americana Acrylic Sealer/Finisher: Matte
• A6 card blank