Beautiful shades of green

Hello friends! Did you have a good weekend? We did a mix of chores (tidying up, garden work) and fun stuff - soccer, picking blueberries, hanging out with friends, bicycle ride and going to a little market. We bought some homemade jam and marmalade.

It is Monday and this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog we have a Monochrome challenge. If you have never done a monochrome project before, this is the perfect time. It is a lot of fun to work with shades of only one color. 

Don't miss the stunning project by our September guest designer Anne Redfern.

There is just something so amazing about green, and even more so when you see many shades of green together. I think it has to do with nature and walking in forests. My favorite forests are those with a mix of pine and leaf trees, partly because you get so many more shades of green then. I found a photo of the boys playing among fall leaves and decided to use that. It was taken three years ago, so they are quite a bit smaller than now. 

The background is Tim Holtz Motif cardstock, which has patterns that will resist inks and mists. Here you can see the middle white part which is the original look of the cardstock and the way the woodgrain pattern appears once I inked it with Distress Ink. There are different patterns in the pack, and also kraft papers with the same resist patterns.

I also used the Sizzix 3D Leaves embossing folder and embossed a piece of green watercolor paper that I found in my scrap box. Then it was inked with Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint to make the leaves more visible. Most of it was covered up in the end, but this would also make a great background for a card.

The leaves were die cut with Tim Holtz Skeleton Leaves set, from various green scrap papers that I found. One of them was a left over paper from when I tested different shades of green watercolor mixes for another project. Those ended up being my favourite leaves - it's the leaves with areas of white. That paper could easily have been thrown away, since on its own it was hard to use, but for die cutting it was perfect.

I like to add bits of glossy pieces on projects, and for this layout, I die cut the title from glossy paper. The top word was inked with Moved Lawn, making it darker towards the bottom. The mat was inked with Twisted Citron.

Glue them together, for a great, glossy, green title. Here you can also spot a piece of paper stamped with the SSS Leaves Background stamp, which I also found in my scrap box.

The patterned paper comes from Tim's new Abandoned paper stash, which I love. The papers are meant for Halloween, but they work for any theme. Wonderful colors, textures and patterns.

The Farm Tractor from Whimsy Stamps was colored with Prismacolor pencils, and then cut out. Leo loves tractors, so I added it mainly for him. He actually picked out this stamp when he joined me for my last SSS order.

Some of the leaves have a pretty teal shade, which fits well with the green.

The photo was framed with a frame from Tim's Halloween Layers and Baseboard set. That frame actually inspired the whole project, since I loved the vintage look of it and wanted to use it for something non-Halloween.

I hope you will join us this week in our Monochrome challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until next Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my blog today!  

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

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