In Color: Evening Evergreen, Part I

First, let me say that green is my favorite color. And I love dark green tones even more. As I continue my 2021-2023 In Color exploration, we are moving on to a beautiful shade. In fact, Evening Evergreen is so dark, I think it could be considered a neutral color.

For this card, I am pairing Shaded Spruce and Crushed Curry with Evening Evergreen. And what a challenge this color combo was for me! I didn’t know if I could pull off two strong green tones on the same card…but in the end it all worked out quite nicely.

Creating Something Perfectly Plaid

When I first thought about what type of card I would make with these colors, plaid instantly came to my mind. I could picture this color combo on a Scottish tartan! And, I also wanted to create something with Christmas trees to represent the great greens. I pulled out some supplies…and instead of a hit, I had a couple of misses.

Paper weaving wasn’t quite what I was looking for. But I did have fun playing with strips of Evening Evergreen, Shaded Spruce and Crushed Curry. Since I didn’t adhere my paper strips, I can save them for another day.

I love the Designer Series Assortments that Stampin’ Up! offers in their color families. This paper makes it so simple for me to coordinate to my ink and cardstock. However, after I punched a few trees with the Pine Tree Punch, I knew I wasn’t headed in this direction either.

Perfectly Plaid Stamp Set

The Perfectly Plaid Stamp Set features a variety of pine tree stamps that coordinate with the Pine Tree Punch. In fact, there are 3 different tree stamps. Since I wanted to create a tree for each color of my combo, this was perfect. I just needed to decide which tree and which color belonged together artistically.

Realistic Pine Tree

I wanted to use the stamp that looks most like a real pine with Shaded Spruce. This brighter dark green is even named for a type of pine! But when I went to stamp my image, the color was over-saturated and resulted in a blurry image. This comes from too much ink on the surface of the ink pad (also known as a juicy ink pad).

I have a quick fix for this exact situation! All it takes is a plastic spoon. I use the back of the spoon and “frost” the ink down into the foam pad, away from the surface. When I am done, I simply clean the spoon off with a baby wipe and set the spoon aside until I need it again for another juicy ink pad. After I re-stamped my image, the quality is so much better!

Fill In Fir Tree

I just knew a pine tree made up of only Crushed Curry would look odd. But the fill in fir tree was a perfect solution for my green and yellow combination. I stamped the tree image in Evening Evergreen Ink first. Next, I stamped the “fill in” with Crushed Curry Ink. This is also known as Two-Step Stamping. I find the photpolymer stamps so useful when lining up images!

Plaid Pine Tree

And, I saved the best for last. Of course, I thought that the plaid pine tree stamp worked best with our star color, Evening Evergreen. With some simple punching of each image, I was ready to work my trees into my card.

Stitched Triangles Dies

We all know Christmas trees are triangular shapes. So, I pulled out my Stitched Triangles Dies and Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine to capitalize on the trees for my card. I chose the dies I thought would size up nicely and paired them with Evening Evergreen, Shaded Spruce and Crushed Curry Cardstock. In the end, I did not use the Soft Suede die cut.

So Very Merry

While I was arranging my card parts and pieces to determine the final design, I realized I didn’t have a lot of room for a sentiment. The images in the Perfectly Plaid Stamp Set were a little too big. Instead, I settled on a very simple word “merry” chosen from the Time Of Giving Stamp Set.

I stamped my sentiment in Versamark Ink on a strip of Evening Evergreen Cardstock. After adding White Embossing Powder, I heat set the word with my Heat Tool. I think you will agree that the white sentiment really pops, and coordinates with the white outlines of my tree images on this card.

Putting It All Together

Do you remember earlier when I tried my hand at weaving cardstock strips in Evening Evergreen, Shaded Spruce and Crushed Curry? And how I played with the family assortment of Designer Series Paper? When I combined those concepts with my Christmas tree theme, I had a winner.

I selected different designer styles of paper using my color combo, and adhered them to a piece of Soft Suede Cardstock. Next, I layered on my ink-sponged cardstock strips. By adding like color ink to the edges of my cardstock, I was able to sharpen the contrast of colors.

With my focus on Evening Evergreen, Shaded Spruce and Crushed Curry, I was able to keep my card true to the chosen colors. I kept the Crushed Curry designer paper and cardstock together, but swapped the same color placement on the Evening Evergreen and Shaded Spruce designer paper and cardstock.

Triangles, Trees And Trinkets

From here, it was easy to add on the last elements in a layering fashion. First, I added the stitched triangle die cuts, alternating the orientation. After that, I place the stamped and punched trees over the triangles. To finish off my card, I added three gold Brushed Metallic Adhesive-Backed Dots, using my Take Your Pick Tool. These embellishments are comprised of bronze, copper and gold, and the gold best paired with the yellow tone of Crushed Curry.

Perfectly Plaid In Evening Evergreen

The color combo of Evening Evergreen, Shaded Spruce and Crushed Curry is not one I would have ever thought of pairing together! In the end, I am so happy with my final result. I must admit, I don’t know that I will ever put these thee colors together on another project…but knowing I accomplished what I set out to do is enough for me.

If you are enjoying my In Color journey, be sure to see previous posts on Fresh Freesia and Polished Pink. And check back soon, there is still more to come with Evening Evergreen as I cover three different color combinations with each of the five new In Colors.

Stop by my online store at any time to add any of the featured Stampin’ Up! supplies to your cart. There are so many great options available, so explore and remember… all colors are always in style!