Stuck in Neutral !

     Being "Stuck in Neutral" has nothing to do with driving a car or operating machinery; not this time, anyway!  It's the theme of our challenge this week over at Tuesday Throwdown, and we want to see you do a card or other paper project using all neutral colors.  Our sponsor is Stitchy Bear Stamps and they generously provided digital stamps to the DT for our cards this week.  They are also providing the prize package for this challenge.

     I loved this silhouette the instant I saw it!  I see so many possibilities for it.  Can you imagine it printed on deep pink paper so that the flowers on the hat are all pink?  But, for this one, I printed it onto ivory paper and used my markers to add a bit of tan and light brown to the flowers.  I was inspired to use the warm neutrals, instead of black & white or cold grays, when I saw an inspiration photo at Papercraft Star last week.  It was filled with warm wood-browns and beiges.  Can't enter that challenge because it's already closed but it was a wonderful source of inspiration for this card so I'll give them some credit.  After using a corner punch, I layered the image onto dark brown CS and corner punched that layer.

     The card base is made from oatmeal CS and I wrapped it with two brown ribbons (one sheer and one satin) which came from Really Reasonable Ribbon.  The dp with the leaves is actually a recycled piece of cardboard backing from a package of flower embellishments I bought.  It just had the perfect color and print for this card.  I layered it along the side of the card, and then added the image piece.

     All the flowers, except for the brown rose, are actual dried flowers which came from my own yard, as did the silver "fern".  I adhered all of those using brush on glue and tweezers.  Dried flowers are very delicate and will break, and flake off the card.  That's why I "paint" them with glue to adhere them completely.  To cover the shine of the glue, once it dried I painted each flower and stem with white Creative Inspirations paint.  That made the shine deliberate and a bit sparkly.  The final flower was the paper rose adhered on top of a dried daisy.  I really like the open feel of this card and the rather minimal embellishment.  There's nothing other than the flowers and ribbon.

      Challenges for this card:
Crafty Emma's -- Vintage, Dahling!
Fab 'n' Funky -- Recycle
Gingersnap -- Use ribbon
My Mum's Craft Shop -- Here Come the Girls
One Stitch at a Time -- Anything Goes
Polkadoodles -- Vintage
Rainbow Lady's Challenge -- The many faces of women
Simply Create, Too -- more than 2 layers
Sweet n Sassy -- Monochromatic
Truly Scrumptious - shabby pastels and paint

     Thanks for coming by to visit and won't you do a neutral project for our Tuesday Throwdown challenge this week?  We'd love to see how you interpret the theme and you could win a fabulous prize from Stitchy Bear!  Happy Stamping.  NanaConnie