This card features the Concord & 9th Mushroom Medley dies, and a little collection of mushrooms.

Techniques:

• The background uses a brand new Concord & 9th embossing folder from the September 2024 release. It is part of their holiday release, but it was just the right scale and type of thing I wanted for this card. I used that on the Artichoke background panel.

• Ink blending on the embossed panel adds some depth and highlights the detail of the embossed paper. Doing it with the same color ink as the cardstock keeps it a tonal variation.

• I wanted a variety of mushroom colors, but didn't want to do a rainbow like my previous mushroom card, or have it be too busy (since I knew I was going to be using a lot of them). I die cut the mushroom caps of the smallest mushroom out of a range of warm colors, from pinks to yellows, and even some gold. That provides some visual consistency.

• The placement of the mushrooms in the dark gray (coincidentally called Mushroom) strip creates a rhythm across the card. I made sure the placement was varied in alignment and angle, and that the colors were balanced throughout.

• To add some variation so the background for the mushrooms wasn’t flat and plain, I added some little “hills” to that dark gray strip. To cut the hill pieces, I used the middle layer of the small and medium mushrooms from that die set. It is designed to be a mostly hidden color layer that shows through the die cut holes in the top layer of the mushroom caps, but I cut them from the same gray as the strip. They helped ground some of the mushrooms and give the arrangement a more natural look.

• A couple of mushrooms tucked in at the bottom of the card both complete the flow of the card from top to bottom, but also balance out the color and detail.

  
  
  

Colors:

• cardstock: Concord & 9th Wildberry, Watermelon, Cranberry, Sorbet, Creamsicle, Spiced Cider, Cayenne, Sunflower, Honeycomb, Artichoke, Rainforest, Pebble, Cobblestone, Mushroom. Spellbinders Brushed Gold.

• inks: Concord & 9th Artichoke

Thank you for visiting! I hope you get some time to create something soon.

Links are below if you’re interested in any of the products I used.

Supply list*:

(Listed by company, with links to Simon Says Stamp and others. Simon Says Stamp links are affiliate links*.)

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