When you've made a card where you love the shades but they seem to be “shouting” at you, try this trick and soften bright colors with vellum.  Take a look:

Soften Bright Colors With Vellum

I LOVE bright colors and I really didn't want to fade these hearts out using stamping off but I really wanted that greeting to pop.  So I added a layer of vellum over the top to “quiet” the brightness of my images AND added the greeting over a circle backed with a thin edge of black by layering two circles.  When you do this, you add a frame around an element so you can call attention to it without adding a competing color or a shape that doesn't flow with your project.  (For a darker background, just flip it and add a lighter frame around your element.)

Adhering vellum can be tricky since it's beautiful sheer frostiness allows not just your images to show through but the adhesive as well.  One tip is to always include an element OVER the vellum and hide your adhesive behind it.  Here, I ran some SNAIL on the vellum under that Bermuda Bay band.  You can also hide adhesive with vellum under things like buttons, pearls, teeny punched shapes or a length of ribbon.

Here are the items I used to make this card – please note that the stamp set, Groovy Love, and the ribbon ARE on the retiring list!

 

I am really sad that Groovy Love is going away – this was a fun set! But of course that makes room for NEW goodies and coming up tomorrow I will be sharing my top ten things that will tell you if the new catalog is for you and how to get one FREE (US residents only – sorry, it's the rule).

In the meantime, experiment with vellum and see if you agree that this innocent looking paper can really change how you can use bright colors.

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