Hi Angels!
I decided on one of my favorite techniques to share today, tone on tone or monochromatic creating. My absolute favorite is white on white but today’s card is more of a cream color. Let’s take a look….

I just love how this card turned out, simply elegant. This would make great wedding thank-yous for a winter wedding.
There are quite a few new card creators in some of my groups so let’s do a step by step on this card.
- I selected an ivory or cream cardbase, standard A2 which equals a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inch card or half a sheet of standard 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock folded in half.
- The mat piece is Canson 140 lb watercolor paper cut 4 x 5 1/4. (Watercolor paper tends to be more off white thus the ivory card design.)
- I secured Taylored Expressions Nordic Snowflake stencil with some masking tape over the mat. Using Nuvo Glimmer Paste I applied or “buttered” a thin layer over the stencil with a palette knife. Carefully remove the stencil, wash immediately with warm soapy water & set aside to dry. Set your mat piece aside to dry too.
- To keep the monotone effect, I cut the Catherine Pooler Designs Snowflake Mini Cover Plate die out of another piece of Canson 140 lb watercolor paper and the thank-you sentiment that comes with the die out of champagne colored pearl cardstock.
- Once the stenciled snowflakes are dry you can build the card. Adhere the snowflake mat to the card base.
- Use thin foam strips applied to the back of the Snowflake frame to pop it up off the card & adhere to the mat layer.
- I used Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Clear Drying Craft Glue to adhere the thank-you die cut.
- Finally I punched a small glitter circle & applied to the center of the snowflake in the frame to carry the glitter effect to the front.
Some more tips for working with tone on tone:
- Keep your colors of the same shade or hue. You don’t want a red-orange with a red-violet as they will clash a bit. My exception to this is I will quite often use silver, black or gray words with my white on white designs as well as sometimes adding a layer of silver to the design.
- The biggest trick for monotone cards to work is adding depth & interest. The glimmer paste glittery snowflakes create a lot of interest in this card without overwhelming the design. Embossing folders work great too. Popping up an element adds more depth. Vary the types of paper, mat, glossy, metallic, glitter etc. It is perfectly alright to add a stamped sentiment in an ink to compliment the color scheme or even black, gray or brown allows the sentiment to stand out more. Adding pearls, rhinestones, sequins & ribbon in the same color tone adds more interest too.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into tone on tone creating. Pull out your favorite color & see what you can create with one color family.
