You are Sweet...

Hi friends!  It's the end of February and verging on March and in my backyard, that means citrus!  This will be our 10th summer in this home and the novelty of fruit trees growing in my yard where I can go and pick them as they ripen, has not yet grown old!  So I'm in a fruity frame of mind, and it shows even in my card making!

This card is up on the blog over at Jane's Doodles today, and it was made using the Life is Good stamp set for the fruit, as well as the Cool stamp set for the sentiment.  I began by stamping the fruit shapes randomly all over a card panel of watercolor paper, and heat embossing with white embossing powder.  Then I covered the entire card panel using a wide wash brush and clean water.  Working fairly quickly, before the water could dry, I dropped watercolor paint into the fruit shapes and then dragged a little of the color over the embossed outline barrier, so it could blend and fade into the background.  It's a good idea to have puddles of wet color mixed (and tested) and waiting so that you can cover the whole card front with color before the water wash dries.  But if it does, and it probably will in some spots, let the whole card dry, and then go back with a second and even third wash of water in the areas that still need color.  Allowing the paint to air dry naturally produces the nicest color blends in my opinion.  Finally, where necessary, go back and drop in more intense color into the fruit shapes to help them "pop" against the muted color background.

The sentiment was created in much the same way, with the simple difference of the black stamping and embossing.  I used a MFT Die-Namics rectangle die (Wonky Stitched Rectangles) to die cut the sentiment and backed it with some blue cardstock to match the blueberries.   Then I finished with some coordinating colors of Nuvo Drops.

Here is the Life is Good stamp set.  I originally intended to make a 'jar' card but the fruit just could not be denied!  Maybe next time....

Thanks for stopping by today!