Sweet Strawberries

I was flitting around the internet the other day and came across a post from Andrea Walford in Canada.  She's a very creative artist especially when it comes to the use of colors.  I'm always blown away by the blending of colors and the choices of color combos.  Using anything she makes as a jumping off place for my own creations is always a challenge to step out of my cozy little stamping box.  This time she had strawberries mixed with pink colors.  I always think more bold with bright reds and greens for backgrounds for strawberries.  So I had to give the idea a try.

For making this card, I started with the Sweet Strawberry stamp set from the January-June Mini Catalog.  This is one of the first items I ordered from this catalog and thought I'd be using it continually.  Then I realized I had packed my colored cardstock and was stumped about what to use with these stamps without using Real Red  and/or Garden Green cardstock.  Boy, talk about getting into a creative rut.  What ever made me think I needed Real Red to use this set??

After playing with the Valentine card (previous post) and using the Blending Brushes to create a colored background layer, and then seeing what Andrea Walford had done, I knew I wanted to go that route with this card too.  Instead of just blending color on the edges and leaving the center white, this time I reversed it and just blended Blushing Bride to the center of the card.  This draws your eye to the focal image and that's just what I wanted anyway!  With this light of a color, I was surprised by how many layers of coloring it took to get the color build-up I wanted.  The light color took about 5 layers to get this look.  With darker colors it goes much quicker but you have to be careful to keep a light touch. 

The card base used for this was Blushing Bride, 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" folded in half.  The Basic White layer is cut at 5 1/4" x 4".  I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink on a smaller piece of white cardstock to stamp 2 strawberries and 2 stems for the strawberries.  The strawberries were colored in using Light and Dark Poppy Parade and Dark Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Blends.  The stems were colored using Light and Dark Shaded Spruce Stampin' Blends.  I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is to play around with the colors putting one over the other and going over it and blending in still another color or two.  Yet they all work together so nicely!  I hope you can see this a little in the pictures.  Take my word for it, Stampin' Blends is a definite must-have in any stamping stash.

There is a Strawberry Builder Punch that is part of the Sweet Strawberry Bundle which I have.  (Who doesn't like to save 10% by buying Bundles?)  But this time around I didn't use the punch for the berries or the stems.  I didn't want the white edge surrounding each piece when you punch them.  So these were fussy cut with my Paper Snips.  Yes, I know I usually prefer to die-cut or punch, but sometimes you just need a different look.

After I had my pieces cut out, I started laying them out on my card to see how I wanted the background image stamped.  This was also stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink as I was planning on using blends again.  After I colored the leaves the same as the stems earlier, it looked sort of "flat" to me.  I went back and added a little Dark Granny Apple Green Stampin' Blends to them for a little more contrast.  The flower centers have a little Dark Daffodil Delight added.  Then as as extra touch, just a dusting of Wink of Stella to the petals.

The 1" strip of green plaid paper is from the Berry Delightful Designer Paper that is one of the Free items along with the wonderful Berry Blessings stamp set during Sale-a-bration.  Both the stamps and the papers are truly amazing and I wish they were in the regular catalog, but they're not.  (very sad face)  The only way you can get this bundle is by purchasing $100 dollars (before shipping and tax) during Sale-bration.  And remember Sale-a-bration ends on the 28th of February, so you need to act soon.

Ok, back to the card...  The sentiment is from the Sweet Strawberry set that we've been using here.  There are 5 little sentiments in a fun font that are part of the set, so there's lots to choose from.  I had a scrap of Basic White cardstock that was a little less than 3/4" wide.  I stamped the sentiment with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, then got out my trusty Lovely Labels Pick a Punch to fancy up the ends.  To finish up the card, this was layered over the green plaid DSP using Dimensionals.  The right side strawberry was attach using Dimensionals, then the left strawberry has two stacked Dimensionals underneath to pop in up even higher.  It also covers the left edge of the green plaid DSP to tidy it all up.

There you have it.  A couple of yummylious strawberries in the middle of a snowy winter day to brighten your outlook.  Hope you enjoyed this card idea and might want to give it a try.  If you'd like to order from me this month, please use the Host Code shown here.   I love my customers and appreciate you so much.  So I'll be sending out some lovely goodies to anyone who has ordered from me this month as a little thank you. 

Stay warm and safe and healthy out there.  And get out your stamps to add some creativity to your day.  Stamping and creating always makes me happy!  Yes, I do get grumpy when I don't get a creative fix for several days.  Just ask my dear hubby!   I'm glad it only takes some creating to make me happy again.  Hope it makes you happy too.  Please leave a comment for me to let me know what you think of the ideas I share with you.  That makes me happy too!!

Sharon