Fruity loveliness with Colorado Craft Company!

Hi there! Happy Monday! I have a cheerful, fruity project to share with you today. Colorado Craft Company is swiftly becoming one of my favorite companies; they offer such a wide variety of styles, with something sure to please even the pickiest of stampers. I personally adore their Big and Bold line. You all know that coloring is just about my favorite thing to do, and coloring the Big and Bold line of stamps from Colorado Craft Company is so. much. fun. The images are large enough that you can really dig down deep into the little nooks and crannies of the image to create really fantastic shading and depth. They have been kind enough to share with me some of their products, including last month’s release of gorgeous fruity stamps, and I had a blast coloring up this beautiful set of images from the Sending Hugs and Pears stamps and die set. I had intended to make a second card using the Lemon Zest stamps and dies, but with four kiddos, finding time for the things I want to do sometimes is a bit of a challenge. Sigh.

Anyway, let’s get started with the details on this pretty project, shall we?

I began by stamping several of the images from Sending Hugs and Pears onto some Canson Montval watercolor paper using Intens-ified Black ink from Hero Arts. I chose Canson Montval papers because I wanted to use my Karin markers, and the Montval paper works well with the Karins. I had seen several talented crafters use these pear stamps to create traditional green pears, so I went a different direction and decided to do a red Anjou pear!

I absolutely love the scale of the Big and Bold line. Even on this relatively-simple image, I was able to use *five* different colors of Karin marker to achieve a huge amount of depth and shine: Cerise, Burgundy, Cocoa, Almond, and Black. The leaves were done using Lime Green and Lush Green. The flowers were done using the same colors, but much more subtle washes of color. After watercoloring, I used the coordinating dies to cut everything out.

For the card base, I wanted a very subtle pattern, so I stamped the beautiful Big and Bold Italian Tiles using Pinkfresh Studio’s Peach Fuzz ink on an A2 panel of white cardstock. To make the pattern even more subtle, I then used a blending brush to blend some more of the Peach Fuzz ink around the edges of the background panel to create a bit of a halo. I popped all of the die cuts up with foam tape and added a greeting (heat embossed using rose gold embossing powder on a piece of Plum cardstock). The final touch was a few metallic rose gold gems to add some sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today. If you haven’t checked out Colorado Craft Company’s products, you absolutely should do so! They’re simply marvelous! For my friends who have been affected by the wildfires on the west coast, I have been thinking of you and hoping for rain and safety. Stay safe, stay well, and have a good week, friends!