Country Apple Bucket

Good morning.  I hope you have all had a good weekend.  I got some work done around the house as well as got in a some stamping time.  The SCS Sunday Featured Stamper Challenge featured Kelly (schirmcat), one of my favorite stamping friends. She is one of the most supportive and friendly stampers in the community and has also been known to start some fun trouble there as well. Check out Kelly’s sweet Apple Basket card that inspired my bright country bucket of apples.

I stamped the apple bucket image on a piece of hot pressed watercolor paper with Brilliance Black Graphite and heat set. I painted all the apples yellow dried them with the heat gun. I painted over the yellow apples with red leaving just a touch of yellow showing on each one. I painted the outer areas of each apple with a deeper shade of red and kept it lighter around the yellow for a natural look. I painted the bucket with gray and painted a faint shade of the yellow over it to appear shiny in the sun. I lightly painted a small touch of green ground around the bucket for a base and sponged a light shade of yellow around the apple to highlight. I painted and cut out the front ground apple and popped it up over the original for dimension but it really doesn’t show in the photo. I felt this distressed apple image could stand on it’s own without lots of layering behind it and that the bright red and green striped paper was a perfect background.  The bright green ribbon was a nice divider for the two bright papers and the white buttons drew out the white of the image layer while the gingham was the perfect country touch. This project is proof to me that simple embellishments and paper combinations are all that is needed when you have a lovely image that can stand alone.

Stamps:  Give Thanks    Paper:  Old Olive, Watercolor, Prism Classic Red, SU DP     Ink:  Lemonade, Fired Brick, Peeled Paint, Barely Banana, Going Gray    Accessories:  Buttons, Gingham, Grosgrain, Mounting Tape, Brushes, Color Box Stylus, Distressing Tool