Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase - #46 Shaded Spruce

Shaded Spruce with Quiet Meadows

Hello. Welcome to Valley Inspirations with Andrea and the 46th 2020/2021 Colour Creations Showcase by members of the Art with Heart Team.

This week we are showcasing a lovely colour, Shaded Spruce. It is a deep rich green. It is a gorgeous colour that is great for leaves, grass or other green 'things'. Of course artistic licence provides many other opportunities as well. Having said that, I decided to stay with the more traditional usage of leaves & stems. 

Shaded Spruce has been produced in Stampin' Up!'s card-stock, both A4 & 12"x12"; Classic Stampin' inks (ink pads, spots & re-inkers); Stampin' Write Markers; Stampin' Blends, Designer Series Paper including the Forever Greenery DSP; Hello Dear Friend and Gorgeous Posies Card Kits; and Sequins For Everything.

As mentioned, in designing a project around Shaded Spruce, I decided to watercolour a piece of Fluid 100 Water-colour Paper with Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' ink and then die cut leaves from it. The design I had in my mind was completely different than the final project. Numerous aspects changed along the way as things didn't work on paper as envisaged in my mind. It was one of those projects where I tried numerous options and chopped and changed so many aspects. There was so much faffing around this time.

After water-colouring with Shaded Spruce, I also lightly water-coloured a piece of Shimmery White card-stock with Pool Party Classic Stampin' ink for the background. When almost dry it was embossed with the retiring Subtles 3D embossing folder. This was mounted on a slightly larger piece of Pool Party card-stock.

A large scolloped rectangle was die cut using the Scalloped Contour dies from Shaded Spruce card-stock. This set of dies is from the new 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue only available to SU Demonstrators in April, but will bye available to all from the 4th May. One of the design changes was to heat emboss the scolloped edge with Silver Emboss Powder and a Heat Gun. There were two layers of silver heat embossing. The mounted card background was layered on the scolloped piece, which in turn was layered on another piece of Shaded Spruce card-stock so that this lovely green could be seen through the scollops. All these layers were popped up on Dimensionals onto a card base of Thick Basic White card-stock.

Two flowers on stems and a leaf spray using the Meadows Dies (another new set) were cut from the Shaded Spruce water coloured paper. I had some water-coloured paper that I had water-coloured with 3 of the new In Colours - Pale Papaya, Fresh Freesia and Polished Pink. They are beautiful colours. A flower head was die cut from each colour and I cut a flower centre from un-died scrap of Shimmery White card-stock. As there are 4 dies in this shape, I suspect that the shape may represent little buds or elongated flowers to go with the long small leaf die, but it also works as a flower centre. It was dotted using the Pale Papaya Stampin' Write Marker. The flower heads were popped up on Mini Dimensionals.

The die cut flowers/stems were arranged with pieces of the leaf spray and adhered in place with a mix of Multipurpose Liquid Glue and Mini Dimensionals.

A little tag from made from the Meadows dies with Shaded Spruce card-stock. It was stamped with the word "Love" from the Quiet Meadows Stamp Set using Versamark ink and heat embossed with Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder and a Heat Gun. The tag was positioned with a Dimensional; and a piece of White Twine from the Snail Mail Combo Pack was tied in a bow and adhered with a Glue Dot. To finish the card front design, 3 Genial Gems were added. They are so gorgeous and also come from the new 2021-2022 Annual Catalogue. New products will be available to all from 4 May. 

A piece of Basic White card-stock was mounted on a slightly larger piece of Pool Party card-stock and adhered inside the card. A piece of the water-coloured leaf was added as an understated design element. Another leaf will be adhered to a C6 Basic White envelope to tie the envelope in with the card. A second leaf was hiding underneath something at the time of photographing the card, so the decorated envelope is not pictured here.

For once Gemma let me photograph her with the card. She had a hair cut a few days ago and is feeling the cold. Just as well the sun was out.

Thank you for visiting. While this card did not fall into place easily, it is always good to persist with a challenge.

Catherine Proctor is our gorgeous host of the Art with Heart Colour Creations Showcase. If you haven't finished visiting all of the team's colour creations, you can visit/revisit Catherine's page at What Cathy Made, where she hosts the links to the participating blogs so you can find everyone's Shaded Spruce creations. Checking out everyone's creations and their interpretation of the amazing Stampin' Up! colours is always a treat and I am sure there will be inspiring Shaded Spruce projects on show.

I hope to see you again next week when members of the team share projects that hero Smoky Slate from the SU Neutrals Colour family.

Stay well, stay safe and be kind to yourself and others.

Andrea 💕🐾