February 2012 Cricut Circle Magazine Sketch Challenge

The challenge:

You can use any of the sketches from
the magazine or blog to create a card,
layout, decor item, or whatever else you
are inspired to make.

I rarely use sketches in my work, as I’m more of a free flowing, on the fly type, so this was a bit of a challenge for me to come up with something that would fit one of the sketches.  In the end, I had been wanting to do a project with fruit for the kitchen/dining room, and this month’s Cricut Circle Magazine sketch by Susan Neal seemed perfect for such a project. 

Here is Susan’s sketch:

And, here’s my project using the sketch:

I wanted to do the projects on canvas, and I loved the idea of having the background look a bit like stucco,.  In order to achieve this look, I used an artist’s knife and Liquitex Acrylic Color in Gold.  I’ve never been a painter, but this was fun!  It reminded me of finger painting, and though I did use an artist’s knife, I had enough on me to look like I’d been finger painting.  I only painted the first 2/3 of the canvas, as that was all that was going to show.  I let them dry overnight to assure they were completely dry.

The fruits were taken from two different Cricut cartridges:  the lemon and peach are from the Savory cartridge, while the pear can be found on the Cricut “Just Because” Cards cartridge.  I took the words (nectar, sweet, sour) off the fruit from the Savory cartridge, and applied them as a separate entity.  That allowed me to create the sentiments without using only the fruit on the Savory cartridge.  However, each word had a piece of a letter missing as part of the original design.  In order to overcome this obstacle, I placed a ribbon flower on each of the words where this occurred. 

The fruits and sentiments was inked and shaded, then sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearl.  The doily behind each fruit is from the Cricut Elegant Edges cartridge.  To add more dimension to the project, I used foam squares on each of the fruits. I added a dark green ribbon with an intricate design and a large rhinestone brad to complete the sketch.

I love all the texture and the richness of the colors of this project. 

I hope you enjoy it.

Have a wonderfully crafty day!

Shari