The Greetery’s New La Dolce Vita Collection – Introduction Day 2

Hello, friends!  Ok, so I loved the new products from The Greetery‘s La Dolce Vita collection that we introduced yesterday but man, I love some of the ones from today, too! Let’s dive right in!

If you’ve followed me for long on social media, then you know that we grow tomatoes every year and love it! We’ve also been to Italy several times, so these new products feel right up my alley!!

I couldn’t wait to create a cluster of ombre die cut tomatoes, because those are some of the most photogenic tomatoes when you see pictures of them anywhere! MAN, were these fun to make and super easy, too! I die cut them from different shades of card stock and then added some additional shading with oxide inks to make them a bit more realistic. Also, it’s SUPER easy to add the stems to the tomatoes, because there are debossed lines on the tomatoes to show you where each one goes perfectly!

PRO TIP: When adding shading on tomatoes (and sometimes other things, too) you might think if it’s a red tomato, I should use a darker shade of red. And while that can certainly work, I found that what worked great in this instance, was thinking like a painter when mixing colors. To deepen a red shade, you add the opposite color on the color wheel. So, I used a green ink to darken the red just at the top where the stem is. And on the green tomato, I used a red ink. In both cases, use a very light pressure….it doesn’t take much. But the results are pretty lovely and more realistic!

PRO TIP: To give the illusion of a shiny tomato, you can use a white colored pencil and add a little curved line where the light would be hitting the tomatoes. In this case, I added the white curved lines all on the right side of the tomatoes. Wherever you decide to do it, you just want them to all have the lines on the same side because the light source would be the same for all the tomatoes.

I used the Ciao Bella Borders to create the label, along with sentiments from the new Tomato Tomato stamp set. I also added some ink blending to the tomato leaves, and then stamped the veins from the new Vine Ripened stamp set, for some added detail.

For the background, I used the new Tile Style Background stamp, and to soften the look of the deep blue, I stamped it off once first before stamping it on my card base. The result is a lovely, detailed background that doesn’t compete with my tomatoes & sentiment focal point!

{Tomato Tomahto supplies — click on thumbnails}

Next up, gosh another one I love so much! I want this on a t-shirt! 🙂 For this one, I used the new Checks Out A2 Border die on the background. I cut a piece of white card stock and layered it over a piece of blue.

The sentiments are from Tomato Tomato, and I used some colored pencils to add shading to the leaves and stems. I added some red ink blending to darken the spot around each stem base on the pink tomatoes. And I added some pink ink blending on the red tomatoes for a highlight.

PRO TIP: For the “tomato sign”, I used a piece of woodgrain card stock and die cut it with one of the new Ciao Bella Borders dies, but to make it fit my design better, I cut it in half. This gave it the feel of a roadside sign, without it taking up too much space on my card.

{Garden Ripe Tomatoes supplies — click on thumbnails}

One more for today. I used the new Rolling Hills embossing folder with the Rolling Hills die and stencil to create the green fields. I cut apart each layer, so that I could tuck into them, the new Rolling Hills: Bella Terra Additions die cut flowers!

PRO TIP: I went over the clouds in the background with a blending brush and a little blue ink, to help those clouds stand out a little.

How fun is that house? I used colors that remind me of Claude Monet’s house in Giverny and the new Countryside Villa Mini dies. The sentiments are also from Rolling Hills: Bella Terra Additions.

{Ciao Bella supplies — click on thumbnails}

There’s loads more for you to check out today over at The Greetery Blog, as well as on each team member’s blog! 

1. Caly Person 

2. Dana Kirby

3. Dawn McVey

4. Kelly Lunceford

5. Laura Bassen

6. Laurie Willison

7. Lea Lawson

8. Melissa Phillips

9. Wanda Guess

Don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered to win one of the gift cards from The Greetery today! What are you most excited about?

Have a great day,

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