Painted rhodies

Here is a card that features the technique of the week for Technique Junkies!  It is the Paint Swatch technique.  I used it as the background for this lovely Blossoms stamp fro Sweet Stamps.  I think the image looks very much like Rhododendrons (which I love).  I stamped the image over the technique and colored in with Copics.  I originally had it colored quite light and it wasn't dark enough to overcome the background.  Then I darkened it and it looked like a blob.....so I lighted it back up with the blender and all was much better!  The sentiment was cut out with a Nestie.  I traced the Nestie I used for the sentiment onto the shadow paper, hand cut, and mounted under.    Hope you like!

I happened to have my fill of rhodies today!  Ray and I volunteered to man the gate and plant sale at the Cecil Smith Garden in Newberg.  It is a private garden that our Rhododendron Society chapter owns and maintains.  It is 2.5 acres of pure bliss.  Several of the rhodies blooming this weekend are fragrant AND many of them are over 20' tall.  The fragrance wafted throughout the whole garden.  It was heavenly!