Happy Father's Day!

I recently sent in my Father's Day cards to Send a Smile 4 Kids. The idea is that hospitalized children can have a nice assortment of handmade cards to give their fathers for Father's Day. This is one of my cards.

I've had "The Old Truck" image from Fred, She Said for a long time now, and have never used it. I decided it would be perfect for a Father's Day card. The license plate on the truck reads "Clunker," so I could just see a kid--especially a teenager--giving this to his/her dad, as a bit of humor! Because I wanted the image to be a good size, I chose Operation Write Home's Sketch #38:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees, but otherwise remained true to the proportions & dimensions.

I added a greeting from this Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps set to the image, then printed it onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper. I used my Inktense pencils to color the image, blending the color with a damp brush. I did print off one of the colored images that come in "The Old Truck" set, just to make sure I was painting everything correctly. I also started off pretty light with my colors, and had to make a couple more passes on the truck to get the deeper values. I used regular watercolors for the grass, flowers, and sky, since they didn't have to be so precise.

After my painting had dried, I inked around the edges of the focal panel with Vintage Photo Distress ink. I cut 3 strips of patterned paper, all from my scrap stash, to go behind the main panel. I adhered them to a piece of navy cardstock that I'd cut to 4.25x5.5", and adhered the watercolor panel over top. Finally, I mounted this to a white A2 card base. Even though it's a simple card, it took me quite a while to get the painting right. Otherwise, it came together pretty quickly.

I'm entering this card in the May "Watercolor" challenge at Live Love Cards.