Just Chicken In

Ellen Hutson is having their May Mix-It Up challenge at their CLASSroom blog. Participants are to combine one or more Essentials by Ellen products with product(s) from Avery Elle in their project. I used the chicken from the "Twelve Days" stamp set and the "Just Chicken In" greeting from the "12 Days Companion Greetings," both by Essentials by Ellen. I paired them with one of the stamps from Avery Elle's "Rounded Diamonds" set.

I started by cutting a piece of white cardstock to 4.25x5.5". After much thinking about how to stamp the motifs for my background, I finally figured it out. I used my MISTI to help with positioning my stamp. I decided to do rainbow order, so chose Hero Arts Shadow inks (from top to bottom) in Pale Tomato, Fresh Peach, Butter Bar, Green Hills, Pool, and Soft Lilac. Once I had my background stamped, I trimmed it down to 4x5.25", and die cut the bottom edge with one of the dies from Avery Elle's "Custom Panels" set. Then I had to figure out what to do with my newly-created background!

I cut another piece of white cardstock to 4x5.25", and adhered my die cut background to the top of that. I decided to stamp the chicken & greeting on the lower part, but they just seemed a bit too small. So I ended up getting the stitched rectangle die from Mama Elephant's "Femme Frames" set (I believe this is discontinued now), and die cut the whole panel. Then I decided that I needed more contrast between the stamped panel and the white, so I die cut a piece of black paper with the same curvy die I'd used on the stamped piece. I lifted the bottom of the stamped panel (CAREFULLY) from the white base, and slipped my black piece underneath, so only a thin sliver peeked out. Once I had everything lined up, I glued all that down, and trimmed off the overhanging sides of the black strip.

I was tempted to stamp the chicken and greeting in Versafine Onyx Black ink. But, since I planned to color the chicken with colored pencils and Gamsol, I didn't want to risk the Gamsol smearing the ink, so I used Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink instead. The greeting didn't stamp very well the first time, so I removed the chicken from my MISTI, and did re-stamp the greeting with the Versafine. Finally, I colored the chicken and phone with colored pencils, though I ended up not using Gamsol after all!

To finish off the card, I die cut a piece of black paper with the stitched rectangle die from My Favorite Things' "Blueprints 13" set. I also cut a piece of yellow cardstock to 4.25x5.5". I adhered my main panel to the black, and then adhered that to the yellow. Finally, I mounted everything to a white A2 card base. I will be sending this card to Operation Write Home.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Virginia's View Challenge #14: "Layers & Dimensions"
Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday: Incorporate something yellow