You are my Heroine

Another of the challenge themes in Splitcoast Stampers' "Hope You Can Cling To" card drive is "I am a Warrior." The prompt is to use some sort of imagery that represents a warrior attitude towards fighting cancer. One of the suggestions was Native American imagery. With that as my inspiration, I decided to use the "Mini Navajo" stencil by The Crafter's Workshop for my background. I also had seen somewhere an example of slightly altering the "you are my hero" stamp in Mama Elephant's "In My Heart" stamp set. The card maker (I have no recollection who she was) added "-ine" to the end of "hero," to tailor it for a female. Since this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I decided to borrow this idea with that stamp, so a woman battling breast (or any other) cancer might get encouragement from someone.

For the background, I taped my stencil over a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper that I'd die cut with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Small Stitched Rectangle" dies. I chose that paper because I wanted a bit of texture in the panel. Then I took 4 colored pencils--2 blues, a magenta, and a pink--and colored in the design. Once I had everything colored, I removed my stencil. Then I had to figure out how to use this piece in my card!

Continuing with the Native American theme, I went through my animal stamps, and found one of a howling wolf. I decided that might work, but wondered what the Native American symbolism was for the wolf. So I turned to Google. I learned that the wolf can represent wisdom, which kind of worked, but still didn't hit home for me. I noticed the symbolism for a bear was in the same article, so I read further. There was nothing specifically Native American in that article, so I ended up doing another search to narrow it down to Native American symbolism. I found another article with a lot of information. The bear can represent power, courage, and freedom, among other things. I knew I have a small bear stamp (manufacturer unknown), so it was like kismet!

I die cut another piece of watercolor paper with one of Simon Says Stamp's "Stitched Circles" dies, then cut off a part with the same "Small Stitched Rectangle" die, to create a corner in my circle. Then I stamped my bear on that, first in Hero Arts Cup o' Joe ink, using my MISTI. Then, without moving the stamp or paper, I inked the stamp up again with Memento Tuxedo Black, and re-stamped the image. I don't know if the brown really shows through or alters the black in any way, but I figured it doesn't hurt anything! I used a dark brown Zig Clean Color marker to color the rest of the bear, and lightened that color somewhat with my water brush and a clean paper towel. I also painted in some ground for the bear to stand on.

I stamped my greeting in Versafine Onyx Black ink on another scrap of watercolor paper, & added the "-ine" to the end with a black fine-tip Pitt pen. I cut it into a banner, and inked the edges with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink. I also inked the edges of my stenciled panel and the bear piece. Finally, I adhered the focal panel and greeting to my background with foam tape.

For the mat, I wanted a tone-on-tone background. I stamped one of the "On Point Borders," from Mama Elephant, repeatedly on a piece of pink cardstock, using Stampabilities Bright Pink ink. I adhered my completed main panel to that, and finally mounted it to a white A2 card base.