Autumn Greetings

The September challenge theme at Live Love Cards is "Cute Creatures." I haven't used Hero Arts' "Li'l Hoot" set (discontinued) much since Operation Write Home stopped accepting cards. But I decided to pull it out for a stab at an autumn-themed card.

I chose Sketch #SC602 from Splitcoaststampers.com for my design. I cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper to 3x3", and stamped my image on it with Hero Arts Cup o' Joe ink. I colored it in with my Inktense pencils & a damp paintbrush. After that dried, I masked the owls & branch to work on the background.

I wanted a harvest moon look, so I die cut a circle from some masking paper, and placed the negative part of the mask around my owls. I inked the watercolor paper with Scattered Straw Distress ink to create my moon. I added some spots by watercoloring with Antique Linen Distress ink. After I removed the masking paper, I dried that section, and then placed the positive circle mask down over where I'd already inked. I inked just around the moon with a very light coating of Scattered Straw, to make a glow around the moon. Then I inked the rest of the sky with Faded Jeans, Blueprint Sketch, & a bit of Chipped Sapphire Distress inks, being sure not to let the blue get into the yellow. (I didn't want a green sky! LOL) I really love the way it all turned out!

I decided to replace the leaves from the owl stamp with die cut leaves. So I cut several from watercolor paper using one of the "Stitched Leaves" dies by Lawn Fawn. I used some red, yellow, & green Inktense pencils to color them, picking the color up from the pencils with a damp brush & applying it to the leaves. Finally, I set those aside to air dry.

I cut a piece of patterned paper for my background from Echo Park's "The Story of Fall" 6x6" pad. I also cut a rust-colored piece from the same pad to go behind my focal panel. For the greeting, I used Lawn Fawn's "Riley's ABC's" to spell "Autumn Greetings," and stamped it on kraft cardstock with Cup o' Joe ink. I matted that with another piece of the rust patterned paper, and added a bit of distressing/texture by running my scissors along the edges of the mat. I then inked the edges with Vintage Photo Distress ink.

To assemble my card, I mounted the background panel to a white A2 card base. I glued my rust panel to the back of my watercolor panel, and adhered them in place. I adhered the greeting strip down, and then glued down my leaves. I had cut extra leaves, both to add a couple to the edge of my focal panel (so it looked like the branch was coming off a tree), and scatter a few more in a visual triangle around my card. I will send this card to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

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

Send a Smile 4 Kids: "Cute Fall or Halloween 4 Kids"
A Blog Named Hero: "Texture"
Die Cut Divas: "Fall & Fall Holidays"