Thursday, September 15, 2016

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"

4 comments:

  1. So glad you pulled out that set - darling card. They feel so natural, such a great design too.

    Glad you could join us at Die Cut Divas.

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  2. What an adorable set of owls and you have set them off beautifully with your background technique and patterned paper.Thanks for joining the Diecut Divas Fall and Fall Holidays Challenge. Cathie DT

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