Merry Mice

I'm furiously working to get holiday cards done. I've finished probably 2/3 of them at least, but I am still working. Of course, it's now bordering on an obsession/compulsion, so I may not quit even after I finish. 😊 When I showed this one to my mom yesterday, she took one look & just burst out laughing at these cute little mice! Hopefully it will do that to whoever receives it, too.

I chose Sketch #SC585 from Splitcoaststampers.com for my design. I stamped the "Bow Tied" image (apparently discontinued) from Stampendous in Hero Arts Wet Cement ink onto a piece of Canson XL Mixed Media paper. I colored it with my Inktense pencils, using a damp paintbrush to pull the color off the pencil leads and apply it to my paper. I went over each mouse a few times, to get the shading just right. I also added in a sky & grass. I know, usually holiday scenes have snow, but here in Texas, it's usually greenish grass even this time of year! After I finished the painting, I added the facial features back in with a black fine-tip pen. When I did the mouth on the right mouse, the pen slipped, and made a bit of a mess that I could not fix! I was frantically trying to figure out what to do short of starting over. I finally ended up painting a thin coat of gesso over the face, and repainting with the Inktense pigment. I wasn't sure if the color would even stick to the gesso, but I figured at that point I had nothing to lose. I'm happy to report that it worked! I was a lot more careful when I drew the mouth in the second time! I did use a black glaze pen & white gel pen to highlight the eyes on the middle & right mice. Once the panel had dried completely, I went over the bows with the clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle Overlay pen.

I cut 2 pieces of patterned paper from my scrap stash for the bottom panels. For the greeting, I used one from Lawn Fawn's "Peace Joy Love" stamp set. First I cut a 1/2" wide strip of blue cardstock. I wasn't sure what color of ink I wanted to use, so I started with Hero Arts Charcoal ink. I didn't think it looked especially good, though. So, without removing the strip or the stamp from my MISTI, I stamped over the greeting with Memento Danube Blue dye ink. This has got to be one of the best features of the MISTI--the ability to save you from having to cut more paper and restamp!

To finish the card, I adhered my patterned paper pieces & image panel to a piece of dark green cardstock I'd cut to 4.25x5.5", leaving a 1/8" border on all sides. I glued my greeting strip in place, and mounted the card front to a white A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge: "Christmas Critters"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge: "Trio-Tastic" (I do have 3 mice! 😍)