Cardinal Sympathy Card

My mom came to me the other day & said, "I need a sympathy card." The mother-in-law of a friend of hers had died, and so she wanted a card to send. I found this card by Shari Carroll using the Hero Arts "Color Layering Cardinal" stamp set on Pinterest, and decided to CASE it for this.

To create the background, I used The Crafter's Workshop's "Aspen Trees" 6x6" stencil & a panel of watercolor paper I cut to 3.75x5". I had sprayed the back of the stencil with repositionable adhesive, so I could ink blend over it without catching on the little pieces. I positioned the stencil over my paper, and lightly inked through it with Stormy Sky Distress ink & a foam blending tool, to create a subtle background that still had some interest. Then I removed my stencil & set my panel aside.

To stamp the cardinal, I used all Memento dye inks. I stamped the solid layer first with Tangelo, and then with Lady Bug, to give me a nice red-orange base. I stamped the second layer with Rhubarb Stalk, and the detail layer with London Fog. Finally, I used Tuxedo Black to stamp the face/eye detail. I accentuated the catchlight with a white gel pen. Finally, I cut it out with the coordinating die.

I used 2 different stamp sets for the greeting: Hero Arts "Prayers" & Simon Says Stamp's "Jumbo Stripes." From the "Prayers" set I used "Our thoughts and," "to you," & "and your family." I wanted a larger size for the actual "prayers" word, but the scripty one in that set was too large. So I pulled the "prayers" from "Jumbo Stripes." I stamped the greeting with Versamark onto a piece of watercolor paper, and heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I cut it into a banner, and adhered it to my background panel. I glued my cardinal in place then.

I die cut a panel from Canson XL Mixed Media paper with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Cross-stitched Rectangle" dies. I inked it up with Stormy Sky, applying a darker coat than I had with the stenciled panel. After I let the ink dry for several hours, I adhered my main panel to that, and mounted the whole thing to a white A2 card base.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

a2z Scrapbooking's February challenge: "Any Shade of Red"
A Blog Named Hero's February challenge: "CAS"
Die Cut Divas February challenge: "A Month for Using Red or Pink"