Happy Mail Owl

On Day 6 of Online Card Classes' "Sparkle & Shine" class, Heather Ruwe had a lesson on "Faux Ombre Embossing with Distress Inks." I used that technique with this card.

To create the background, I used Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, & Rusty Hinge Distress inks and Winnie & Walter's "Madison" Creative Screenings stencil. I wanted to go for a more gender-neutral card, and knew I would use the "Curious Owl" stamp by Hero Arts. I thought the stencil resembled feathers, hence my choice.

After finishing the background, following Heather's instructions, I stamped the owl onto a scrap of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper with Hero Arts Wet Cement ink. I colored that with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, using a water brush (sparingly) to blend the color a little in places. Then I set that aside to dry, before fussy cutting him out.

I stamped an envelope from Technique Tuesday's "Random Act of Cardness" set onto bristol paper with Wet Cement, and fussy cut it out. I used a craft knife to cut along the sides of the owl's beak, and slipped the envelope into the slits, gluing it in place with a bit of liquid glue.

I figured the owl would blend into the background too much if I adhered him directly to it, but also didn't want to cover up a lot of the stenciled panel. So I die cut a piece of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb. vellum with a Lawn Fawn "Large Stitched Oval" die. I stamped a greeting from the "Snail Mail" set, also by Technique Tuesday, on the vellum above where the owl would go with Ranger Archival Coffee ink. That turned out to be a mistake, since the greeting didn't show up against the background, even with the vellum to mute the colors on my panel. So I used a fine-tip black marker to trace over the letters. It's not absolutely perfect, but it's close enough for me, and at least I didn't have to die cut and re-stamp another oval! :)

To complete the card, I adhered the owl to the oval with foam tape, and used Scor-Tape pieces on the back of the vellum (behind the owl) to adhere it directly to my background. I felt the panel needed a little more definition, so I machine-stitched around the perimeter with black thread. I finished by adhering the card front to a white A2 card base. I will leave this card in our mailbox for our postal carrier, just as a little appreciation card, as part of Jennifer McGuire's #ShareHandmadeKindness campaign.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

A Blog Named Hero: "Watercoloring"
Pile It On #130: "Animal"
613 Avenue Create: "Anything Goes"