Winter Deer

The technique challenge theme at Christmas Card Throwdown this month is "Embossed Impressions." I used heat embossing on the background of my card this time.

For my focal panel, I chose the "Deck the Halls" mini stamp set by Lia Griffith for Hero Arts. I used Operation Write Home's Sketch #59 for my design, and cut my focal panel from Canson XL Mixed Media paper to the measurements in the sketch. For the background on my focal panel, I die cut full-sticky Post It notes with a My Favorite Things "Snowdrifts" die (discontinued). I applied the mask to my panel, and stamped the tree line with the solid layer of the "Color Layering Christmas Tree" set. I only inked up the top portion of the stamp with Hero Arts Soft Leaf ink, and stamped above my mask, making sure to vary the heights & spacing of my trees. When I finished stamping the trees, I inked over the area with Stormy Sky Distress ink, then removed my mask. I also used the mask to ink light bits of Stormy Sky on the snow, to indicate drifts.

I stamped the deer from "Deck the Halls" with Colorbox Chestnut Roan ink, using my MISTI so I could stamp them a couple of times. Then I added shading with my Prismacolor colored pencils, so the images didn't look quite so flat. I considered adding the antlers in the set to the larger deer, but decided to leave it a doe instead. I also added a bit of pinky-beige colored pencil to the insides of their ears & noses.

To create the background panel, I cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper to 5.5x4.25". I stamped the Hero Arts "Designer Woodgrain" background on that with Versamark ink, & heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing powder. I inked over that with Tea Dye & Vintage Photo Distress inks, and added a bit of shading around the edges with Ground Espresso Distress ink. I also inked around the edges of my brown mat with Ground Espresso. Finally, I matted my focal panel, adhered a strip of light blue cardstock to the background, adhered my matted panel on top, and mounted the whole card front to a white A2 card base.

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

613 Avenue Create #200: "Anything Goes"
A Blog Named Hero's August challenge: "Embossing"