Stellar Mother's Day Card

I made this card for my brother & sister-in-law to give our mom for Mother's Day. He got a telescope last year, so I thought Lawn Fawn's "Super Star" stamp set would be perfect! The design & technique were inspired by Julie Ebersole's lesson in Online Card Classes' Spring Card Camp (Day 4).

I stamped the telescope from "Super Star" on the front of the card base & die cut it (having opened the card first) to give me a window. I used Lawn Fawn's "Smitty's ABCs" to stamp the greeting, lining up the letters in my MISTI stamp positioning tool. Not easy to do, since they are small & fiddly stamps, but I managed! I wanted the ends of the words to go around the outline of the telescope die cut opening. Thankfully, I had just enough room for the "Mother's" word, even though I hadn't planned it out that way! I used the small heart stamp from "Super Star" to fill in the "gaps" in front of the "Happy" & "Day." I stamped the greeting with Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide ink & the hearts with Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide.

View of inside of card

I closed the card, placed it in my MISTI, and stamped the telescope on the inside of the card through the window in the front. I also stamped the mouse from "Super Star" twice, masking the first one so the second would be behind it. I figured, this card is coming from two people--there should be two mice! I also stamped & white heat embossed the constellations & a few more stars from "Super Star," as well as the greeting.

I masked the telescope & mice, and masked off an area for the ground with a piece of masking paper I'd cut. I inked the sky with Distress inks in shades of blue, ending by adding a little Black Soot at the very top to give the sky some depth. I masked the bottom of the sky with the other half of my hill mask, & inked the ground with Mowed Lawn & Peeled Paint Distress inks. To add some more "starry" accents, I kept the image & ground masks in place, & spattered gold watercolor on the sky.

This is where my second "mistake" came into play. (The first had been smudging black ink onto the mouse in back, which I'd camouflaged by coloring him grey.) I wanted to see how my card would look when closed, so I mindlessly closed it--without waiting for the watercolor to dry completely. Yep--gold & blue Distress ink spots transferred to the inside of the card front! At this point, having finished the inside, I was NOT about to start over. Nor was cutting the card apart an option, since the front & back of the design are kind of "married." So I found a piece of patterned paper from the My Mind's Eye "Blue Floral" 6x6" patterned paper pad, that complemented the scene inside the card. I cut it to A2 size, adhered it to the inside front of my card, & trimmed off any overhanging bits around the edges. Then, I popped the telescope die in its opening on the front of the card, opened the card so I only cut through the front, & ran it through my die cutting machine. Ink & paint spots covered! Even with that hiccup, I still love how the card came out.

I'm entering this card in the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge #75: "Spectacular Skies."