Hi, my crafty friends,
I am sharing one of my very favorite card designs. It features an adorable skiing mouse from the Spirit of Christmas wooden block stamp by Penny Black. This little guy is so cute that I just couldn’t resist him!
I started with a 5×7″ hot-pressed watercolor paper panel, then taped off a 1/2″ all the way around. I have listed in the ‘goodies used’ list below a few tapes that are good for this.
Next was to stamp the skiing mouse. Since this little guy is mounted on a wooden block, I had to approximate where he was to go. To help with positioning, I ripped a piece of plain copy paper to simulate the slope. This gave me a better position perspective. I wanted a ski slope behind him so I inked the mouse well with Versafine Black Onyx ink and stamped him about two-thirds across the panel.
Now the mouse is on the panel, the rest was up to me to fill in the scene. Starting with the sky and using my torn plain paper slope, I had a good idea where the sky met the snow so I started by brushing on a layer of water along the imaginary snow slope and up to the top. If it helps, you could easily draw a light pencil line where the slope is.
With the sky completely moistened, I smooched some Salty Ocean and a tiny bit of Blueprint Sketch onto my small palette (see supply list below), then blended it with water to make a loose slurry of color and started painting. I used a darker mixture at the snowline and lighter as I went up toward the sky.
When the sky was done and using the same colors, I painted in some snow shadows. For the darker areas, I added a little Chipped Sapphire distress ink. By the way, the sky and snow may look a little stark and/or empty. Don’t worry, once we add the white ink a little later, it helps create the playfulness of the scene, not to mention hides a multitude of sins! 🙂
Once the sky and snow were done, I turned my attention to the star of the show… the skiing mouse. I painted his body with Vintage Photo and a little Rusty Hinge and his hat and gloves with Lumberjack Plaid. The skis were painted mostly with Twisted Citron. For the shading, I used Mowed Lawn distress inks.
Now for the real fun… adding in the spray of snow from the slope! This was accomplished by liberally dabbing and splattering Dr. Ph. Martin Bleedproof white ink. Most of the ink was applied behind the mouse, but a few well-placed splatters were added on and in front of the mouse.
My last step to finish the scene was to stamp the sentiment. I love the Christmas Sentiments stamp set by Penny Black. It is loaded with awesome sayings. I chose a cheery one and stamped it with Poppy red ink. By the way, this card design can easily be adapted for other occasions. I think it would be perfect to say Happy Birthday to a ski enthusiast!
The border tape was peeled off and the panel was mounted to a 5×7″ (when folded) white card base.
That finishes my card design for today. I hope you enjoyed it! ♥
Goodies Used:
