Hi there, I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend!
For this card I used the sweet Mr. Snailman stamp set from Trinity Stamps. I adore this little guy!
I started by stamping the two images, Mr. Snailman and the mailbox, in Copic-friendly Hero Arts Intense Black ink onto an A2-sized piece of Neenah Solar White 80# Classic Crest cardstock. The tufts of grass accompany each stamp so I didn’t have to worry about stamping those separately, how handy is that?!
Then I got down to coloring. I started this card when I was sitting around a table with some amazing crafty ladies in Seattle, and I completely forgot to note the colors I used, oops! I do recall that I used four shades of red (I’m pretty sure it was R20, R22, R24, and R2) and a couple of very light Es and Ws for Mr. Snailman’s body. I would have used some light Cs for the mailbox and some shading on the letters, and some bright yellow greens (like YG21, YG23, and YG25 for the grass. For the shadows, which I started in Seattle and finished at home, I used G24 and G46.
To finish up the card, when I got back to my craft desk I used a small rag snippet and Copic Blending Solution to add some texture to the grass. By adding a few drops of solution to the rag, and then dabbing the rag onto the green, the texture of the nubbies on the rag becomes visible on the paper. I learned this technique from Kathy Racoosin so be sure to check out her blog and videos for a more detailed description of the technique!
I decided to add some cloud puffs so I pulled out the My Favorite Things Clouds stencil and some Salty Ocean Distress ink. I confess that I was really really nervous about blending onto Neenah Solar White because I usually find blending on Bristol Smooth paper to be much more forgiving. Before I started, I masked off the snail and mailbox and then pulled out a makeup blending brush to blend on the Salty Ocean. I did have a big uh-oh moment when I got a little heavy handed but luckily it was on one of the higher layers of clouds. So, to salvage the card, I fussy cut around the clouds that seemed okay and then foam-mounted the panel over a new A2-sized piece of Neenah which I had heavily inked up with Salty Ocean.
To finish, I adhered the card front to an A2-sized card base.
Thanks so much for visiting!
SkyPaperScissors 