My Friends are a Hoot. Really.
Hi everyone,
I thought I’d share a card I made for the latest Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge blog. It’s been a while since I entered a challenge (I’ve had a pretty crazy couple of months…), and I really missed it. Challenges are always a great opportunity for me to try out new products and ideas. This week’s theme was dry embossing with a highlight on Tim Holtz products, so I decided to combine one of my favorite embossing folders with the Arthur colorize dies for a fun (and grumpy) Halloween card.
I assembled Arthur according to instructions, he has quite a bit of texture (and attitude) already, but I figured since the theme is dry embossing, it might be fun to add more texture to some parts, I like the extra flare it gave him :)
When I had Arthur all ready, I figured he should have a tree to perch on and also that he should have some friends, but, well, they’re shy (or just hate people, jury’s out), so only their eyes are visible. I stained and embossed a piece of cardstock, then I cut an opening in it, making sure it’s nice an uneven, and rounded the edges inwards to create the feel of a dimensional hollow in the tree. Then I cut all the parts needed for three more eyes, assembled them and added them to a piece of black cardstock.
I wanted to add a detail of gold to the backing, so I cut a piece of gold cardstock, slightly smaller then the black one and cut out it middle so the black still shows through (golden tree hollow wasn’t what I was going for…). Then I rounded the embossed woodgrain piece a bit and used some fun foam to make sure it stayed that way. On the sides I glued the embossed cardstock directly to the backing, so on top of the dimension, I got a nice rounded feel of a tree trunk.
I cut and assembled the branch from the Arthur die set and decided it’ll be a great place for the sentiment. To be honest - this one took a bit of trial and error. I first Gold heat embossed it, but felt it isn’t showing enough, so I cut the top layer again and this time I stamped it in black and still wasn’t happy… In the end I went over the black stamped letter with a white gel pen, I used the opportunity to make the letters more whimsical and uneven. I used a fine tip pen to give it partial border that helped the text pop and, yep - happy.
I was pretty happy with the card at that point, but felt like maybe the balance wasn’t great. Plus, these guys have to much attitude to only say happy Halloween. So I enlisted the aid of some snarky cats and added a sentiment befitting a bunch of grumpy owls ;)
Now this card really gives me the giggles, which is always a good sign!
Hope you enjoyed this little walk-through, there’s a list of the products I used below and please feel free to ask any questions.
xx
Naama
Products list:
Colorize Arthur die set
3D embossing folder Lumber
Embossing folder from the Beach Side-order set
Distress inks: gathered twigs, walnut stain, ground espresso, mustard seed, fossilized amber, wild honey, squeezed lemonade, twisted citron, crushed olive, antique linen
Distress oxide inks: black soot, hickory smoke, frayed burlap, pumice stone
