Wildlife Birthday Card

Hello everyone! Christmas is almost here and the past months have really flown by. At the same time, if I look back at something specific we did just two weeks ago, it already feels like it was long ago. Time is funny that way.

This is our last Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge of the year, and we will be back again on January the first. So this challenge runs for two weeks. Our theme is Party!

Thank you so much for everyone who has joined us and posted project during the year. It is such fun to check out all the creative projects that are made for each challenge.

Don't miss the last project by our December guest designer Valarie-Jael, with her blog Bastelmania. 

I was first planning to do an art journal page, but then remembered that I needed a birthday card for a special friend, and I wanted her to have something newly made. She shares my love for Baobab trees, and I was lucky to find one on the Darkroom Door African Trees set. The watercolored background was in my scrap box, and was one of the backgrounds I did for my Versatile Watercolor Stamping class on Skillshare. I also did a similar background on this Watercolor Tree Journal page.

The clouds were done by smearing a tiny bit of Distress Micro Glaze in the sky, which resist the watercolor paint. 

I lost focus for a while when stamping the sentiments and messed up. Normally, I would cover it up by stamping on a strip of paper, but I didn't want anything extra in the sky, so I decided to leave it as it was. The sentiments were done with the SSS Friendship Blooms and Thoughtful Messages sets.

The trees and animals were inked with Distress Inks and misted with water before stamping, for a watercolor effect, similar to my Winter Watercolor Notebooks from last week. I used Forest Moss and Peeled Paint for the trees. Forest Moss is a really nice brownish green color, which I don't use often enough.

The elephant stamped a little too light at first, so I redid it with darker colours, so that it would stand out as a silhouette instead. Shadows were painted under the animals and trees. My almost favorite part of the whole scene is that little blue spot in the foreground.

I also added a Clippings Sticker. The edges of the watercolor paper were distressed, and I layered the panel on white cardstock and a piece of vellum before mounting it to the card.

On the inside of the card, I stamped this sentiment, from the Darkroom Door Wilderness Vol. 1 set, which is one of my favorite quotes, and I am pretty sure my friend will like it too.


I hope you will join us this week in our Party! challenge. As always, you have a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have two weeks for this challenge until Monday 1 January 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily. 

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by my blog today! I will be back again before Christmas. 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies: 

Darkroom Door AFRICAN TREES [ SSS ] Darkroom WILDERNESS VOLUME 1 [ SSS ] Simon Says Clear Stamps THOUGHTFUL MESSAGES [ SSS ] Simon Says Clear Stamps FRIENDSHIP BLOOMS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Idea-ology CLIPPINGS [ SSS ] Winsor Newton COTMAN WATERCOLORS [ SSS ] Ranger Archival Ink JET BLACK [ SSS ] Ranger WATERCOLOR PAPER [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp VELLUM [ SSS ] Simon Says Stamp WHITE CARDSTOCK [ SSS ] Tim Holtz DISTRESS MICRO GLAZE [ SSS ] Tim Holtz FADED JEANS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz HICKORY SMOKE [ SSS ] Tim Holtz PEELED PAINT [ SSS ] Tim Holtz FRAYED BURLAP [ SSS ] Tim Holtz FOREST MOSS [ SSS ] Tim Holtz BLACK SOOT [ SSS ] Tim Holtz GROUND ESPRESSO [ SSS ] Tim Holtz DISTRESS SPRAYER [ SSS ] Hero Arts SMALL BLOCK TRIO CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCKS CL082 [ SSS ] Hero Arts CLEAR ACRYLIC BLOCK 4 x 4.5 cl081 [ SSS ] Ranger Non Stick CRAFT SHEET [ SSS ] Tim Holtz Tonic PAPER DISTRESSER [ SSS ]

* Please note: the links are affiliate links, for which I receive a small percentage of sales generated by the link, at no extra cost to you.