Heart Background Card

Hi friends! It is a new month and the sun is shining. We had a fun weekend, with lots of snow activities. Last winter there wasn't a single really good day with snow, so the boys have been happy.

We have a Love/Heart theme at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog this week. I hope you will join us! Since it is the first Monday of a new month, the team is showcasing products from a specific company or designer and this week it is Carabelle Studio. You can find Carabelle's gorgeous stamps and stencils here. You don't have to use their products to join, but it is always fun if you do.

We also have a new guest designer and during February Estelle Palumbo will be joining us. I hope you will stop by her blog Atouscrap to have a look at what she has designed for you.

I made a cute gnome card this week using the Carabelle Zolitins de Bois set and a watercolored and die cut background. I used a single stamp, but it wasn't available when I typed up the post, but the same stamp is available in the Zolitins de Bois set, but the size might differ. You can also use the Zelie and Hippolyte stamps.

I started out with a piece of watercolor paper, which was left from a tutorial I did on how to create textured watercolor background with the help of cling wrap (Saran wrap). You can find that tutorial here.

Die cut the paper with the Simon Says Stamp Chunky Hearts Panel.

Ink the edges of the hearts with brown ink. Adhere the panel to green cardstock. Glue the hearts back into their slots and adhere some of them with foam dots. You can do all of them with foam dots too, but I wanted variety.

Stamp the gnome on Neenah Solar White cardstock.

Color him with colored pencils. I used Faber-Castell Polychromos. Add shading for a dimensional look. 

Just a little bit of shading adds a lot when you color images with pencils.

The border was die cut from Aqua Glitter Paper with the Simon Says Stamp Slimline Borders and Edges die. I used some of the small hearts here and there on the card. The sentiment comes from the All Things Happy Reverse Sentiment Strips.

The subtle inking make the hearts stand out on the background, while the pattern of the watercolor paper still remains. 

I hope you will join us this week in our Love/Hearts challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

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

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

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by here today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

* 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.