Hello everyone and welcome to another Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge post. We had a fun weekend with swim and soccer practice, a flea market, and friends coming over to play on both Saturday and Sunday. Tomorrow is a public holiday here (national day) and the kids are home today so they got a nice long weekend.
Since this week is the first week of a new month, the team is showcasing products from a specific designer/company, and the turn has come to Darkroom Door and their wonderful and versatile stamps. This week at we have a Masculine challenge theme.
A new month also means a new guest designer, and during June the wonderful Anne Redfern will be our guest designer. Don't miss her fantastic projects and the often clever and unusual ways that she uses products.
I decided to make another card this week and wanted to make this gorgeous elephant the star of the card. I love elephants and I am lucky to have seen them in the wild quite a few times. The Darkroom Door Wild Africa sets are really wonderful and I have used them quite a few times lately.
I wanted to use the Camera Eclectic stamp, but it was too big for my card, so I stamped it on shrink plastic and shrunk it. Here you can see the original and the shrunk versions. Punch a hole through the cameras before shrinking.
I colored the cameras with alcohol in on the back. Be careful not to color them on the front since you'll smear the black ink then.
The elephant was stamped with Black Soot Archival Ink on gloss cardstock. I filled the bottom out with grasses from the Leopard stamp on Wild Africa Vol. 2 set.
I coloured it with Distress Inks using a Colorbox Stylus Tool with an Oval Tip. Start with the lightest color and gradually build up darker shades. For the smaller areas, I used a Ranger Craft Nib. I want to do a video on this type of inking, but things have been too busy lately. Hopefully soon!
Add some highlights to the elephant with a white gel pen. It really brings it to life.
Finally, I sponged a thin layer of white pigment ink underneath the elephant, using a Q-tip. It kinds of looks like mist.
For the background, I decided to extend the scene and applied Distress Inks to an acrylic block. The block was misted and then stamped on a a piece of watercolour paper.
Add a layer of Glossy Accents on top of the cameras and leave them to dry overnight. The Glossy Accents gives them a great finished look. Attach with a Mini Fastener to the card. The birds come from the African Trees set.
I love the look of this gentle giant. For a different twist, color her pink instead.
A closer look of the mist at the feet. Stamp the sentiment on a Tattered Curvy Banner, for some added dimension. I also layered the elephant on a piece of burlap.
Don't forget to follow Simon Says Stamp on Instagram, they post great stuff daily.
