The autumn colours are giving way to a muted landscape .... the dark greens of the evergreens and the greys and browns of leafless trees and shrubs. A reminder that Christmas will soon be upon us! Today's card features one of my favourite digital images by Graciellie design, FESTIVE SWAG! This gorgeous image looks beautiful on any sized card. I wanted the swag to be bigger so chose to make a slimline card.
The image was printed on Neenah Solar White Classic Crest 80 lb card stock. I kept the number of colours to a minimum and worked with a light, medium and dark tone for each one. A flicking technique was used to apply the colour to accentuate the beautiful textural lines of the images. The following copic colours were used:
Leaves G20, 24, 29
Pine Needles G29
Pine Cones E42, 44, 49
Flowers, Berries RV000. 63, 69
I 'dressed up' the pine cones and needles with touches of Hero Arts Puffy Embossing Powder. I like the snow-like texture of this embossing powder. The image was fussy cut leaving a very thin, white border. I made diagonal 'snips' around the pine needles. I anticipated the cutting to take a lot longer than it did!
A panel of Strathmore's Bristol Smooth card stock was printed with a sentiment from Graciellie Design's Simplicity and die cut using the largest die in Pinkfresh Studio's Slim Stitched Rectangles. Distress Oxide inks, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass, were ink blended. I wanted to create a glow around the swag and sentiment and would periodically place the image on the background to ensure I was highlighting the right areas. The swag was mounted on black sheet foam before it was adhered to the background. The panel was finely spattered with slightly, watered down gouache and a very small paint brush. The panel was mounted on a card base sized 3 3/4" by 8 3/4" of Neenah Solar White Classic Crest 110lb card stock. The berries were finished off with Nuvo Glitter Drops, White Blizzard ... a clear, glittery embellishment when dry.