Birthday card: Copic blackberries

What:

It’s that time of year when I have to get working on a birthday card for my mum. I found the gorgeous blackberry (well, raspberry, but close enough) digital stamp a while ago and had thought of using My Favourite Things’ Harvest Mouse stamps for the mouse; unfortunately it’s been out of stock and I couldn’t wait any longer, so I had to trawl Google images to find something I could adapt (I don’t like doing this because it’s hard to be sure where the original comes from, but this is a one-off, for purely personal use).

Inspired by:

The blackberry colours were based on those used by Jennifer Dove over on Just4FunCrafts.

How:

Once I’d found an almost suitable mouse as a starting point, I set about adapting it so it could carry off one of the blackberries that I copied from the main image.

I have to applaud Marcella Hawley for creating a digital stamp that colours so beautifully; this was a lot easier to do than it might look. Once I’d finished with the Copics, I added a bit of texture to the grass and sky using some colourless blender and a piece of canvas. I took the two tiny grass stamps from WPlus9’s Unforgettable set and used them to add some detail to the ground.

The most time-consuming process was adding glossy accents to the berry the mouse is carrying — I wanted to retain the shape of the individual drupelets rather than adding a uniform layer over the top of the whole berry and this meant adding blobs of glossy accents in batches and waiting for them to dry before adding the next ones.

Finally it was finished and dry and I could add the sentiment and a few sequins. After rounding all the corners I mounted the panel on some fun foam and added it to a card base over a piece of patterned paper.

Challenges:

Day 15 of The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge

Supplies:

• stamps:
  WPlus9 – unforgettable
  Clearly Besotted – sentimental type
• digital stamps:
  Power Poppy – berry it
• inks:
  Versafine – onyx black
  Lawn Fawn – freshly cut grass
• Copic markers:
  blackberries – BV23, BV25, BV29
  red blackberries – R35, R59
  blackberry flowers – B41
  leaves/grass – G43, YG63, G46, 0
  sky – B0000, B000, 0
  mouse – E42, E55, E35, E57, RV10
  star – Y19, Y38
• embellishments:
  Pretty Pink Posh – sequins – 4mm – amethyst
  Pretty Pink Posh – sequins – 4mm – sparkling clear
• paper and card:
  Neenah – solar white
  Bo Bunny – paper pad – enchanted garden collection
  Paper mill Direct – linen – ivory
• miscellaneous:
  Ranger – glossy accents