Birthday: Mice and blackberries

November (already!) and that means cute critters and blackberries for my mum’s birthday. (It’s not for another couple of days, but as she’s the only person I know who isn’t on the internet, it’s safe to post it now  🙂 )

I’m running a bit behind schedule this year — this would normally have been made at least a week or two ago — but I’ve had to drag my mojo out of the corner where it was hiding to get this card done. At least I already knew which digi stamp I was going to use for it and I had decided to keep the card layout simple and let the colouring shine.

How:

I resized the digi stamp and printed it out on Neenah solar white so I could colour it with my Copic markers. I added a hint of white gel pen to the drupelets at the edge of the blackberries — I lifted most of the white off again with my finger to just leave a hint of a highlight. I also added some glossy accents to the ladybird. The lines in the digi stamp are quite fine, but I wanted the mice to stand out a bit more so I outlined them with black pen.

Once the colouring was finished, I trimmed it down to size and cut a couple of mats to layer it over: one plain and one from patterned paper. I cut and scored the card base and glued the mats flat to it. The coloured panel was popped up on a square of fun foam to give it some dimension and to make sure it would get through the post safely.

The sentiment was die cut twice from a scrap piece of teal cardstock, layered together, and given a coat of Wink of Stella — I think mine must be running out of liquid because I ended up with a much heavier coat of shiny than I was expecting and I decided to add a coat of glossy accents to stop it from shedding everywhere. Once that was dry I glued it to the card along with a scattering of sequins.

I’m pleased with how the colouring turned out and I know my mum will love the little meeces, but the thing I’m most happy with on this card is that I managed to pick a patterned paper that works so well with the image (I love patterned papers but I really haven’t got to grips with using them on projects)…

Supplies:

• digital stamps:
  Di’s Digi Stamps – raspberry fun
• dies:
  Jus Cutz – happy birthday
• pens:
  EK Tools – writing artist pen – black
  Pilot – G2 07 white
• Copic markers:
  mice body – E53, E55, E57
  mice tummy – E50, E51, E53
  mice ears – E51, E93, E95
  blackberries – BV23, BV25, BV29
  leaves – G43, YG63, G46
  flower – B41, 0
  ladybird – R24, R29
  barrel – E81, E84, E87
  grass – YG91 base, G43, YG63, G07, G46
  sky – BG0000
• embellishments:
  Wink of Stella – clear
  Ranger – glossy accents
  Pretty Pink Posh – 4mm sequins – sparkling clear
• paper and card:
  Neenah solar white 216gsm
  Bo Bunny – paper pad – autumn song
  Papermill Direct – plain – navy
  Papermill Direct – plain – teal
  Hunkydory adorable scorable – evergreen
• miscellaneous:
  fun foam