Vintage mouse on leaves

By the time we got to the middle of October, I was starting to worry that I was running out of time to come up with an idea for my mum’s birthday card. I’ve used all my blackberry images and didn’t want to repeat myself unless I absolutely had to — the same goes for images of cute mice.

I had a quick look over at Power Poppy to see if there was anything new that would inspire me. I liked the look of the leaf frame, but couldn’t immediately work out what I would do with it: I’ve had problems creating layouts with frames before… Then, while doing something mindless like clearing down email or closing the multitude of accumulated browser tabs, I realised that I didn’t need a cute mouse, I could find a vintage style mouse instead which would work better with the realistic leaves.

Of course, I didn’t have the perfect image in my collection, but a quick search turned up this free-to-use image which is not only cute but is also standing ready to hold up a sign.

When colouring the leaves, I found an old example from Sandy Allnock and used some of her marker colours as a starting point. The most important tip I took on board was to keep one marker the same in all the different leaves as that helps to tie the colour scheme together. My only advice when creating autumn leaves would be don’t overthink it, just start colouring — I thought about practising them, but quickly realised that if I did a really nice one I would never be able to recreate it and if I did a duff one it would just put me off trying to do it on the finished piece so…

If I made this again, I wouldn’t cut out the middle of the frame. I originally thought that I was going to tuck the mouse behind the leaves, but ended up changing my mind.

And that, I believe, is the last birthday card I have to make this year. I am still trying to decide how many Christmas cards I want to make, but that’s a decision that can wait until I get back from my trip to visit my mum and deliver this card by hand.

Copic markers:

mouse – YR00, E25, E27, E21, E89
acorn – YR00, E89, E25, E27
acorn cup – E84, E87, E89
leaf 1 – YR23, Y17, YR18, YR04, E19, E15
leaf 2 – YR23, YG95, YG97, YG99
leaf 3 – YR23, R05, R37, E19
leaf 4 – YR23, YR04, YR18, E19
leaf 5 – YR23, YR04, R05, R37, YG95, YG97, YG99
background – YG61

Supplies:

• digital stamps:
  Power Poppy – plenty of leaves
  Catnip Studio – sweet mouse
• fonts:
  Tom Chalky – Bobby Jones TC regular
• colour:
  Distress oxide – spiced marmalade, scattered straw
• paper and card:
  Neenah Solar White 216gsm
  Hunkydory Adorable Scorable cotton white
  Hunkydory Mirri darker