Walking the dog

I nearly didn’t make this card. It’s my nephew’s birthday and I was drawing a complete blank; he’s in his mid-twenties now (how did that happen?) and I really don’t know him well enough to tailor a card to him. I do know that he has a dog though…

It’s times like these that my inspiration collection comes in handy. I scrolled through it and found these interesting graphic designs; another technique that has been on my must-try list since I first saw it um… nearly three years ago.

After cutting out a set of five different sized circles to use as stencils, I grabbed a selection of Distress oxide ink pads in natural greens and browns to create a mini landscape. I even managed to find a tiny stamp with a man walking his dog in amongst the magazine freebies; actually, it was originally a man pulling a sled followed by a dog, but a quick bit of stamp surgery fixed that. Once the inks were dry I went over the stamp with a black fineliner to create a more solid image.

(I’ve just had a thought, I ought to try this on glossy card with the Distress oxides and then polish it with Distress glaze which should result in more vibrant colours.)

Because I wanted to stamp on the centre line, I couldn’t place a sentiment there like Laura did in her examples. Technology to the rescue. I created the sentiment in Affinity Designer, curving the text around the same size circle I’d used for the ink blending, printed it out, stuck it to some lightweight card, cut it out by hand, and glued it in place on the card.

All that was left to do then was to find the right colour card base, trim the panel down so it was slightly smaller and stick it on. The only problem was that I couldn’t find any card that I liked. Instead, I took a white card base, put some masking tape along the fold, and inked around the edges of the front with one of the inks I’d used for the trees. Instant matching card base.

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Simply Cards & Papercraft – Winter Wonderland (magazine freebie)
• dies:
  Lawn Fawn stitched circles
• colour:
  Distress Oxide inks
• pens:
  Copic multiliner black
• paper and card:
  Neenah solar white 216gsm
  Papermill Direct white super smooth card blank 300gsm