Summer Splash - Mama Elephant

Hey there!  I recently managed to carve out some free time to create this birthday card for someone special to me using Summer Splash by Mama Elephant.  You can find the coordinating dies here and the background is a great one, it's the Hillside Cover - Creative Cuts also by Mama Elephant which is one of the most useful dies in my stash.



To start the card off I grabbed a panel of white cardstock and used the Hillside Cover die to die cut it.  I masked off the frame using washi tape and then using another panel of scrap cardstock I created a shape I could take into each opening of the die cut thus masking off the rest of the openings and ink blended one by one.  I used Tumbled Glass and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxides for this.  The mask was removed.

 

I stamped the sentiment from the Wishing You stamp set by shaping it onto my stamping block to match the curve of the Hillside Cover Die.

My cute little elephants from Summer Splash were stamped with Ink On 3 Fade Out Ink onto Bristol Smooth cardstock.   This ink is designed specially for the no-line watercolour painting affect which is what I've done here.   I used Kuretake Zigs to paint in Carmine Red, Lemon Yellow, Light Blue, Light Gray and Gray Brown.



All images were die cut, backed with foam tape and tucked into the scene.

I took a white gel pen and highlighted one or two spots and embellished with these pretty pink hearts by Trinity Stamps for the perfect girly finish.

The whole panel was adhered to a lovely sturdy 110lb white cardstock panel and another card is complete!

I imagine this is my last summery card for many months so I made sure to enjoy the project.

See you soon I hope!

Nicky x

What DO Bears Do In The Woods?

Hi, I'm back again with a fairly involved birthday card using entirely Mama Elephant stamps and dies (with the exception of the sequins by Pretty Pink Posh).  This card answers the age old question about what bears get up to in the woods ...... well, they party!!!!!  I don't know what you all are thinking!!!

I'm such a fan of the Hillside Cover Die from Mama Elephant since you can use it to form so many fun backgrounds.  When I purchased it I had this basic design in my head, whereby I'd cut out portions with my craft knife and form a forest scene.  First of all I made two A2 panels of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock.  The first was softly ink blended using distress inks to form ground and sky.  The second was ink blended in an ombré of green distress ink around the frame portion.   Then I watercolour painted the trunks of the trees and distressed everything with some water splashes that I left a minute then blotted dry with a paper towel.

For the bushy tree tops I made 3 die cuts of the smaller cloud die from Cloud Nine by Mama Elephant.  I ombré ink blended each piece then distressed it and attached them to the Hillside Cover die cut with Ranger Multi Medium Matte, layering one over the other and then I trimmed the top and side edges to align with the A2 form.  This whole piece was then attached to the background panel lifted up on Scotch dimensional foam tape.  Everything was then adhered to the 110lb Neenah cardstock base.

Next I tackled the family of bears which were stamped with Ranger Archival Black Ink then watercolour painted using my Zigs.  They were die cut and highlighted with Uniball Signo White and 3 bears were each given a party hat which I snipped off one of the little chick stamps from Party Pals (Mama Elephant).  (No animals were harmed in the making of this card).

At this point I stamped the sentiment and attached it with foam tape and then I love to add those final little touches that just elevate a card and take it to the next level.  With this card I attached a few crystal clear sequins as I previously mentioned but I also used a silver gel pen and added some tiny dots of glint into the background.

This is my favourite type of card to make, I love them to look like they were taken from a favourite children's storybook .  I do hope you like it and are inspired to go and create for yourself.  Enjoy your weekend.

Nicky x