Morning Meadow

Hi there and welcome back!  Today I finished up a card made with this week's sketch at Mojo Monday.  I really like how it turned out so I think it may end up being for my husband's birthday in a couple of weeks.  He really likes the outdoor scenes, so I think he'd enjoy this card.  I'm also entering it in this week's challenge at Just Add Ink, where we are to "just add...B".  I'm hoping "birthday" qualifies for that category!

Other than the sentiment, the stamped images are all from the In the Meadow stamp set and were stamped in Archival Basic Gray on Shimmery White card stock.  I started by stamping the doe and fawn, then covered them with a mask cut from a post it note before adding the rest of the scene.  The grass and flowers created a knoll where the deer are standing, with the hill, water and meadow in the distance.  I then started water coloring with an Aqua Painter:  the deer with Crumb Cake ink, then the grass in Wild Wasabi and Garden Green ink.  I used Smoky Slate for the hills and Island Indigo for the lake and river.

Since I used my bright greens for the "knoll" I was a bit stumped at first as to how to color the meadow in the background, as I didn't want it to be brown, but if I used another green, then there would not be enough contrast against the grass in the foreground.  I came up with using the dark yellow, Delightful Dijon, which by itself was just too yellow, so a light coat of Soft Suede was applied, but that made it too brown.  Finally I added some Pear Pizzazz, and was happy with the result, especially after using a Blender Pen with the Pear ink to add darker green all along the water and the base of the far hill.

The next step was the sky.  I wanted it to look like the sun was just rising to the East, so I used So Saffron to add a glow above the mountains, with a bit darker yellow on the right end.  I let the yellow layer dry before adding some Soft Sky, so it didn't turn the yellow green where the two colors met, and made it darker on the left and gradually lightening on the right where the sun is rising.  After everything dried I took my Rich Razzleberry marker and added color to some of the flowers and a White gel pen for the tops of a couple of the other flowers, plus along the tail of both the deer.

Well, this is quite the long post for me, so I hope you made it through all the detail okay!  Here's the sketch and links to Mojo Monday (MOJO449) and Just Add Ink (JAI 313).  Do be sure to check out the amazing inspiration at both blogs!!

Thanks for looking and as always, your visit and comments are so appreciated!  

Until next time...

Stef

Product details:

Stamps:  In the Meadow, Sky's the Limit (sentiment)

Paper:  Very Vanilla, Shimmery White, Island Indigo, Early Espresso, Corrugated Kraft, Soho Subway designer series paper

Ink:  Archival Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede, Delightful Dijon, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo

Other:  Aqua Painter, Wild Wasabi Cotton Twine, White Signo Unibal Gel Pen, Vintage Trinkets