I've been meaning to create something in a similar style for a while now, but I always felt like I fell just short of it. Until I saw another MFT design team member achieve a similar effect simply by using a brown ink. Yes, that's right. Just brown ink instead of black for the stamp outline. I felt a bit silly for not realizing that sooner, and for - apparently- not paying enough attention on Torico's blog to notice that she used an espresso (ie brown!) ink instead of black.
So, armed with this new knowledge, I set to create a card with the newest Birdie Brown set: Sweet Birthday Wishes. There are a lot of great parts to this stamp, but I chose to go with the girl and a small present. After stamping them in chocolate brown (see, I'm learning!) ink onto Copic marker paper, I colored them in with Copics. Although this set comes with a matching die, I don't own the die, so I fussy-cut the girl and the present out with scissors.
I got to work on the background by grabbing the newly released Confetti Background stamp. I inked it 3 times with different colors, making sure I turned the stamp so the dots wouldn't all overlap. Originally, I was going to just use the dot background and call it a day, but I found it to be a bit too busy.
So, I cut some strips of Bubblegum and Spearmint cardstock with the smallest of the Horizontal Stitched Strips die. I used the second smallest die to cut a rectangle of the dotted background. I adhered the strips to a piece of white cardstock that measured 4 by 5 1/4". I made sure to leave some blank space between the strips, so it would create an evenly-striped border.
The card base was created by cutting a sheet of Sweet Tooth cardstock in half, and scoring it into a standard A2 card (41/4 by 5 1/2"). I adhered the striped panel to the card with foam squares, then added the girl and the present using thin foam squares.
Lastly, I cut a 1" strip of white cardstock and stamped a sentiment from the set in light brown. I cut the end into a fishtail and adhered it to the card.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I think I will have to play around with Copic colors some more, though, before I can have that truly warm and cozy quality.
Supplies:
MFT Birdie Brown Sweet Birthday Wishes stamp
MFT Confetti Background stamp
MFT Horizontal Stitched Strips die
MFT Heavyweight cardstock in Bubblegum, Spearmint and Sweet Tooth
MFT Hybrid Ink in Chocolate Brown
Stampin' Up Inkpad in Baked Brown Sugar, Coastal Cabana and Crisp Cantaloupe
Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares in Thin and Regular
Copics (E00, E11, E13, R20, YR23, E35, E37, E47, E23, E79, R81, R85, RV66, BG11, BG32, BG47, B00, B24, B37, YG41, YG45, C2, C4, C6, 0)
Sakura Gellyroll White gel pen
Words fail me...Elle, she's darling! You've nailed the colouring, the design, the softness, the shading...the lot. It's perfect. Keep playing though because then you can share more. haha :)
ReplyDeleteI did have to have a little chuckle about the brown ink. I feel like a doofus when I stumble across such simple ideas/techniques, etc, too. They are so obvious when you realise. :) I can't stop looking at your card. I really do have to get my hands on some of the Birdie Brown range. They are so darling! :)
Hehe, thank you, Kylie! I'm glad I'm not the only one that sometimes misses the obvious.
DeleteI was *so* sure that the soft look had to do with awesome photographing skills or some kind of cool editing filter that it didn't even register that the stamping ink was the answer. I did feel quite silly for a bit, but now I'm so glad I figured it out. :D
Elle, you probably know this, but did you see MFT has a challenge on their blog? You should totally make something for it - I bet you'd win hands down!! http://www.mftstamps.com/blog/stamp-and-win-with-this-weeks-card-sketch-187/
ReplyDeleteI did see that they have some pretty cool challenges! I've been thinking of maybe joining in sometimes. Sometimes those challenge cards turn out pretty cool. :D
DeleteYour Birdie Brown is precious. Brown ink was the answer! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your kind comment, Sharon!
DeleteI was a bit embarrassed about not figuring out the brown ink sooner, but I figured there's probably another person out there that could benefit from the info, too. Sometimes those simple little details make a huge difference. :D