Piggy Cow-Versary

My husband named this card, because I couldn’t think of a name. Actually this card ended up not being exactly what I’d planned. I’d found a challenge to make an anniversary card but that challenge also had some colour requirements which I ended up deciding not to go with… When I finished the card though I was looking through the new challenges that went up today and yesterday and found some that would fit wonderfully, so I decided to enter it for those.

So the challenges this card is for are Mojo Monday‘s sketch challenge, the animal magic theme from Crafty Catz and H for Hand Coloured from Alphabet Challenge. Also anything goes from both One Crazy Stamper and A Bit More Time To Craft, and patterned paper for Craftyhazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge.

As you can see I made this card with a specific recipient (or I suppose recipients) in mind. I’m fairly certain they don’t look at my blog so hopefully they don’t see this card! Anyway. I started by making the image panel. I cut my white card to size then worked out the positioning for the pig and cow, which come from my new (to me) Hogs and Kisses set by Avery Elle. I realised they would have to overlap slightly to work so I made masks of each. I placed the cow mask down and stamped the pig, then swapped so that the pig mask was down and stamped the cow. I added a little heart over the gap that was left, which conveniently was exactly the right size for the job!

I then coloured the images using my pastel pencils. (Incidentally, I’ve really been enjoying colouring stamps! I’ve been dropping some not-at-all subtle hints to my family about getting Copic markers for me, and really hope they do!) I don’t actually have a pink so I had to be pretty careful with my use of red and then use the white pencil to blend it out to make the pig (and the cow’s nose) pink.

I realised the animals looked a bit floaty so I added the grass stamps and then coloured a grassy area beneath them. At the end I went back in and added some very subtle blue around them as sky too.

Next I stamped the names on the hearts. Initially I wanted to put “Happy Anniversary” there but I realised that it wouldn’t fit… The names seemed like a very good alternative. I then coloured the hearts. At this point the lines of the stamping were looking a bit faded from the pastels going over the top. I found a black colouring pencil and used that to careful go over the lines just to make them a bit stronger again.

Then I stamped in the sentiment above the animals. I probably should have waited until I’d made the other components of the card so that I could get the positioning done properly, but… I didn’t…

Then I needed to find paper for my other panels. I settled on the pink and white gingham style paper as seen for the backing panel and the banner. I considered doing the banner in a plain paper to stamp something on but decided to go with the patterned instead. I used a plain dark pink paper for the circle.

Finally it was just a case of assembly, which I did using my tape runner.

I’m really happy with how the card turned out. I love the layout and the colours. I think the pig and cow look adorable. I’m even pretty pleased with how the colouring went! I think the design has a lot of versatility too – it can be changed up with different names on the hearts, of course, but also the sentiment could be changed. I have a few ideas for what I’d like to do with the design, and I definitely think I’ll do something with it for the Etsy store I’m planning on sometime eventually opening!

Love,

Lady Joyful