Hello Gnome

I enjoy mixing and matching stamp sets. I like playing with different things and seeing how they go together. For this card I used stamps from three different set. Unusually for me though they are all from the same stamp company! I really enjoyed making this card, though it was very time consuming. There was a lot of stamping and masking and colouring involved. But I really love the final result.

I started by cutting myself a focal panel and surrounding arch from some white card using a couple of circle dies. I then began stamping. I first stamped one of the gnomes from The Cat’s Pajamas What’s Up Gnomie? stamp set, then created a mask and masked it off before stamping the cluster of mushrooms beside it. I then masked those off too and started stamping the fence from the stamp set along behind. I also lined the panel up on my card base so that I could continue stamping the fence going all the way across the card. I masked off the fence too, as well as an area to be my ground.

Next I worked on stamping my background using the Big Blooms stamp set. I used Altenew inks from the Northern Lights and Floral mini cube sets. I started with some of the flowers from the set, then moved on to stamping the blades of grass. I used two different shades of green to add depth, and also used second generation stamping to build the depth even more.

Once I finished all my stamping I removed all my masks and started colouring the images with my alcohol markers. I have Yosoo markers. I had originally intended to make the fence white but towards the end of the stamping my mask had got over saturated and some of the green from the grass had soaked through onto the fence posts. So instead I used my E markers to create a wooden fence. I coloured the nails in with a cool grey. For the mushrooms I used yellow greys for the stalks, and a mixture of my lightest E and yellow grey for the underside of the mushroom. I then used reds for the top of it. I coloured the gnomes skin with E markers, then used blue greens for his outfit, yellow for the belt buckle, and cool grey for the belt and boots.

I then added colour to my ground. I gave a wash of my lightest E marker, then added texture to the soil by stippling in progressively darker browns. As the colour got darker I concentrated them more around the areas where shadow would fall. I also used my E markers to add texture and colour to my arch.

At this point I decided to assemble my card. I used halved foam squares to pop up the arch, then foam tape (which has slightly less depth than the squares) to pop up the focal panel with the gnome.

My final touch was to add the sentiment. I cut a piece of the same white card using the Ribbon Banners CutUps die then stamped a sentiment from the Banner Days stamp set onto it. For some added interest I filled in the white areas of the letters with a green marker. I then folded back the ends of the banner along the score lines made by the die, and adhered it onto my arch frame using Glossy Accents.

I really love how this card turned out. The gnome is so cute, and it was really fun building the scene – even if it did take me a very long time to get finished! In hindsight I don’t think I should have bothered with making the inner part of the arch be a separate panel. I could have got the same effect by doing all the stamping and colouring on the card base and then placing the arch over it. That would have sped the process up too because I wouldn’t have had to double stamp the background images that overlapped the little panel.

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

AAA Cards – Masking

Addicted to Stamps and More – Anything Goes

 

Dies R Us – Anything Goes With Dies

HLS Anything Goes With Dies – Anything Goes With Dies

MFT Sketch Challenge – Sketch/Layout

Mod Squad – Fantasy Fun

The Cat’s Pajamas – How Does Your Garden Grow?