What’s Up Gnomie?

I made a lot of cards in the lead up to Christmas, and have made a fair few more since during my time off work. As a result I have almost entirely run out of white card bases. I think I have one left. Just one. I am also out of the card that I used to make said card bases, asides from some odds and ends of snippets that have their uses, but are not big enough for making any card bases. I checked the website I usually order from and it wasn’t even listed! Uh-oh. After messaging the shop owner I ascertained that it’s been unavailable from the producer, but she’s hoping to get more in soon. As a result I decided that this is a perfect time for more experiments with colouring on kraft!

I had a definite plan in mind for what I wanted to do with this card. It took me a little moment to brain it all out (and yes, I’m verbing “brain”.) I began by measuring my card base and drawing lines to create a grid for helping me to position my elements. I knew I wanted to stamp a gnome in one segment and a mushroom in the others. The stamps I used are all from The Cat’s Pajamas What’s Up Gnomie? stamp set.

The mushroom stamp in the set is actually two mushrooms, but I only wanted the one. Partly because the pair together was too big, and partly because… well, that’s what I wanted! I solved this by masking off the taller of the mushrooms each time, so that only the squatter one would stamp. I used my MISTI for the stamping, and stamped everything with Simon Says Stamp Barely Beige ink. I masked off the hat of the gnome so that the top right mushroom could be stamped as though it is behind him.

Once I had stamped the gnome and all the mushrooms I added my sentiment. I used MFT Black Licorice ink for this, and stamped it below the gnome.

I then moved on to colouring the images, which took a while! The reason I’d used the Barely Beige ink was because I wanted a no-line look. I pulled out my colouring pencils (actually watercolour pencils, but I didn’t use any water) and got to work. I decided to go for a green outfit for the little gnome because it is complementary to red, and I knew I wanted to use red for my mushrooms (toadstools!) I used three shades of green, in an attempt to add depth and dimension. I gave him fairly pale skin, and drew the eyes and mouth back in with the black pencil. I also used the black for the belt. The shoes are a mixture of black and grey, with highlights added in white. I used the black, grey and white for his beard too. And I used a yellow-orange for his belt buckle.

Next I started on the mushrooms. I used two shades of red, and worked with lots of layer of colour. Lots of layers. I also learned as I went along with the process (particularly on the white portion), so last ones I did look better than the first. I did all the red sections of the mushrooms first and once I was happy with them I started in the white areas. I used a little grey for the darker areas, the white (watercolour) pencil for the mid tone, and then a white Caran d’Ache pencil – my favourite white pencil) for the highlights. I also used the Caran d’ache pencil for the spots on the top of the mushrooms.

As a final touch I took my grey pencil and very lightly added some shading between each of my twelve images to give a little grounding to them.

I’m really happy with this card. It turned out exactly as I had hoped, and I think it’s super cute! I love the storybook feel it has. I really learned a lot with the process of this card. It’s not perfect, but nothing ever is, right?

Happy New Year, my lovely readers. Thank you for your support this year!

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

Butterfly Challenge – Fairies, Elves, Pixies or Gnomes (edit – where it was chosen as a top pick!)

Crafty Gals Corner – Anything Goes

Creatalicious Challenges – Anything Goes

Inkspirational Challenges – Stamping Only (I hope I correctly understood this challenge – it doesn’t say that colouring is not allowed, and all my elements are stamped!)

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

MFT Sketch Challenge – Sketch/Layout

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes