Embossed forest and deer

Tracy has given us a really flexible challenge for her technique week at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

This can be dry embossing or heat embossing, so gives us lots of choice to play with.

This card started out as an entry for "forest and deer" last month, but didn't get finished in time so has rolled over. It is also part of my current resist embossing phase.

To start, I went through and pulled all the natural, rustic colours out of my distress oxide box.

Not sure I needed this many colours!

I sponged them onto an A5 sheet of Sheena's stamping card, very roughly, just twisting the sponges.

I stamped my holly deer (Clarity) with versamark and heat embossed with clear powder.

For the next stage I prepared a birch tree stencil by applying distress inks - not as many this time, mainly yellows and browns.

I then spritzed the card with water to make the ink run everywhere but the embossed area.

While this was still wet, I pressed the inked stencil into it to create the forest behind the deer.

Once this was dry, I cut down to fit a 6x6 card.

I sponged inks around the deer's feet with a natural sponge to create texture in the foliage on the forest floor. I added a bit around the edge, and inked the edge in brown.

I used a scrap I'd cut from the edge to stamp the sentiment, mounted this on another scrap that I inked with a little brown, and added to the corner.

I love the misty effect this has created in the trees. The colours are a little less vibrant than I'd expected, but this does make the deer stand out, I think it looks like a shaft of sunlight has caught it.




To join in, visit the 52CCT blog.

This challenge runs for two weeks (as we have a fifth Saturday in May) so you have until Friday 5th June to enter.