Stampin’ Up Heartland Birthday

Good Wednesday morning to you all out there in Cyberland! And welcome to my blog.

It is a chilly, sunny morning here in the heartland. We missed all the weather around us, blizzards, storms, whatever. We are still in drought conditions, so even a blizzard would have brought welcome moisture. But, never mind, it is a glorious, God-given morning, so let us enjoy it!

My card today is for a farmer who has horses, mules, geese, turkeys and I don’t know what all. Chickens. Rabbits maybe? Oh, yes…and 8 grandsons. No granddaughters. So, I think this card made with the Heartland stamp set is very appropriate.

I began with a Crumb Cake card base and used Basic Black for the mats, both inside and out. The art piece is on Sahara Sand, stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black.

I pulled out several Classic Stamp pads, a couple of Stampin’ Write Markers, a Blender Pen and an Aqua Painter and got to work.

Using the blender pen I colored in the barn scene using Cherry Cobbler for the barn, Smoky Slate for the roof and ventilators, windmill blades and silo roof, Old Olive and Garden Green for the trees and bushes, and Cajun Craze for the silo. In these parts, old silos like this were made from clay tile, hence the sort of terra cotta color.

Using the Aqua Painter and Marina Mist I gave the sky a bit of a wash, and did the same thing for the ground using Soft Suede. Using a Garden Green marker I colored the tufts of grass. The tree trunks and branches are colored with an Early Espresso Marker. The soil close to the barn is done with a Blender Pen and Soft Suede.

The sentiment is from Beautiful Bouquet and stamped full strength in Tuxedo Black ink. My original plan was to add some jute or burlap, but in the end decided less is more and left it off.

With the barn finished, I proceeded to color the boy and his geese, also using the Blender Pen. The geese are Whisper White, the boy’s hair is Soft Suede. His overalls are Marina Mist. I used Blushing Bride for his skin tone. By the way, this image is also from the Heartland stamp set and is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on Sahara Sand card stock. The bills and feet of the geese are Pumpkin Pie. The stick the boy is carrying is colored with my Early Espresso marker.

I thought this bit of detail needed more color, so I used the pen end of a Cajun Craze marker to color the stitches on the boy’s overalls. Also, using the Aqua Painter and Old Olive I did a bit of a wash on the ground, then colored the grass blades with my Garden Green marker.Using my Paper Snips Scissors, I fussy cut this image and popped it on the barn scene with  both Stampin’ Dimensionals and Minis.

As you can see, the coloring is sometimes outside the lines and is not perfect. Hey! This is art…done by hand….not supposed to be… ‘perfect’.

The art panel is Liquid Glued to the black mat and onto the card base.

This card front is done. On to the inside.

Also using Sahara Sand card stock and Memento Tuxedo Black, I stamped the image of the boy and geese after stamping off once. To enhance the aged look  of this card, I sponged very lightly around the edges with Soft Suede.

The sentiment is from Better Together and is stamped full strength. This panel is matted with Basic Black and liquid glued into the card base.

Lest we have a naked envelope, the boy and his geese are stamped on the front of a Crumb Cake Medium Envelope  (retired), left uncolored.

The flap is dry embossed using the Pinewood Planks 3-D Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. Hint: When using 3-D embossing folders, it helps to dampen the paper first. I liked the de-bossed look, so there you go. I should have sponged with my Soft Suede to enhance the aged look, but forgot to do it.

And, that’s it, folks! I hope you enjoy this card. I am pretty sure the recipient will.

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Card Cuts: Crumb Cake: 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ scored at 4-1/4″; Basic Black: front mat 4-1/8″ x 5-3/8″, inside 4″ x 5-1/4″; Sahara Sand: art piece 4″ x 5-1/4″, boy and geese 3″ x 3″, inside 3-3/4″ x 5″

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