MFT Color Challenge #60 | Narwhal Valentine's Day Card featuring Lawn Fawn
It feels like I've been creating a new card everyday now! All it took was sitting at my craft desk and using some card challenges to get me started again with card making :) I still struggle with ideas... sometimes I'll try something, I don't like the way it looks, then I try again. That happened again with this card when it came to the sentiment banner.
When I began this card, I just had the colors I wanted to use. I used MFT's Color Challenge #60 for inspiration. I pulled what colors I had that matched the closest to MFT's colors: Stampin' Up!'s Peekaboo Peach, Pool Party, Island Indigo, and Smoky Slate. I really only used the Peekaboo Peach and Island Indigo papers, and used other products to make up the light blue and gray colors.
Next, I took a look at the colors, and tried to think of what type of scenery they reminded me of: the ocean! I just did an ocean card using some cardstock and vellum, so I wanted to this one a bit different. I decided to make the whole scene under water and use Mermaid Lagoon and Evergreen Bough distress inks to blend together an ocean background. I accidentally had cut up some Strathmore Bristol Smooth Cardstock instead of Ranger Watercolor Cardstock (which I usually use for distress inks), but I decided to give it a go to see how the smooth cardstock would work - it worked great! Very nice blending of colors. I was able to spray my background with some Tsukineko Sparkle Shimmer Spray and add drops of water to pick up some of that ink from the background and it still worked great.
After creating my background, I die cut it using Lawn Fawn's Scalloped Rectangle dies. I also die cut a 4x5.25" piece of Island Indigo cardstock and a 4.25x5.5" piece of Peekaboo Peach cardstock. These would help to incorporate all the colors and bring them together. I used these as mattes for my ocean background.
Next, I had to decide on what stamp set to use - you'd think I would have thought of this first, right?! Nope... I had pulled a few ocean sets, but hadn't had my mind made up yet. I ended up pulling the narwhal from Lawn Fawn's Mermaid for You stamp set, and the narwhal from Lawn Fawn's Critters of the Arctic stamp set. The way Lawn Fawn designs their stamps and dies is so that they can be used together, and I love this! This is a good tactic for them because when I buy new stamp sets, I find older stamp sets that would be great companions to the new ones, then I end up buying those too.
I stamped out the two narwhals onto Strathmore Bristol Smooth Cardstock paper. I used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and water brush to color in the narwhals. I struggled with this again - possibly because the two colors weren't meant to mix or I'm just having an off-week on coloring. Who knows? I used 092 Blue Gray and 091 Light Gray to color the narwhals.
After coloring and die cutting my narwhals, I arranged them onto my background, and decided to make this an interactive card with one narwhal on a slider, as if he/she was going up to meet the other one.
FUN FACT! Male narwhals are known for having the tusk and females RARELY have tusks. When I figured this out during my research, I realized my card will work for multiple types of couples: it doesn't just have to be a boy and girl couple... it could be boy and boy or girl and girl... the one narwhal going towards the other could be male/female. Also, the colors for this card are gender neutral, so I thought that was pretty cool once I realized that :)
Once I arranged my narwhals, I pulled my Lawn Fawn Slide on Over dies and placed the smallest curved die in place onto my background. I die cut this plus a scrap narwhal I wasn't going to use, and I pulled some Slider Elements from MFT. When I die cut the slider, I kept the negative piece. I lined my background onto the matte for my card, reinserted the negative piece and adhered it to the matte. This way, when the narwhal is moving on the slider, the same background as on the front of the card appears inside the slider channel.
I first placed my narwhal on the front how I wanted it positioned. I placed some removable adhesive on the narwhal and turned the background over. I took two slider elements and use tape runner adhesive to adhere them to two parts of the narwhal. Then I added more adhesive on the back of the slider elements and place the scrap narwhal to line up with the one on the card. By doing this, I can be assured that when I'm applying foam tape to the back of the background, I'm not putting it anyplace that would limit the narwhal's movement on the slider.
Next I added a double layer of 3M Foam Adhesive on the back of background, then I adhered this to the matte, making sure to line up the slider channel with the negative background piece. Then this is where I got stuck and did some research. I wanted a punny sentiment, so as I was looking online, I learned the narwhals are a type of whale, so I was able to use the sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Whale You Be Mine? stamp set! I die cut MFT's Stitched Flag Die from some white cardstock, cut up my sentiment (omg, I know - not a big deal, lol), and arranged my sentiment onto the banner and used my misti to stamp it with some SU Peekaboo Peach dye ink. I then pulled a heart from the mermaid stamp set and stamped that onto the banner with some Island Indigo die ink. I used the banner die to recut the banner at a shorter length to include the stitching. I then adhered it using some foam tape.
I felt something was missing, so I pulled some twine in peach and dark blue colors. I wrapped the peach twine around the background, and used the peach and dark blue twine to create a bow. Other than going back to add some Clear Wink of Stella, this card was done!
What's the most non-traditional Valentine's Day card you've made so far or plan to make? I'm entering this card into Simon Says: New Something as these were both new stamps to me that I hadn't used yet!
Thanks for stopping by! Happy crafting :)
Supplies:
