A Hare Amongst the Grasses!

Good morning all! Martina here with my final post for Lisa this month showcasing the Hobby Art March Hares Stamp Set.

For this card I wanted to make my friend 'Hercules' the hare (that is not his 'official' name!) the main image, but with little hints of texture and layers in the background. I chose gentle colours for the background to make him really pop!

Using Watercolour Card I stamped and coloured Hercules. I stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and coloured with Distress Inks. Once I was happy, I made a mask and covered him up!

Using Tumbled Glass Distress Ink, I  made a very pale sky with a blending tool. I then used various shades of green Distress Ink to stamp the grasses which are also included in the Hobby Art March Hares Set. These are really useful little stamps and I can see them coming out all the time! I used Dusty Concord to stamp the flower sprigs, (also included) until I was happy with my composition. It is very hard to see from the photo, but I also started to add some texture here, using some of the stamps from the Hobby Art Decorative Backgrounds Set. I started using Tumbled Glass Ink with the swirly stamp, but this was very pale...

To build up the layers and intensity, I used all the ink colours I had used so far within my topper and stamped using the various other stamps within the set. I also coloured in the flower heads and added some green shading to the grass area at the base. Final touch: a sentiment from my stash!

Having just looked back at those pictures I can see how the colour changes at night (only the last one was taken in the daytime!) I wasn't up past bedtime - honest!

    

***On the website, some Hobby Art stamp sets have been reduced in price by 25% - 40%.***

**Lisa is doing a PaperArtsy workshop on  May 27. For more information click HERE.**

See you again soon!

Love.

Martina

xxx

A Hobby Art Scene in a Frame

Good morning all! How's you? Martina here with another card using those hares! I quick one from me today and an easy one to do...

Using the scene from the Hobby Art March Hares Set, I stamped onto Watercolour Card and coloured using Watercolour Pencils. The scene was not quite as wide as my die, but that didn't matter, as I drew in some 'extra bits'! Can you spot my additions?

Picking out the brown from my hares, I used some of the Anna Marie Designs Card and layered as a half and half arrangement. I did not need to cover the join in this case, as I knew that my scene was going to cover it all.

Layering my scene onto my die frame, I tilted the picture and fiddled with my layout. I stamped a sentiment from the Hobby Art Birthday Collection to one side and then decided I needed some flowers...Searching through my stash I found some large cream/brown flowers that matched my scene colours, but needed something to mimic the 'lavender' flowers (it would have been a wise idea to look at what I actually had in my stash before deciding to colour them purple!) Doh! At this point, I cheated. I grabbed some dried gypsophila and coloured with a pen...

Easy peasy, but I like it anyway! Next time I will check my stash before starting to colour though!

See you next week,

Martina

xxx

 

***On the website, some Hobby Art stamp sets have been reduced in price by 25% - 40%.***

A Peek Through the Trees with Hobby Art

Hello crafty folks! Martina here and guess what? The SUN, yes, THE SUN, has actually made an appearance!!Beautiful flowers are popping up to say hello and smile as you walk past, the cats are out sunbathing and the garden duties are calling (loudly in my case)!

A Spring themed card for you today, with a look through the trees into a beautiful scene. I had great fun making this one and even a debate with my hubby...read on to find out who won!

The first step was to take the bare trees from the Hobby Art Nature Trail Set and stamp onto some craft card with a dark brown ink (I had already cut the craft card to fit the card blank and allow for matting and layering). Ignore the bits where the branches are randomly cut-off, I sorted that later with a fineliner pen!

Choosing a die from my stash, (not a detailed one, or the main focus of the card would be lost) I planned where to place it.

Obviously I could not just die-cut the shape as it is above, or I would have lost some major tree branches! I drew (with a pencil) around the die shape and then looked at where I needed to make some incisions. I needed to allow the die to sit behind the branches that were within its middle: hard to explain, so see if the photo below explains it better...

Once the die was run through the machine I was left with this...

My next step was to watercolour the trees and add some shading. I also added a sentiment from the Hobby Art Birthday Collection.

Now to colour the scene to go behind the trees. I stamped the entire hare scene from the Hobby Art March Hares Set onto Watercolour Card, adding a little fineliner to extend where I needed to (to fill the die space). I coloured the scene with Watercolour Pencils (47% off on the website!)

To make the trees stand proud from the background, I mounted them using thick foam pads. Some matting and layering and here was my card...or was it? My husband liked it just like that, but I was not happy. The card sat on the shelf for two days and then I just had to add some more to it!

I took some ivy dies and used co-ordinations card to cut them, sanding some leaves to get some variation and some green pen to define the veins. I also found some grasses dies and used some of the new Craft Emotions Edge Mushrooms! These are soooo cute! I chopped the row of mushrooms up, chose a few that I wanted and coloured with the same pencils as before. Much better methinks!

I won in the end! I think my husband liked it in then end when I had finished tinkering...

Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you next week!

Love

Martina

xxx