Mountain Scene

Happy Monday Y'all! I spent this afternoon playing in the craft room after spending all morning doing laundry. I liked this afternoon way more! Any way... I am really liking what I am seeing with a new challenge blog called Craft a Scene. I don't have many scenery building stamps, but I used to have a lot back in the 90's when scenery stamping was popular then. So I used what I had from several companies. I really enjoy making scenes and trying out different techniques. There was a Lovely Light Sky Tutorial yesterday on the Create a Scene blog and I wanted to try my hand at it. She used glossy, but I chose to use Neenah Natural cardstock (cream colored) and stippled distress inks onto the cardstock for my colors. I really like the effect I got. This is my 2nd entry in their Challenge #1 - Anything Goes. It has to have a scene and you can enter up to 3 times until January 27th.

I'm also entering this into PanPastel UK Challenge Blog's Challenge #1 - Anything Goes. I did not use any PanPastels only because I don't have any yet. I've read and heard such good things that they are top of my wish list! Maybe I'll get lucky and win some in the challenge!

Stamps:
Heartfelt Creations HCPC 3445 Mystic Hideaway PreCut Set
Seaside Stampin' Ink - dunes from the Beach Stories Set
Seaside Stampin' Ink - tree from the Moonlit Night Set
Just For Fun - barbed wire fence
Just For Fun - grass - used in the foreground

Other:
Neenah Natural Cardstock, Memento Tuxedo Black & London Fog inks, Stipple brushes, Adirondack Butterscotch & Wild Plum inks, Distress Inks (Broken China, Faded Jeans, Bundled Sage, Vintage Photo, Forest Moss, Pine Needles, Frayed Burlap, Iced Spruce, Walnut Stain, green texture paper, Karen Foster Design 2001 Cinnamon Stick DP, Black Raven Bazzill cardstock, Black Photo Corners, Hero Arts brown twine, button

Begin with 5.5 x 5.5 inch cream cardstock. Stamp Heartfelt Creations Mountain Scene twice across. Stamp again onto scrap paper for a mask. Cut the mountain ridges out for a mask and save the 'sky' portion of the mask to use when you ink the mountains. Lay the mask over the mountains and begin layering color using the stipple brushes. I started with Butterscotch closest to the mountains, then lightly with Wild Plum above the yellow. The yellow is not showing up in the photo so good, but it looks like a sunset sky with yellow glowing up from the mountains. Stipple onto scratch paper first to control how much color you lay on your project. Then the top portion of the sky goes into blue first using Broken China and then Faded Jeans DI. Remove the mask and put on the mask for the sky portion. Lay color into the mountains using stipple brushes. I did this order: bundled sage, vintage photo, forest moss, vintage photo, pine needles. Then I worked color down from the mountains to the foreground using pineneedles and forest moss in the back and then just forest moss up front.

Generation stamp the sand dunes using Frayed Burlap. I taped off the tallest sea oats on the stamp each time I re-inked to make it just be rolling hills. Color the trees near the mountains with a paint brush and Pine Needles DI. For the foreground tree, I inked it with Tuxedo Black and stamped it once quickly on scrap paper and then immediately re-inked the stamp with London Fog. I wanted it to be lighter since it is closer to the eye, but when I tested using only London Fog on scrap, it was just too blue tinted.. Stamp the fence twice, carefully lining up the wire, using Walnut Stain DI. The grass in the very front is stamped with Frayed Burlap DI. Add photo corners and layer onto the green texture paper. I had that in my stash for EVER... it is almost like homemade paper. Then onto the brown DP, which I had in my stash but it was marked 2001 Karen Foster Design. I'm really trying to use up some older things! At this point, thread the button with twine and wrap around card. I never take my ribbon/twine all the way around... only go about an inch on the back and secure. Finally adhere to 6x6 top fold black card.

I really like stippling my inks to lay down color. It is a softer look than sponging. I use big natural bristle brushes and very stiff.