"Hello Up There!"

A Mouse Eye View

TUTORIALSTENCILCHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY SEASONTECHNIQUE

12/22/20234 min read

Would you like to experiment with a design like this? You'll find a supply list below, including a link to the stencil I used from A Colorful Life Designs. Follow the link and use discount code ChrisFan10 to save 10% on your entire order! (Master Creator Bundles are excluded as they already have a 20% discount built in.)

Sometimes I “follow the trail” to create a card - beginning with one element and seeing what happens. That’s what happened with this one. It was a twisty, turny trail but I got there in the end!

Let’s get started:

Card Base: 5.5 x 8.5, scored and folded at 4.25

Border: 5.25 x 4 (approx)

Card Face: 5 ⅛ x 3 7/8

Card Face:

The Ornament mask set includes 4 masks and 4 stencils … that feature was helpful here!

I selected two sizes of ornaments for the card and attached the larger to the card face on a slight angle with Mint Tape. I used a small piece of Mint tape to mask off the hanger and applied a medium green ink to the remainder.
I got out the mask for this stencil and positioned it carefully on the inked surface to protect it, securing it with a loop of Mint Tape.
I put the smaller stencil in place, overlapping the larger one, creating an angle as shown.
After masking off the hanger, I applied red ink across the remainder.
When I removed the mask from the larger ornament I realized that I hadn’t positioned the mask perfectly - there was a small gap between the two ornaments, and that bothered me. I put the mask back in place on the green ornament and also put the mask portion of the small ornament in place. I used this to trace around the red ornament with a gold gel pen. I removed the small mask and traced around the large ornament with the gel pen. This proved just enough of a border to hide the gap - phew!
After all the ink was completely dry *** I masked off the top portion of the body of each ornament with Mint Tape to protect the ink and smooshed my Versamark pad over the hangers. I added gold embossing powder and set it with my heat gun.
I decided that I wanted a little additional detail on the ornaments, so I used an embossing pen to add dots to one and stripes to the other. I added the same gold embossing powder and set it all with the heat gun.
I added a few highlights to each ornament with a white gel pen.
At this point, I decided that I wanted to have the ornaments sitting on a table. I placed copy paper over my card face and drew a horizontal line for the table, tracing the curves around the bottom of each ornament in the process. I cut this into two pieces.
I put the top piece in place over the stamped portion and used a brush to add brown ink on the bottom to become a table.
I removed the top piece and put the bottom piece of the copy paper in place to protect what I had just done and used a very soft brown ink to add the texture on the wall with a background stamp.
I added a black line between the desk and the table to add separation.
I cut the card face down with a deckled-edged die.

***Tip To see if the ink is dry, sprinkle embossing powder over the surface. If it sticks anywhere there is still wet ink.

Other:

Now that I had the ornaments on a table, I wanted additional detail: so I pulled the tiny mouse out of my Ready to Go Binder ***. It had already been stamped, coloured and cut out and was just waiting for a chance to shine.

I cut the border layer down with a deckled edge die which was one size larger than the one used for the card face.

I stamped the sentiment and cut it out with the smallest deckled-edged die.

*** For more information on this binder see Ready to Go Binder under the Techniques tab in the header.

Assembly:

I glued the border layer to the card base, and the card face on top of both, centering all layers.

I glued the mouse in place on the table, gazing up at the shiny ornaments.

I put the sentiment in place as shown.

Final Thoughts

Overall I’m happy with this card, but there are a couple of things I’d change

I intended the larger ornament to tilt more to the right. I think I would prefer slightly more than I have allowed here.

I would use a dark brown marker to create separation between wall and table, as the black is too harsh.

Supplies: (and links where possible)

I have listed which products I have used, and where they may be purchased. It's a huge marketplace and in most instances, there are multiple sources and many alternatives to choose from.

Stencil: Marvellous Masks, Ornaments

Stamps:

Rustic Linen, Altenew

Mouse: Special Reason, Stampin’ Up! (retired)

Sentiment: Gnome for Christmas, Stampin’ Up! (retired)

Deckled Edged Dies: Stampin’ Up!

Ink: Stampin’ Up!

Blending Brushes: Stampin’ Up!

Versamark:Simon Says Stamp

Gold embossing powder: Stampin’ Up!

Embossing Pen:Scrapbook.com

Memento Ink: Stampin’ Up!