Not the Three Little Pigs by Mercy Sauer

Hello crafty friends, Mercy here, excited about this card,  I’m all giddy about it!

It’s a combination of inking and blending, masking, stamping, die cutting, and 

Copic coloring.

Let’s start with the background.   I stamped the trees and the haunted house.  

Then I masked the moon and the house.   I used distress oxide inks to create the chalky, muted and foggy background.  Since the ink sits on the surface of the cardstock, the trees appear to be deep into the woods and not in the foreground.

I splattered the background with water and white paint.    Then, I removed the moon mask and inked the second layer of the stencil.   To create the row of trees in the foreground, I simply stamped the trees using onyx black Versafine ink.  It's a great technique.

At this point, I removed the house masking (remember to save the mask for a future project) and proceeded to color it.

I added a few hills and “spots” in the background to finish the scene.   I love it you guys!!

At this point I was faced with a challenge, to stamp and color the critters keeping in mind it’s nighttime.    The best tip I can give you, don’t give up.   Keep adding layers of colors until you are happy with it.   Be mindful not to over saturate the cardstock, so wait a few seconds between layers of colors.

Finally, I fussy cut and adhered the critters to the card and added a few more background spots to balance the card.   I also stamped a few bats to the right side of the card.   The ones on the left side, are second generation stamping so they appear, just like the trees, to be out in the woods.   I used a white pen to create the footprints on the ground, however, typically I go over the white with the color I want the highlight to be…in this case, yellow.

This is my card, it was so much fun to create, I want to do it again!!!   I hope to inspire you to create outside your comfort zone and most importantly, to enjoy the process!

Until next time, happy crafting!