Allsorts Challenge Week 725
Good day, fellow crafters. Are you ready for a new challenge from Allsorts? This week's theme is all about animals, so as an animal lover I am all fired up to create the perfect entry for this contest. I choose raccoons as my inspirational subject because I both seem them quite often where I live and someone who is near and dear to me is absolutely infatuated with them. I will say they may be wild but they are very cute. I hope you enjoy.
In creating this card I not only wanted to showcase the Raccoon but give the viewer of the card the sense that this is indeed a creature that lives mostly in the forest. To accomplish this I first began with some Kraft-colored card stock, a wood-grained embossing folder from my collection, Gina K’s Dark Chocolate ink, and my crafting brayer. The next process is actually pretty simple and quick to complete but gives a great finished look. All you do is cover the embossing side of your folder with the ink and spread it out evenly with the crafting brayer. Then you mist the back of your cardstock to prevent cracking or tear-out and position it into the folder and run it through the embossing machine. I usually run it through twice in order to get a really deep impression. The ink transfers onto the now raised surfaces and looks really clean and to keep it that way I set it aside to dry.
The next step was to create the focal point of this card, the Raccoon. To do this I used the Gina K Forest Friends stamp and die set the Forest Friends Additions set. I knew I wanted to give the design some dimension so using White cardstock and Black ink I stamped out the body of the Raccoon twice. For the coloring of the image, I used my watercolor set to give the little guy a color I was happy seeing on him. I next completed the same steps for the head though with only one head. I then set the pieces aside to dry.
Once the bodies were dry The next step was to give the fur a visual sense of fluffiness, so using my Black gel pen I gave it what I felt looked to be an adequate bit of that fluffiness and I think it made the image more appealing, I mean it just looked so cuddley. I next took the first body an I used an X-acto knife to carefully cut around the arms and hands for the next step. I then mounted the first body over the second, this was to ensure nothing showed through where I cut the arms loose as well as give it the depth I mentioned.
Next, I went back to complete the step that I cut the arms loose for, which was to add the heart he is holding. To do this I used the heart-shaped sunglasses from the Forrest Friends Additions set which I stamped with VersaFine’s Tulip Red. I then cut the heart out and tucked it in between the paws of my critter. So cute!!
For the head, I decided I need just a bit more, so again using my Black Gel pen I gave him almond-shaped eyes. To which I added the pupils and a little bit of shine with a White Gel pen. I then added some Glossy Accents to both the eyes and the nose. While that was drying I adhered the body to the background, then the background to a Kraft-colored pre-cut A2 card base. I then adhered the head using some pop-dots for depth and a slight angle which made my Racoon look like it was questioning something.
Finally the sentiment was created using a selection from the same stamp set on Kraft-colored cardstock with VersaFine Nocturne ink. I then created a frame for it by using the Hero Arts Wood Grain Infinity die set and some more of the Kraft-colored cardstock. To set it apart from the background, I used the Gina K Dark Chocolate ink once again but this time used my blending brush to make it darker than the background. Lastly, I adhered it to the card to complete the project.
