Sending paper hugs...

Hello friends!

I'm up on the Hello Bluebird blog today and with Valentine's Day drawing near I thought it would be fun to pull a bunch of different stamp sets to create a cute Valentine's Day card. I began building my scene with this darling seated girl, tree and tree stump from the Autumn Days set. She needed a friend and that's when I spotted the kitten in the Sabrina set, who was the perfect fit. Now I just needed to give them a reason for sitting there. When I came across the mailbox in the Merry Mice set , the idea formed that perhaps this cutie was waiting to mail out a love note to someone special. And the Dear Santa set had the letter I needed to stamp into her hidden hand. When masking stamps together to create a scene with lots of depth and interest, you always want to start with the images that are closest and work your way back into the distance. So in this instance I began by stamping the kitten, then the girl, followed by the tree stump she is sitting on. I then added the letter to her hand and the mailbox before masking it as well and then stamping the tree from Autumn Days and the stand of trees from the Picked For You set further in the background. 

With all of the masks removed and the scene elements in place, I could start bringing everything to life using my Copic markers. To make sure that the background didn't drop off at the tree line I colored the green grass and the winding path farther up on the tree trunks, which creates the illusion of the field extending way back into the distance. This gave the scene a background, midground and foreground that all work together to pull the viewer into the story being created. I used the little girl's outfit and letter as a way to bring in the Valentine theme, with lots of red and pink and heart shaped accents.  The sentiment from the Big Hugs Woodland set also ties the letter and mailbox to the overall love theme as well. Finally I used the Nesting Deckle A2 die set to give a decorative edge to the scene and mounted it on a red card base that coordinates back to the red in the girl's clothing and the sentiment for a cohesive finished look.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supply list:
cardstock- Papertrey Ink and Catherine Pooler
stamps- Hello Bluebird (Autumn Days, Sabrina set, Merry Mice set, Dear Santa set, Picked For You set and Big Hugs Woodland set)
ink- Memento rich cocoa and My Favorite Things amarena cherry
Hello Bluebird Nesting Deckle A2 die set
Copic Spica glitter pen
Copic markers:
skin- E000, E00, E11, E04, R00, R20
hair- E50, E52, E55, E57, E43, E44
clothes/letter- BV31, E50, E81, W3, 0, R35, R39, W3, W4, W6/RV10, RV11, RV32
trees- E41, E43, E44, YG23, G14, G94
sky- BG0000, BG000, B00, B01
grass/path- YG03, YG25, YG63, G43, G94/E31, E34, E43
mailbox- C2, C3, C5, R35, R39, E43, E44
kitten- N1, N2, N3, N4, R000, R30