Mother Goose - coloured pencil, embroidery

A friendly welcome to a new arrival, Mother Goose with a burst of sunshine, my card features retired stamps from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, Prismacolor pencil colouring, a background of Nuvo shimmer powder and Distress marker with embroidery stitching.

Putting It Together

When I decided to pair retired Mother Goose with stitching for the Kraftin' Kimmie challenge, I wasn't sure what colours I wanted to use and then I saw the new colour challenge at Outlawz and an idea started blooming.

The Outlawz Tuesday Colour challenge is using a palette derived from a gorgeous picture of daffodils. I used this as my palette inspiration. 

I stamped Mother Goose on Bristol with Granite Grey and coloured her with Prismacolor pencils. I wanted to do a water-based background on the same panel and didn't want the image to get spoiled. Prismacolor pencils are wax-based and, while they're not good as a resist, the colouring can be touched by water and not react or bleed.

To protect the image while I added the background, I stamped on masking paper and fussy cut the image to place it over my colouring. With the spindly legs and trailing ribbons, I didn't want to fussy cut the coloured image to put it over a background. A mask is easier to manage with the thin bits.

I first wet down the panel with a mister then tapped out Nuvo shimmer powder Solar Flare.

Solar Flare is a gorgeous shimmery yellow, but I wanted a bit more colour, too. I used the Distress poofer thingy with Distress markers, Dried Marigold and Wild Honey, to add in specks of colour.

Taking a mask off is a reveal. You never know what's been going on under the mask, i.e. if colour has seeped its way in, or if the image will truly pop on the background, or even if the mask was placed slightly wrong and now you have a halo of white where it shouldn't be. This reveal was perfect and I was absolutely thrilled.

I found an oval die to perfectly frame the image. The scalloped nested die set has different types of inner detail that also pair with the non-scalloped ovals. I used purple tape to hold the dies together in place while running the panel through the Big Shot.

Die-cut and ready for stitching.

I was first introduced to "big eye" needles when I started doing some beading. As long as you don't need a sharp stabby point or a stiff needle, they're a dream to thread since almost the whole needle is the eye! I used yellow and white baker's twine. Funnily, I have 3 slightly different colours of yellow and white baker's twine in my stash, two from krafty kits at some time. I chose the retired Stampin' Up twine mostly because it's the one I have the most of and the colour looked good with the background.

I did a simple stitch with the holes. This is my first time adding embroidery to a card and I rather like the look. I had thought about doing it before but didn't have a project in mind for it.

With the oval done, I needed to figure out what to do for the background. I had been toying with the idea of using the July sketch from Kraftin' Kimmie as a starting place.

I sifted through my paper stash (that I keep trying not to add to... but still do) to find three papers that both fit the palette and looked good with the oval. I wanted to bring in the 'baby' aspect and misremembered having a yellow-based baby-related paper. However, the orange-y Graphic 45 one did tick that box. The other two caught my eye with their bright and friendly colours and bringing a little bit of country summer.

I used a Simon Says Stamp die to cut a sentiment from a scrap of heavy white cardstock. I cut two and stacked them. But, the white was too white and none of my solid (or not so solid) papers were the right shade of light yellow. And then I remembered the Easter Parade embossing powder from Emerald Creek. Light yellow with a hint of glimmer. I embossed the sentiment three times to build it up a little.

I trimmed my papers and did a dry fit of the elements to see if I needed anything more.

I used foam mounting tape to pop-up the oval and adhered the sentiment in the middle, on the oval, and the ends, on the background papers, to have it slightly arch over the dimension.

Inside, I added a strip from a scrap of the Lawn Fawn paper and stamped the sentiment with Yummy Yellow and Wicked Black to give it a little 'glow'. The sentiment comes from another retired Kraftin' Kimmie set.

Supplies

Challenges

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps: Stitching

Outlawz Tuesday Colour: Monochrome with Yellows
Scrapping 4 Fun: Stitching
Crafty Friends: Summer Colours
Pearly Sparkles: Something Beginning with "B" (baby)
Crafty Gals Corner: 3+ Layers
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Monday: Bright & Cheerful