Sponging & Masking a little scene...

When I posted my DinoRama U Fold Card tutorial yesterday... I had some people ask me how I had created the scenic backdrop... so whilst I do not consider myself an artist in any way, shape or form... this is what I did...

And I have to admit that there is also another one waiting in the scenes... got to love those mountains behind a lake for a Christmassy scene!!!

1. Brayer Soft Sky across the whole panel. Don't worry about streaks and missing bits... they just add some texture!I  prefer a brayer for speed but you could use sponges...

2. Rip some pieces of scratch paper so you have undulating mountain peaks on one... and a raggedy straightish edge on the other. You will use both halves of the ripped papers.

Though note that you can't make loads of cards with one set of these papers... as eventually the ink bleeds through and ruins your scenic masterpiece!! I reckon about 3 cards with the one set... OR have a set for each colour... in which case rip through two at the same time so your shapes are the same!! Now why didn't I think of that before!

3. Mask your panel so you cover some sky area at the top and have mountain shapes about 1/3 of the way down... 

4. Grab your Wisteria Wonder ink pad and Stampin Sponge... and dab, smoosh, swoosh, wipe & swipe as you fancy to add colour and texture... I tend to lightly dab all over first and then swoosh/wipe at the peaks to add definition...

Move your masks along until the whole width is sponged...

5. Reposition your masks so that you have more peaks behind your mountains... this is where your 2nd torn half of scratch paper comes in useful to cover your first lot of mountains (though unfortunately I forgot to photo that in place! So please use your imagination...)

6.And sponge again...

7. Reposition your mask and apply more depth of colour to form the sides of some of the mountains...  again I swooshed/wiped down from the edge to add the depth... Little thing that makes a big difference!!

8. Position your 2 raggedy straight line masks to create a narrow horizon below the mountains and above the lake.... and sponge Pear Pizzazz ink over...

9. Voila land in front of the mountains...

10. Grab a Peak paper and raggedy straight edge paper and position at the sides to create hills...

11. Sponge with your Pear Pizzazz ink...

12. Now I carried onto create more of a scene but most of this gets covered up in this card fold...so optional! 

So place raggedy straight edge paper about 1" from the bottom

13. Sponge Pear Pizzazz ink over to create land in front of the lake...

14. Peak papers back on to create some more hills to the font of the scene...

15. Sponge Pear Pizzazz ink (definitely the least artistic bit of my little repeat scene!!) but works OK when cut up...

16. Ink up & stamp Old Olive leaves to the top right and left...

17. Cut as required (see yesterday's tutorial pt.8 for measurements)

18. Ink up & stamp your greeting on the central panel in Old Olive...

19. Assemble the card as per yesterday's tutorial... until you get to pt. 25 at the end...

20. Grab your card and embellishments.... and stick them all on... ... note that my Brontosaurus had his tail chopped and is rearing upwards (like a dog on back legs!) to achieve the Loch Ness monster look I wanted!

The Card Front Builder trees are die cut in Old Olive and then stamped in Old Olive using the Background Bits stamp for more texture (click here and scroll to the end of that post for a close-up pic)

All of the dinosaur, greetings and other images are in the No Bones About It set...

The 2 dinosaurs at the front in the shot above are inked up in a paler colour and then the stamp is stamped with the same Background Bits stamp inked up in a darker colour... adds great scales! 

So this T. Rex is inked up in Soft Suede and then stamped over with Early Espresso and then stamped onto card...

And this Stegosaurus is inked up in Pear Pizzazz and then stamped over with Always Artichoke. An Early Espresso marker on the fins finished the inking off and then he was stamped...

21. Dino Rama U Fold card finished....

Enjoy!