WWC99-Marsha's Clean and Simple (CAS) Make It With Hearts Challenge

Wednesday has rolled around again and it's time for the last WWC99 Watercooler Wednesday challenge  of the year since this challenge will run from December 21st through to January 2nd, 2017.  This Clean and Simple (CAS) challenge is being hosted by Marsha and it's all about "hearts". 

Just so you know the Watercooler Design Team Artists decided to lower our expectations for our CAS challenges so all you need to do is enter an uncluttered card with lots of open space and minimal layers and embellishments and you can play along.  We hope you will join in the challenge! 

 

Here's My CAS Card:

Supplies:
Stamp Sets:  Merry Mice, Bear Hugs, and Love Sparkles*
Ink:  Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Delightful Dijon, Basic Black Archival Ink, Flirty Flamingo and Smokey Slate
Card Stock:  Cherry Cobbler, Cansun 90lb Watercolor Paper
Accessories:  Big Shot, Trimmer, Bear Hugs Thinlets, Aqua Painter, Baby wipes, Scissors, Dimensionals, Tom Bow glue, Tear and Tape.

The Merry Mice stamp set is from the Holiday Occasions catalogue and will retire January 2nd, 2017.  It's currently on sale in the Year End Extravaganza.  Product #42154

The cluster of hearts behind the little mouse is supposed to be a balloon bouquet. The "love you" heart is from the Bear Hugs stamp set and is cut out with the Bear Hugs Thinlet heart die. 

I bet you're wondering where that fancy double-outlined heart came from aren't you? Well, I got it for free when I attended Stampin' Up!s OnStage Presentation in Vancouver.  It's from a delightful new stamp set called "Love Sparkles" and will be available in the new Occasions catalogue, just in time for Valentine's Day.

Bear Hugs Stamp Set #39546 in the Annual Catalogue

Assembly:

1.  The Cherry Cobbler card base was cut to 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" and scored at 4 1/4". 

2.  I cut three pieces of Watercolor Paper, for the layers.  The first layer measured 4" x 5 1/4" and the second layer measured 3 3/4" x 5". The final layer which measured 4" x 5 1/4" was for the inside of the card. 

3.  I stamped the mouse image from Merry Mice with Black Archival ink on the second layer of watercooler paper. Note:  After inking up the image and before stamping, I wiped the ink off the stocking hat and piece of scarf that poked out below the mouse's arm because I didn't want them to show up on the finished card.  I just used a baby wipe to take the ink off. 

4.  I stamped a second image of the mouse on a scrap of watercolor paper and again wiped away the hat and scarf portions of the image before stamping.  I fussy cut away the bottom portion of the mouse, and the hat leaving his face, upper body and arms in tact.  And, I cut away the portion of the book top between the mouse's hands so I could insert the little red heart. This portion of the mouse was coloured the same as the base and it was mounted with dimensionals after the stamping on the base layer was finished.

 

I fussy cut out a second image of the to portion of the mouse so I could layer it on top of the original layer.  This is just a sample so it isn't cut very neatly.... it's just to give you the concept.

5.  I painted the mouse image with Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Flirty Flamingo, Early Espresso and Delightful Dijon inks, using a fine tipped aqua painter. I repeated this colouring on the portion of the mouse that would be layered later on.

6.  Because I'd eliminated the stocking hat from the second mouse image I needed to replace it with something else.  To do this, I stamped a reindeer head from the Cookie Cutter Christmas set and cut off the portion between the horns to make a little cap.  I coloured this with Delightful Dijon and then added it with a piece of dimensional to the top of the mouse's head to form a cap.  

I just wanted the portion of the deer head that is coloured in yellow.  I drew a line along the bottom of that image with a Basic Black marker and cut it out.  This became the cap on the mouse, all the rest of the . 

7.  I stamped the mouse image on a Post-It-Note and fussy cut this out for a mask.  I applied the mask over the mouse and stamped the heart images.  I also stamped masks for the hearts so I could layer them.  They were all stamped in Cherry Cobbler Ink.

Masks stamped on Post-It-Notes.

8.  Once the inks had dried I attached the upper portion of the mouse with dimensionals. I punched out a little red heart using the punch from the retired Itty Bitty Punch Accents set and attached it between the mouse's hands with a piece of dimensional.  I used an aqua painter and Smokey Slate ink to outline the mouse image and give some depth to the background.  Some of the Cherry Cobbler ink ran a bit so I just lightened and blended it into the background.

Note: After I made the above card, I thought I should have used flowers instead of the heart, so I had to try out that look. Voila here's what that version looked like.

The floral bouquet in this sample is from the Bear Hugs stamp set. 

9.  The layers were glued together with Tom Bow Glue and then attached to the card base with Tear and Tape.  The inside of the card was finished with the remaining Watercolor paper layer. 

Well that's it for this year! I hope you've enjoyed this card along with others I've contributed to the Watercooler Wednesday Challenges and that you'll continue to follow and contribute your cards to this site.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on this card and my little tutorial explaining how it was assembled.

I also hope you'll visit the other Watercooler Wednesday Design team sites and leave them some comments too.   It's so inspiring for us.   

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot