Wild Buck Foundation and Happy Halloween by Gennette Houghton

Welcome to Watercolor Weekend. I love nature scenes,
especially ones that have animals.  The
6067 Wild Buck Foundation definitely fits that bill.  Living in the country allows me to watch all
kinds of animals, including deer. Surrounded by open fields, summer is one of
my favorite times to watch the deer out in the pasture as the mom’s take their
babies out to graze. As the months go by, I get to watch them grow and lose
their spots.  I also get to watch the
bucks grow their horns, everything from spikes to full racks.  

My first card was a big hit with the men in
my family.  I started with inking my
stamp with Distress Ink Pumice Stone, I find this easier with the bigger
stamps, and after stamping off once I find little color transfers when water is
added.  I then took a piece of acetate
that I have cut down as a guide that is 2 ¾ by 4 ¼, and traced an outline
around my stamped image. Using Post-it tape, I masked off the edges so that the
scene is contained to work with the image. 
This gives it defined edges, which also allows you to have a white
border to set it off.  I started with the
sky by adding in 526, so I don’t have to compete with the foliage once that is
put in.  I then added 565 to shade the
mountains, leaving white highlights to give them shape. 177 was used on all of
the ground areas.  For the roof I started
with 947 and then added streaks of 969 to give the look of texture.  027 was used on the walls and also added
darker lines with the same color for texture. 
For the windows I used a mix of 565 and N15, which creates kind of a
smoky blue.  The window trims and the
lines for the panes, 969 was used. I then added shadows in with 565.  For the rocks I used a mix of 565 and 969,
and then went over areas with 249 to give a more natural look.  526 mixed with some 565 was used for the
water, adding more 565 along the edges of the banks, and rocks to give a
shadowed look in those areas.  I used 969
on the tree trunk, adding more color along the edges to help define its shape.
A black micron was used on the eyes and nose of the deer, leaving a highlight on both.  I started with 992 on the
antlers adding a touch of 969 along the edges. For the body I used 977, I then
went over the top of this with a bit of 947 to brighten it up a bit.  969 was used to darken the shadowed
areas.  

Now it’s time to put all of the
foliage in, I used my favorite grass from 5826 WC Large Tree Set 2 in 177, for
areas I also added a touch of 969 to the stamp. 
5372 Mini Foliage set, I used the bush line stamp in 177, the pine tree
in 249, and then 2 more of the bush line in 249 in front of the pines.  To the right of the house I also used, from
the same set, the miniature grass in 177. For the tree I started with the large
foliage from 4051 Foliage 1, inking only about 1/3 of the stamp in 126, for
coverage over the area. I then used the vine from the same set in 177 over the
area I stamped in 126.  From the 4964 WC
Branches Set, I inked the branch in 969 and placed it next to the rocks by the
deer, and used the small vine from 5126 WC Foliage Set 4 in 177 to add in the
leaves.  I then used our favorite white
paint, Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White, to add in flowers. I may have went
overboard a bit, but that’s okay, because flowers and green will be gone here soon. 

For my 2^nd card I decided to make a Halloween
card. I used 5037 Halloween Magic Set and stamped it in permanent black ink on
watercolor paper.  Keeping the image
closer to the bottom to fit the design I came up with. I used 993 for the
orange, Marvy 108 for the purple, and N15 for the black. I went over the spider
webs and spiders with a black micron, I also used a sentiment in the set and
just inked the “HAPPY” in N15 and placed it just to the left of the
image.  From 5456 Spooky Wagon set I also
stamped out the sign on a separate piece of watercolor paper in 969, and added
one of the spiders to the Halloween image on the bottom right. I finished
coloring the sign in 969 and die cut it out with the included dies.  I added shadows to the main image with N52
and 565.  I then stamped out 5778 FB Frog
Costume on another separate piece of watercolor paper in N49 and stamped off
once.  I started with a black micron to
go over the details of the faces and pumpkin. For the costume I used 133 as the
base, darkening the contours with 126 and added some shading with 969. I added
some dots of 177 all over for texture. 
The pumpkin I started with 993, adding in 933 for the contour and N15
for the eyes, nose, and mouth.  For the
skin tone I used 850 for the base, 910 for the contours, a little bit of 969
for shading, and 772 on the cheeks. 879 was used on the little section of
hair.  I also used a little bit of 565 to
shade just under the frog mouth.  I then
die cut the image out with the included die. I matted my card with the main
image that I cut down to 4 ¼ by 5 ½. Using 5849 Halloween S2 Paper Pack, I used
and envelope edge die to cut out a section of paper and matted that to my card.
I then popped up the little boy with foam tape and glued the sign down behind
him, completing my card. I hope you enjoyed my cards today and thank you for
joining me. Until next time, Create….Share….Inspire!