I have been thinking of making a card with the ‘Tiger Tiger’ stamp from Sheena Douglass, for a while, and had the opportunity today, and also the opportunity to enter it into a challenge – the Alphabet Challenge Blog.

The card is also not what I would usually make, as it involves making a background, and water-colouring, and using lots of colours, but I wanted to give it a go and see what I ended up with.

The first thing I did was to stamp the tiger onto water colour paper, and colour him with Spectrum Aqua pens. I used two colours, then water-brushed, then dried, then applied more colour from a different pen.

For the background, I used an acetate sheet, and scribbled three different colours onto it, sprayed liberally with water, and just ‘plonked’ my card onto it. I made sure the card stayed for a few seconds, to pick up all the colour, before I lifted it up, and dried it with my heat tool.

I stamped the tiger again on the background, for positioning purposes (I was cutting him out of the previous sheet and sticking him on when I had completed the background), and stamped the leaves from the same ‘Tiger Tiger’ stamp set. The leaves were stamped using the Spectrum Aqua pens, to give a more distressed look. I wanted to create a sort of camouflage area for him, a canopy almost. I also distressed the edge of the main background card.

After I cut the stamped tiger out, I stuck him to the main background with Crafters Companion ‘stick and stay’, and drew around him with a black Spectrum Aqua pen for more definition. The sentiment is from the same stamp set – they all work very well together.

I then chose a couple of backing coloured card which reflected some of the tones in the main background and tiger himself. I rounded the corners of the layers for effect, and to create and interest in the backing cards which doesn’t detract from the tiger himself.

I am quite pleased with the end result, it is quite rich and colourful, and it makes me think I should probably keep playing with colours……….!

Sheena Douglass stamps – A taste of India – ‘Tiger Tiger’

Crafters Companion – Spectrum Aqua pens  – Topaz, Fawn, Gold, Yellow, Crimson, and Black for the Tiger; Leaf Green for the leaves; Sepia, Chocolate, Teal, Aquamarine, Moss for the background; ‘Stick and Stay’;

Tonic textured card for the background card

Be Creative double-sided sticky tape

Black Archival ink for the sentiment

We R Memory Keepers – Envelope punch board