Lovely as a Tree ~ Sponged Scenery Tutorial

What a beautiful Saturday here in Michigan!  I'll be working outside for sure today, but I wanted to get this requested tutorial out before I do.  So if you're ready to do some reading, sponging and stamping let's get started!

The tutorial request was actually for a different card, but I made it the same way I made this one.

This is how the finished card is put together minus all the sponging and stamping.  Pretty simple, right? :)

You start by using a large sticky note and covering a part of your card stock to create your horizon.  You can determine where you want it.  If you look closely at the picture you can see where I place mine.  Just a bit below the center of the card.

To shape the mountains I took a piece of computer paper, cut it slightly bigger than my piece of card stock, then ripped out the shape of mountains.  No two will be alike, so if you don't like what you ripped out, just try again. :)  I attached this with some kind of removable adhesive so it stays in place while I'm sponging.  Don't get too crazy with the adhesive though because it will all have to come off the card stock when you sponge the sky. 

These are the three colors I used to sponge everything.

I started with Sahara Sand and sponged in everything that was open space.  To get the sponged look I did on this card I did not dab or twist my sponge around.  Instead I started at the peaks of the mountains and pulled everything down.  I did it until I had color all over the open part of the card stock.  I then repeated this process again using Crumb Cake except I did not pull it all the way down to the bottom.  I want the mountains to look darker on top and lighter on the bottom.  Sorry but I forget to take a picture after I sponged Crumb Cake.

As you can see this pic is a lot darker than the previous.  I've added my third ink color, Soft Suede, and put it on just like the two previous colors except I didn't go down as far as I did with Crumb Cake.

When you pull the both pieces of the scrap paper off you'll see something like this.  Looks kind of strange, huh? lol  

Now you need to take your sticky note and place it just above the horizon.  If you look closely you can see just a little strip of brown peeking out and the mountains underneath the sticky note.

You also need to take the scrap paper that you ripped your mountains out of and basically flip it upside down.  This is going to give you your mirror image, or shadow of the mountain.  Be very careful when placing the inked side against your clean side of card stock.  You don't want the ink from the other side rubbing all over it.  If you have a heat gun you might want to use it to make sure your ink is dry on the scrap piece of paper.  You'll also need to use some removable adhesive again to keep it in place when you're sponging.  

I repeated all three steps that I did earlier except instead of pulling the sponge down, I pushed it up.  I have to admit I think I did the bottom a little too dark, so make sure you don't sponge as much on the bottom as you do the top.

This is what it looks like when you pull everything off again.  I think it looks funny!  Kind of like a chart of some sort. lol  Anyway if you have any adhesive on your card you'll want to remove it with an adhesive remover.  You can NOT sponge over it.  It will definitely ruin the look of your card. :(  You might not be able to see it so make sure your hands are clean and that you rub your fingers over it.  If it's not smooth there's probably some adhesive stuck there.

Next punch out a couple of circles and attach with removable adhesive.  I used 1" circles on this card.   Carefully sponge in the sky and beneath the shadows of the mountains using Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake.  I did a little bit of dabbing and just running the sponge back and forth across my paper.  It's not super dark right now, but you can do finishing details at the end. :)  Take off the circles and make sure there isn't any adhesive stuck to the card stock.

 I know it looks like I jumped way ahead here, but I really didn't.  I'm just showing a few things at one time.  First I made the tops of my mountains a bit darker. I just sponged more Soft Suede on them using the ripped template I made.  I wanted more of a contrast between the actual mountains and the shadows.  Now it's time to add some trees using Soft Suede. You want to make sure you put your sticky note back on the bottom of your card and if you have a stamp-a-ma-jig use it!  Here's why I do...it lets me play around with where I want to place my trees, plus after I've done that much sponging I don't want to guess where I'm putting them.  I want to know right where they are going to go.  Also I got a blob of ink on my card stock that I couldn't get off (that's the whole adhesive issue I talked about earlier).  I was able to cover it up with the trees because I knew where I was placing them.  As you can see in the picture after I stamped my trees they don't seem to have trunks.  That's because I didn't want any part of the bottom of the stamp showing up so I didn't ink it up.

Now to add the tree trunks.  Use your Suede Marker and carefully draw them in.  My writing tip of my marker is apparently dry, so I used the fuller tip

Here they are all drawn in.  If you look closely I drew them to the top of the horizon line.  After I added the shadow of the trees I drew them below that line.  It didn't look right above it, so you'll want to draw yours to the bottom of it right away. :)

Since you've been using your stamp-a-ma-jig you have your trees already on it, so your set to put their shadows on.  But first you need to wipe of the bottoms of the tree trunks and grass because you don't wan't that showing on your card!

Ok, that's all wiped off, so before you press it onto your card stock there's a little bit more blocking that you need to do...

Strange pic huh? lol  What I've done is turned my paper around so the bottom (mountain reflection) is now at the top.  You can see that darker strip of the horizon and little brown dots on the horizon.  Those are the bottoms of your tree trunks and will show you where to line up your stamp-a-ma-jig to place the reflection on.  Flip your stamp-a-ma-jig plastic piece over so the inked side is down, line the trunks together and rub it onto your card stock.  You'll want to make sure you rub the whole thing especially by your sticky note because it won't show up if you don't press it in and rub it a bit.

Here I've rotated my card back the way it should be, I've taken off my sticky note and you can see the reflection of the trees that I added.  I also did some finishing details.  Basically I used a little Sahara Sand and Crumb Cake and sponged it to the top and bottom of my card.  I sponged a different way this time.  When I put it on the top and bottom of the card you can see there's an oval area that's lighter with a dark curved strip that's pretty pronounced on the very bottom and it little bit on the very top.  To get this look I held the left side of my card while I pulled and pushed my sponge back and forth across the bottom and just made sure I curved it when I was doing the back and forth strokes.  I hope that doesn't sound complicated because it's not! :)  I just did it until I thought it was dark enough.

Now all that's left to do is to attach your pieces of card stock together and you're done!  That wasn't too hard now was it. :)  Ok I have to admit I did one more finishing detail after I had my card put together.  I put my sticky note back on under the horizon, put a couple more sticky notes on the edges of the card (I didn't want ink all over the sides of the card) and rubbed just a bit of Soft Suede above the horizon line.  That gave me a darker strip right at the bottom of the trees and seem to soften the look of the card a little more.  You can see a bit of difference between this pic and the previous one.  Ok now I'm really done! lol

I hope you've enjoyed this and it inspires you to do a little sponging. :)  

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Sara

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Supplies used on this card:

Scrap paper (computer paper) & Sticky Notes (large)

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