Another fortnight has flown by which means it’s time for another challenge over at AAA Cards. We’ve chosen a theme of ‘outdoor activity’ as our prompt for a clean and simple card make. I spent absolutely ages going through my stash and could not find a single stamp or piece of ephemera fitting the theme that I hadn’t used recently. Google stepped up to the challenge, however, and after tweaking my search criteria and a downloaded file I made this card:

I went about this in a possibly overcomplicated way… I took a free-to-use file from Vecteezy, edited it in Adobe Illustrator and used my laser cutter to make the card, cutting away the coloured area. A circle of white card coloured with blended distress inks then glues behind to produce the silhouette. The fine lines and birds are drawn in with a black pigment fineliner.

Less technological ways of creating the same card would require careful tracing and colouring. I’d probably create the blended background and then paint over it to create the black silhouette. I’d then mount the smaller panel onto the card blank.

Oh, and before I go… A certain armchair critic commented ‘wow, he can pee a long way’. Once you see it…

Used to make this card

• Silhouette Vectors by Vecteezy
• Ranger / Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Mustard Seed, Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon
• Unipin black pigment pen (02)
• Limetree Craft black card
• Sentiment: bespoke laser cut stamp with Jet Black archival ink
• Resulting card size: 5¾” square