Father's Day Moose...

Moose Father's Day for my husband, Kevin.

Hello and welcome! I know it's been several days since I've blogged but I've started a new job and orientation and training has taken all my time... and I come home exhausted to boot! I have a few cards to show but wanted to do this one today.

I knew I had to get a Father's Day card done for my husband. Two nights ago we had a little incident with a moose in the neighbor's yard you can see in the video on my YouTube channel. (I figured out how to upload to YouTube!)

We have seen more moose in the six months we've lived in the Butte than in all 26 years in Haines! My husband was locking up his bike to a tree after a ride the other evening and heard rustling coming from next door about 20 feet away. He just figured it was the neighbor doing something in his own yard... so he glanced quickly over to just make sure... like you have to do in Alaska... and there was this moose munching on a tree. She wasn't even paying any attention to Kevin and he watched her for a minute before coming in the house to get me. I came out with my phone (camera) of course, and we watched her for a couple minutes while I filmed her. We had a four foot fence and a few bushes and small trees in front of us and if she moved our way we could back track quickly. We didn't even think she'd jump the fence. But lo, and behold, she wanted more delicious looking leaves on the other side of the neighbors fence and lightly, easily leaped over it to get to them. Then we laughed and realized our fence would be just as easy to step over. We let her go on her way eating unconcernedly! Life in Alaska... you gotta love it!

Close up of moose, trees and Butte

So I decided a moose card was in order for Kevin's father's day card. I've used this moose stamp in my first two blog posts and decided I just wanted his head to be peeking into the card. I love the look of watercoloring so much but am not very good at it but I do keep trying and practicing! On Strathmore cold press watercolor paper, I used Ranger distress inks in blues, greens, and browns for the sky, mountain (my quick version of the local Bodenburg Butte) and the ground. I stamped the Misty Mountain rubber stamps moose profile in Ranger Archival black ink. Then using the same ink I stamped the pine trees. ( I'll have to find out from what company! I thought it was Stampin' Up Lovely As A Tree but the tree in that set is larger!) I used distress markers to color in the moose, trees and ground under the trees and the trees on the Butte.

I then die cut the one of the WPlus9 Happy Trio words out of the sky and stacked 4-5 layers of white "happy"s before adding the die cut one to the top. In some photos it looks inset rather than popped up! I used the Winnie & Walter stamp set the Big & the Bold & the Happy to add the "father's day" to finish it. I mounted the panel on Neenah Solar White 110 lb cardstock for stability leaving about 1/4" white border on all sides.

Close up of popped up "happy"

Kevin was very pleased. And so was I! I do love watercoloring with distress inks because they reactivate and react with water so well... I tried with regular (albeit cheap!) watercolors and it doesn't react the same way. So onward with distress inks!

Thanks for stopping by and God bless! Happy Father's Day!

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Supplies:
Stamps: Misty Mountain (moose), WPlus9 (Happy die) Winnie & Walter (father's day)
Paper: Strathmore watercolor cold press, Neenah Solar White 110 lb
Ink: Ranger Archival black, Ranger distress inks & markers
Accessories/Tools: MISTI
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Challenges:
Kathy Racoosin's 30 day color challenge 2
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge: Favorite Technique (watercoloring with distress ink)
Inkspirational Challenges: Wild