Tool shed card

 I had no idea how I was going to use this stamp set when I bought it or when I got it out to make this card. It was a  case of Okay,  let's stamp the spade, mask it off and work it out from there.

 Perhaps I should have said at the beginning that  I used vanilla cardstock for both the image panel and the base card.

I stamped the ladder next, (slightly overlapping the spade)  followed by the rake, trowel and shears. I masked off all the tools before starting work on the background. 

I inked up the Hardwood background stamp and stamped off most of the ink onto scrap paper,  before stamping it over the masked off tools. I didn't want a strong woodgrain background that would distract from the tools. Using a blending  brush, I blended Baked Brown sugar and soft suede ink around the edges of the panel. 

Once I'd used up most of the ink in the brush, I began working in the middle of the panel and over the tools using a blending brush with next to no ink on the brush .  

I placed a post it note over the tools and in line with the bottom of the ladder and blended some Crumb cake and Early espresso ink,  starting on the post it note and working  downward to create the floor , applying the ink heavier at the sides.

I stamped the cobwebs with white craft ink, which I then embossed using a white detail embossing powder. Detail embossing powder is finer than the standard powder so you get a finer line.

 I removed the masks and coloured the tools using strong colours of Copic markers to hide any ink that may have strayed on the tools. I also used a  silver polychromos pencil to add highlights to metal parts. (This doesn't show in this photo)  Lastly I added some shadows to one side of the tools with a mid brown marker pen and added the sentiment.