Happy Friday, crafty friends! We rounding out another year of amazing stamps by Unity Stamp Company. For this blog, I was drawn to the new December 2023 Uniquely Unity Kit: Cardinal Comfort and wanted to share the reds I used to create this cardinal card.
There is a belief that cardinals are messengers of our departed loved ones. I really wanted this bird to be bright so I chose several shades of red to get even more depth than what is already in the stamp.
I like to start with the darkest colors first and add a little. You can always add more, but much harder to lighten a dark colored image. First color is R89 on the darker shadow spots.
Next color is R29. This is still a dark red with a little more vibrance. I like to pull from the darkest spots and start to blend to the lightest spots.
Next is R27 and make sure to leave a spot for a lighter red.
Final shade of red is R24 and it just gives points of highlighted red on the bird. It's subtle, but when blended in, it really makes a difference.
For the pines, I used YG67 and opted out of doing two colors because I really wanted the focus to be on the beautifully detailed cardinal.
For the final Copic coloring detail, I used B32 to create shadows on the snow.
To give this beautiful image some vintage vibe, I used the Deckle & Stitched Nesting dies and Distress ink on the edges. To create the perfect matching green matting, I used the same Copic green for the pines on the edge of the mat. And the last detail was some black burlap string wrapped around the card.
This card is dedicated to my mother-in-law who passed away unexpectedly in September. She is truly missed especially during this holiday season. May we all remember all those that that have passed before us and perhaps send those that miss them a gentle hug with this Cardinal Comfort.
Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you found some inspiration. Until next week...
Happy Crafting!