Field Mouse

     It's time for another challenge to start over at FarmQuest, where our underlying theme is always something "farm or country."  On top of that, we have a specific theme for each challenge and this time we want to see "Critters that eat grain" or something closely related to that.

     I searched my clip art files for something appropriate and came across this little mouse on a wheat stem.  What could be more perfect?  I had a lot of fun figuring out how I wanted to best display the image and finally decided to make the background for the image by water coloring some wheat onto water color paper, letting it dry overnight, ironing it flat (since it has a tendency to curl up while drying), and putting that piece of paper into the printer, then printing the clip art image directly onto the background.  I used colored pencils and white gel pen to add highlights and deeper color to the mouse.  What do you think?

     I cut the image with a Spellbinders die, matted it with some light brown CS, and trimmed that with my paper cutter.  I made the background by digging through the scrap basket and finding a couple of dp and a strip of reddish-brown CS.  I ran the strip of CS through my Linen EF, then layered all three scraps onto the card front.  The image went on top of those, as did the sentiment which had been printed, then cut with an Avery Elle die.

     Challenges:

     I hope to see you playing along in our challenge this fortnight.  There are so many options for you in finding a critter that eats grains; rodents, birds, deer, horses and cows, ... the list is endless!  Let your imagination flow and share with us what you create.  

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie