Morning by Morning New Mercies I See

Hi, Everyone....

I made this card to enter in the Verve Perk Up February Diva Dare.  The sentiment and sun are from the Verve New Mercies set that I won from Verve last summer.  THANK YOU!!!

Looking at the sentiment, I knew I wanted to make a sunrise....something I had never tried before!!  Yikes....scary!

1.  I used Gelatos in Lemon, Peach, and Tangerine colors to make an ombre sky on watercolor paper by scribbling them in my palette wells and spritzing them with water to make color washes which I brushed on in horizontal strokes.  Then I let the paper dry, hurrying the process with my heat gun. :)

2.  I stamped the sun reversed (so the little sun pattern was the side stuck to the acrylic block) and heat embossed in white to get a solid brilliant ball.

3.  I turned the stamp the correct way and stamped the sun pattern directly on top of the embossed white ball and heat-embossed the fresh pattern with Stamp n Stuff Sahara Pearls-translucent, being careful not to overcook!

4.  I rubbed some Butter Cream Gelato over the sun disc with my finger to make it a bit more golden.

5.  To make the rays in the sky, I took a Q-tip and dipped in water and streaked it upward from the sun.  Then took the dry end and wiped the same moistened paths immediately afterwards.  This picked up some of the pigment, leaving the rays.  LOVE how this turned out!!

Here's a closer look:

6.  I tore dark brown DCWV cardstock to make the snow-ridged mountains (Thanks for inspiring me to try tearing, Christy!!) and pieced them together for my landscape with the sun peeking over the edge.  Then I glued them down with a generous amount of Scotch Craft Stick. 
7.  I stamped the sentiment on vellum with Distress Ink in Walnut Brown and heat-embossed with Stampendous Clear Bark embossing powder.  Then I trimmed it to a banner shape.
8.  I adhered the vellum with Scrapbook Adhesives E-Z Runner Vellum which works like a dream to glue vellum down nearly invisibly!  Thank you, Beth Pingry, for recommending this awesome product to me and including it in a prize package!!
9.  I finished the card up with some gold dots from Studio 112 and a gold bow. Then I mounted it with Scrapbook Adhesives E-Z Runner Permanent Strips on an ivory card base.

Again, I have a card with subtle coloring that my camera hasn't yet *developed* an appreciation for!  I am delighted with how this turned out, though, because it is pretty close to what I had envisioned. Yay!!

What do you think?  Should I stick to doilies and lots of layers????  :)  I really appreciate your comments!!! 

<3
Janis

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CAT STATUS UPDATE:

New cat seen on back porch:  a very large Siamese-pattern cat.  He is gorgeous, but is making my outside kitties nervous.  He must have a home, because he's too beautiful to be feral.  Likely, he is a tom and is starting to make his spring rounds.  Ugh...
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