Birthday olives

It was my hubby's birthday recently and this is the card I made him. He's a fan of olives and olive oils (he actually had oils as his gift) so I went in that direction.

I did something unheard of for me here - I drew my focal image! I have one olive stamp (from a set by the original Cornish Heritage Farms) but it was really a bit small for what I wanted to do. I decided to just get over my conviction that I can't draw and using the small stamped image and a photograph of a real olive branch for guidance, I sketched very lightly in pencil and then coloured using a combination of Copic markers and watercolour pencils, aiming for a "borderless" look. I was quite pleased with the result.

The olive image is mounted on a background done with home-made shimmer spray and pigment from a watercolour pencil brushed on through drywall tape for a bit of textural interest. I made speckles by wetting the surface and sanding the pencil over it (the blue around the olives and a dark purpley colour on the background panel) and also by flicking thinned down black acrylic paint from a brush. I added a few black enamel dots and a couple of photo corners for more texture and contrast.

Stamps:
Sentiment from Big Day Today by Waltzingmouse Stamps
Hand drawn image of olives

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black by Tsukineko

Paper:
Bamboo Mixed Media paper by Hahnemuhl
Laid texture
Black

Other:
Copic markers
Watercolour pencils
Shimmer spray made from Tumbled Glass reinker and Turquoise Perfect Pearls
Drywall tape 
Tim Holtz/Sizzix ATC and Photo corners die
Black acrylic paint
Black enamel dots

Thanks for stopping by!