Winter Foxes

Aloha,

Mirror image stamping of focal elements helps to create a poignantly sweet card, inspired by the AECP course Seasonal Scene Building.

Foxes from the Altenew’s Modern Fox Stamp Set face one another even though the stamp set contains only one fox. To accomplish this mirror image technique, a stamp positioner was used to impress multiple foxes facing both directions. The mirror image fox was stamped first on a silicone craft sheet, which was placed in the corner of the stamping tool. Then, a A2 sheet of cardstock was placed on top of the silicone mat, making certain to align it in the corner, too. When the stamp positioner was closed, the fox’s various layers were impressed on both sides of the paper. By aligning the die with the second generation fox’s image on the right side of the paper, the mirror image was easily cut at the same time. To remove the marks from the die and flatten the paper, the fox was passed through the die cutting machine without any die. Foxes were stamped in two colorways with Altenew’s Milk Chocolate and Snapdragon for the body and Obsidian Pigment Ink for the face and legs.

Using Gina K. Design’s Masking Magic, the snowy hill was masked by cutting a series of gentles curves freehand and adhering the mask along the bottom of a landscape A2 card base. To create the cloudy sky, Altenew’s Starlight Ink was applied to a blending brush and then lightly brushed in a haphazard fashion.

After removing the mask, the fox die cuts were adhered to the card front so that they face one another and overlap, suggesting an embrace. Snowflakes were added by sprinkling white paint from Kuretake’s Gansai Tambi Watercolor Palette. A heavier concentration was sprinkled around the foxes to create the sense of time, which when combined with the “Sending Hugs” sentiment from Altenew’s Fancy Greetings Stamp Set underscores the length of the encouraging embrace despite the winter snow.

Mahalo!