Lavinia Stamps Monthly Challenge make for September 2019 - If you go down to the woods

Every month, Lavinia Stamps have a monthly challenge.  The theme for the September 2019 challenge is "If you go down to the woods".

If you enter the challenge and your name is randomly drawn, you will win £40 of vouchers to spend on lovely Lavinia goodies.  

I started by blending three Distress Oxides Inks:  Twisted Citron, Old Paper and Shabby Shutters randomly, deliberately leaving some areas lighter to add a little contrast.

I positioned a Sweet Poppy Stencil (SP6-109) Faux Dragon Leather Backplate using low tack masking tape and used a further two Distress Oxides in the shades of Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint.

Once the stencil was removed I filled the central area with darker shades of Distress Inks - Crushed Olive and Mowed Lawn.

I then stamped the Lavinia Stamps "Green Man" in Versafine Clair "Acorn" Shade of ink.  The little leaves are also part of the "Green Man" stamp set and they are stamped in Versafine Clair "Chianti' shade of ink.  I used the same ink to stamp the sentiment "the forest so green" which is part of a larger Lavinia sentiment called "Forest So Green".

Using a blending tool, I inked around the edge of the card using the "Forest Moss" shade of Distress Oxide ink.  At this stage, I decided the card was too large, so cut it down a little so there was less border to fill.

Using the branches of the "Green Man" stamp, I multiple stamped them around the edge of the card to create a border using the Versafine Clair "Acorn" ink.

I then used two Lavinia Stamps from their "Pound Section", the "Mini Berries" were stamped in Versafine Clair "Chianti" and the "Mini Holly" was stamped in Versafine Clair "Shady Lane" ink.

Finally, I inked the edges using the "Chianti" ink.  I added some gold lines to add interest to the face using a metallic pen.  I used a white Signo pen to the eyes and to highlight areas of the berries.  I used a red Arteza Brush Ben to colour the holly berries.