Lavinia Stamps March 2020 Creative Challenge "A Forest Gathering"

On the first of every month, Lavinia Stamps announce a new theme for their "Creative Challenge" which runs from the 1st to the 25th of each month.  The theme for March 2020 is "A Forest Gathering".

You can enter the challenge up to five times a month.  If your name is randomly drawn after the 25th you will win £40 of vouchers to spend on lovely Lavinia goodies.

This is a sample I made for the challenge.  I started by creating the background sky and ground base using three shades of Distress Oxide Inks:  Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Twisted Citron.  I masked a circle off for the moon and darkened the edges by using Versafine Clain "Morning Mist" lightly around the edge.  I added a little touch of yellow to the middle of the moon too.

I then started to stamp the images.  The first ones were the "Celestial Tree" and the "Skeleton Tree Scene" stamped in Versafine Clair "Morning Mist" grey shade of ink.

I then stamped the large tree trunk on the left hand side using the "Tree Root" stamp stamped in Versafine Clair "Acorn", a mid brown coloured ink.  I needed to extend the tree trunk so had to mask areas several times to get the look I wanted to achieve.

Using the same brown ink, I stamped the "Tree Branch" a couple of times. I then used a selection of Distress Oxide Ink colours to paint the tree (Gathered Twigs, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso).

I decided to add a little stream running from behind the tree to the right hand corner.  I used three shades of Distress Oxide Inks to create this:  Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Stormy Sky.  

I added darker green for grass on the river bank using "Mowed Lawn" Distress Oxide with a paint brush to create tufts of grass. I also added touches of "Stormy Sky" to the top and side of the sky area to pull the eye into the image.

Next I moved on to stamping the animals, starting with one of the crows from "The Crow Set" using Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink.

Using Versafine Clair "Pine Cone" a darker brown coloured ink, I stamped the animals in the foreground "Whimsical Hares", "Pipin" and the hedgehog part of "The Wallace Family".

I then used Versafine Clair "Shady Lane" to stamp the "Meadow Grass" at the bottom of the image.  I stamped the "Mini Slender Mushrooms" in Versafine Clair "Pinecone" ink.

Finally, I added touches of white to highlight areas using a white Posca Pen.  I used a green fine line pen to add long tufts of grass too.