Midnight Encounters

6"x4" foam board cut out w/trace paper backing, prismacolor marker

Hrm...haven't posted anything for a while...Suppose my nearly non-existent audience deserves a few new posts for a new year.

I made this for my mom's birthday. My mom is a difficult lady to find a gift for..not to mention having to send whatever I got her via mail would probably be pricey. Being hundreds of miles North and with little to no budget (yeah, college!) I opted for a more affordable gift idea.

Now, who doesn't love homemade gifts, made with love, sweat, and tears...Hey, don't judge. Gift making can get emotional when you're running out of time, ideas, and patience..lol. Luckily, I took my mom's interest in wolves and put it into a light weight card.

Of course, this was going to take a little bit of research. First, I needed an image of a wolf in some kind of pose to draw from. I found an image of a wolf howling and used it as help to create my scene. Did the same with the landscape. I found a few images of a desert and meshed ideas. The research and drawing was the easy part. Carving the image out was more difficult, because I wanted that crisp cut. Yes, I used an exacto knife. However, This foam board was giving me some difficulty. Especially when it came to cutting out the cactus. Hrm...I suppose the fuzzy edges add character :).

Cut and pasted the trace paper onto the back, added some color and blending AND vuola, Magnifico! Packed it, sent it (with a b-day card), stamped it and off it went.

She called me a few days later to tell me she got it and loved it. Of course, she may have just said that she loved it because she's my mom and loves me ;p.