An interesting and unique card front

I took Wendy Vecchi's art journal class last Saturday at The Scrapbooking Studio in Bloomington, IL.  It was a lot of fun to create the covers and pages using her Art Parts, stencils and stamps.  One of the top tips I learned was how to not fear the blank page.  Don't you just hate looking at that naked page and try to figure out what you're going to do?  Enter Wendy's advice...just get some base color(s) on it first then let the page speak to you.

Using Ranger's Specialty Paper (oh my gosh, this stuff is totally amazing!!!) I misted it then applied distress stain.  I pressed another sheet onto it...two pages for the effort of 1!  I don't remember the order I did things but here's what I used on my card front.  Studio 490 stamp sets (Original Art and 3 Cheers For Art), stencils (Dots & Stripes Borders, Large Heart, Funky Words, Brick Wall).  The tree was stamped in Jet Black Archival Ink.  Too many distress inks and markers were used for me to remember them - sorry!  A white Sharpie was used as well as a water soluble graphite pencil by General.  We used a Stabilo graphite pencil in class but this is what I found in a local big box store and wanted to compare them.

I sure wish I knew how I created the depth of light on that tree.  I bet that won't happen again any time soon.  Everything about this card front pleases me.  A big 'thank you' to the creative gods who were sitting on my shoulders while this came together!