Stag in the Morning Mist by Leanne Harris
Hello, I’m Leanne Harris, and as this month’s guest designer I’d like to share with you this step by step tutorial. Creating a misty scene is actually quite a simple process and any stamping errors can easily be disguised with your mist.
So, here we go…

The Steps in Creating the Card
(click on the first image to view as a slideshow)
- Starting off with two pan pastel colours (Titanium White and Hansa Yellow) on black card stock I made a moon by just swirling the pastels around with a rectangular sponge within the Lavinia large moon mask giving myself a gentle white hue around the outer edge.
- Using the Lavinia acetate hill mask, I laid it on and brushed over it with the white pan pastel and same rectangular sponge to form the first of my hills.
- Here you can see the first of the hills having gone on
- Stamp the stag stamp in Versafine Nocturne in the centre of your moon, don’t worry if it isn’t perfect, you can always touch it in with a black pen/pastel pencil/black ink - I had to with this one!
- Now, I didn’t want my stag floating so I had to ground him so with some torn paper I just laid it under his feet and swept the white pan pastel over again with a little of the yellow pan pastel for a glow from the moon - now he is nicely grounded.
- The next step is to add the two trees either side , I’ve used the Tree of Hope stamp and the Tree of Courage stamp as they balance the design beautifully.
- In comes the Lavinia Red Pine large stamp, I have made the pines at the front dark and used second generation stamping to put some of the pines in to the background (the blacker they appear, the nearer they appear to you).
- At this stage, I felt that I needed a little bit more in the foreground down at the front so I added a couple more hills with my torn paper and white pan pastel.
- Now the stag needed a friend so I’ve stamped Rufus in Versafine Nocturne down in the right corner, again, don’t panic if the stamping isn’t perfect when it’s over pastel, just fill it in with a black pastel or charcoal pencil, black pen or black ink.
- Lavinia’s Small Branch stamp gave me some lovely foliage down at the front.
- The Stag and Rufus were given some more friends by way of Lavinia’s Wild Hares stamp set either side of the stag, again stamped in Versafine Nocturne.
- Now for the exciting bit and the need for a bit of atmosphere and morning mist! Now don’t be shy, it will feel a bit daunting going over your beautiful artwork but if we need mist, we need mist!!!! So, I have used a little white pigment ink with a small make up sponge (any smooth sponge would do) and I’ve covered the low ground making sure that I covered all the animals’ lower bodies. You can do this with the same pan pastels, but I needed the effect to stick and adhere well as I knew that this card would be travelling. Now we have atmosphere. Do you notice, some of my black Versafine Nocturne stamping of the small branches at the front, caught the white pigment ink and turned them white - this was quite a happy accident, and I loved the effect.
- The final thing to do was to add my birds in the sky which are the Lavinia Birds stamp and the Secrets are Hidden Lavinia sentiment stamp and your project is complete.
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial, and maybe have a go yourself.
Stay safe and well.
Leanne