Sailing Home Lighthouse Masculine Card

 Well we woke to a white rape seed crop in the field behind our house but a beautiful scene.  It's melting now as the sun is shining, but still a bit chilly. 

Today I'm sharing a masculine birthday card, one of those we all seem to struggle with.  I've used the ever popular Sailing Home stamp set and Smooth Sailing dies.  I'm so pleased that the stamps and dies will continue to be in the popular list as they are making an appearance for another year in our new annual catalogue next month.  

I kept the colour palette very simple starting with a piece of designer series paper, yes it is and it created the perfect background for all these images and die cuts.  I stamped the compass directly onto the paper but everything else is die cut and stamped.  To colour the lighthouse and anchor I used a blender pen to drag the colour in from the image outline.  It allows you to create light and shade really easily and if I can manage it, it clearly doesn't need too much skill!!  Looks effective though don't you think?

I've also added a gilded leafing border and a stampin dimensional to the compass with gilded leafing to just make it all stand out and regular visitors know I love a bit of bling.  To add the leafing I used tear and tape and then added the gold. I didn't want it quite as wide as the tear and tape so cut off half the width of each border and used them on another card.  We don't want too much bling for the chaps. 

Stamping onto your patterned papers can create a whole new effect for you and also get you using those papers that we all stroke for too long fearful of wasting the sheet.  Go and have a go you know you want to.....

Hope you have a great week. 

Zoe x

Sailing Home 

Smooth Sailing Dies

In Good Taste DSP

Moonlight Sailing

I was playing with ink and sponging and remembered vaguely that I had seen an article, I think in Craft Stamper, about leaving a narrow line to create a difference in texture.  I'm really pleased how this turned out for a first attempt.  

I masked with low tack tape a square on my piece of shimmery white card stock. The shimmery card stock helps with the misty moonlight effect although I've struggled to photograph it for you to see clearly.   I then added a piece of the same tape across the square to separate the sky from what became the sea.    I stamped the boat and used an almost dry aqua painter to draw in colour from the outline of the boat to add colour to the sails and boat hull.  I masked the boat having cut out a thin paper mask to cover the sails and boat but didn't worry about the ropes  being there as in navy they were strong enough to appear through the sponging I was about to add.  Using sponges I gently added colour to give a sultry sky having used a paper circle mask for the moon also.  Once I was happy with the colour blending I removed the moon mask and did a very, very gentle swipe of colour over the moon to keep the misty haze consistent with the rest of the sky.  

Now I moved the horizontal line of low tack tape and put it along the bottom of the sky plus a smidge extra to give a very very narrow line for the distinction between the sky and sea. I'd positioned my boat just about right before any sponging although it could be a little lower. 

For the sea I did the same process of adding different colours with sponges.  I also used a mask from the Basic Pattern Decorative Masks collection from the Stampin' Up! winter catalogue.   I sponged ink through the mask in a random fashion of light and darker depth.  I then used some water splatter to lift some colour to add to the effect of the sea.  To do this I sprayed some water into the palm of my hand and clapped over the inking. I let the droplets sit for a few seconds before drying with paper towel. 

The final touch was to stamp the birds and sentiment again in Night of Navy ink directly onto the design before adding a narrow Night of Navy matt layer and then position the design onto a  Grey Granite card base.  

It makes a card just right for masculine birthdays and more. 

Thanks for popping by. 

Cheers Zoe x

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