Sailing Away

I was inspired by a few challenges today, and for this project it was easy to combine three of them in one.  Friday Mash Up this week challenged to use dry embossing with a sketch challenge; Crazy for Challenges had a male themed challenge; and Our Creative Corner's challenge this week was to use Real Red, Basic Gray and Basic Black. 

I have made this card for my dad for Father's Day this weekend, the choice of stamp was so easy.  Why? Because when I was just 2 years old my parents bought a yacht called "Spindrift" and it became my home for the next 5 years, even after that we used to go sailing for holidays, sometimes long holidays and I would have to do correspondence school.  It was only a few years ago that my parents made the decision to sell her, and while she is no longer part of our life, the sea and ocean definitely is.  The colour challenge this week just seemed perfect for a masculine card, and of course, the sketch gave me the inspiration I needed.  I have sneakily added the dry embossing in the form of the crimped DSP.

Stamps: Sail Away, Whimsical Words
Paper: Basic Black, Basic Gray, Real Red, Neutrals DSP Stack
Ink: Basic Black, Basic Gray and Real Red
Technique: I used the scallop circle punch to make a template for the clouds in the sky and sponged them with a combination of Real Red and Basic Gray.

Happy Stamping

My Convention Swaps ..... Part 3

Final post while I am at Convention, my final swap for the event another masculine card, but this time with a slightly different feel ...

This one also uses Sail Away. I knew I wanted to use the Polished Stone technique to make the ocean for this card, the photo doesn't do justice to the technique.  Polished Stone is achieved by putting some rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball, then dropping different colours of re-inker onto the ball. In this case I used Pacific Point and Tempting Turquoise, and then just a small amount of Platinum Shimmer Paint. Then you dab this onto your cardstock, Glossy cardstock works best as the ink doesn't immediately absorb and sort of blurs together.  I found through trial and error and advice from others, if you use too much alcohol the colours dull a little.  Cardstock is Basic Black and Pacific Point.  I have used one of the Teeny Tiny Sentiments on this card, it would be very easy to change this to suit the occasion.

Happy Stamping

Friday Mashup #6

It's mash-up time again with the new challenge from Friday Mash Up.  This week the challenge is all about Monochromatic Man!

You can do one of three things for this

1. Make a card using a monochrome colour scheme - different shades of the same colour, or neutrals with one colour.
2. Make a masculine card
3. Mash the two together and make a masculine card using a monochromatic colour scheme

As usual I have done the Mash Up.  This is a fancy fold card, we made one of these on the online class on Crafters Anonymous on Monday night and the inspiration struck me to use it for this week's challenge.  I have used the lovely Sail Away stamp.  You can see I have used water colouring in shades of blues for the water, highlighting the waves in different colours. 

This is a side view of the fancy fold card, my up-line, and Design Team member also showed this to me when she last came to visit.  I altered the dimensions of this slightly, just so that it would better fit with the Sail Away stamp.  I hope you don't get sick of this one, as you will see it a bit on my blog over Convention weekend.  If you have a look at my swaps both of them also fit the Monochromatic Man criteria!!!!  What a fluke that was, I hope you can get some inspiration from one of these!

Don't forget to check out the rest of the Design Team's creations at The Friday Mashup and the other entries in this week's challenge.  Don't forget to show a little love when you visit blogs, let them know how much you like their designs by leaving them a comment.

Happy Stamping

My Convention Swaps .... Part 2

Another pre-scheduled post, it is the second day of Convention and I am sure I am having a great time!  As promised here is the second of the three swaps I made.  This time it is a card front - with swaps you don't make the whole card, just the front of one.  Swaps are primarily to share ideas amongst each other.  I like showing the swaps I get off at workshops I do, it lets my customers see styles that are different from my own, and also at times are made with stamp sets or accessories I don't own (yet).

This card uses the a la carte stamp "Sail Away".  I love these stamps because they are single stamps that stand alone really well, and are a great way to get something in a new theme.  For me masculine cards are a bit of a challenge, I think they are for most of us.  When I saw Sail Away I just knew it was for me, and knew I wanted to make a Convention swap with it.  This layout came to me one afternoon when I was waking up from a nana nap!  I have used the Newsprint DSP and mounted the images on Not Quite Navy cardstock, I love the way the circle matches the shape of the sails on the yacht.  The card needed a little something to "finish" this so I used three eyelets to give it that little something. I purposefully left a sentiment off this card, leaving it free to be birthday, father's day, or even a retirement card.

Pop back tomorrow for a look at my final swap .... it too uses Sail Away

Happy Stamping