Seal On The Beach

Unless I’m misinformed, today is International Day of the Seal. As I do have a seal stamp I decided I would make a card featuring it, in honour of the day. I had a rough idea of the scene I wanted to create, but lacked the stamps for making it. In the end I decided to draw it myself! A bit out of my comfort zone, but I do think it is good to push my limits from time to time.

I started by stamping out the seal and his accessories. The seal is from Paper Smooches’ Chilly Chums, and the accessories are from Chubby Chums Pals. I knew I was going to go for a no-line look, so I used a pale Distress Ink with the idea that the line would melt away as I watercoloured the image. I didn’t bother with masking for the accessories because as I said, the line wasn’t going to show.

Next I lightly drew in the elements I wanted to use. I traced the curve of a die to create my waterline, and used a rule to draw in the horizon. The palm tree was a bit more difficult but after a few tries I managed to get it to work to the way I liked it.

With all the elements drawn in I started colouring everything with my watercolour pencils and blending it out. I did several layers of colour to get it to be as bold as I wanted it. With the water I added in “waves” – different stripes of varying blue shades to give a more dynamic look. Likewise I used flicked in lines for the fronds of my palm leaf to make it more dimensional. I used Wink of Stella for my blending which added a subtle shimmer to the whole card.

Once all the colouring was finished I added a simple sentiment from the Chilly Chums set. I then trimmed the panel down slightly and adhered it using my tape runner to a dark blue card base.

This card took quite a while to make as you can probably imagine! I was planning on making two cards today but just did not have the time. In any case, I am really rather pleased with how this turned out. I’m not very confident with drawing in my own elements on cards, but it worked out really well this time!

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

Addicted to CAS – Seaside

Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge – Anything Goes

Paper Smooches – Green

Seven Hills Crafts – Tic Tac Toe (I did animals/watercolour/bold shades. The stamp sets I used are available in the SHC store.)