Birthday Pirates

I enjoy making one layer cards but don’t actually do them all that often. (Although my last one was only a little over a week ago, which isn’t that long!) As I’ve been really enjoying colouring lately I decided to combine the two to make this sweet but simple scene card. I tried to keep the colours a bit more masculine as I was imagining this as a card for a little boy, though it would work well enough for a girl too.

I started by stamping the boy and girl pirates from Lawn Fawn’s Ahoy Matey stamp set. I stamped them directly onto my card base using MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink. I then stamped them again onto a post-it note, fussy cut them, and adhered them over the images on my card base to mask them off. I then did the same with the parrot. Finally I stamped the treasure chest and then removed the masks. Before putting my MISTI away I lined up my sentiment, from the same set, and stamped it just below my images.

Next I started on colouring my images. I used Yosoo alcohol markers for my colouring and started with my E markers to first colour the skin of the pirates. I then used the same markers to colour the wood of the chest and pegleg, and the hair of the pirates. (I also bought in a red shade called light mahogany for the girl’s hair.) As I was using the same four colours for each of the different areas I made sure to take care to vary the amount and combinations of the different shades to help differentiate them.

Next I pulled out my yellow to colour the rest of the chest as well as the pile of gold coins.

I then started on colouring the clothes of the pirates. I used my favourite blue-green combination for the girl’s sash and headscarf as well as the boy’s shirt. I then used some yellow greens for her dress and his trousers. I wasn’t sure what colour to do his vest but (after consulting husband for a second opinion!) eventually decided to use the same yellows I had used on the chest and coins, but keeping it a bit duller than they are.

I used my cool greys to colour all the shoes and the boy’s hat. I then used a little yellow grey to add shading to the white areas on the head scarf and the skull and crossbones.

Finally I coloured the parrot. I decided to pull in some of the colours I had already used to keep everything cohesive. I used my brightest yellow on the beak and stomach of the parrot, then blended it through to my lightest yellow-green, and finally the mid-tone of the blue-greens I had used.

At this point I realised I wanted to add a little something extra to ground my scene. I decided I would do some ink blending. I don’t have any inks that are really the right shade to use for sand, but I remembered that the Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink that I have can give a yellow look when applied very lightly. So that’s what I did. I reapplied the masks to the pirates, and used a strip of post-it tape to give myself a straight line. I also used a little post-it tape to roughly mask of the chest as I hadn’t created a mask for it. I then inked up my ink blending tool with the Spiced Marmalade ink, blotted most of the ink off onto some scratch paper, then very lightly blended it onto my card base until I was happy with it. The result is very subtle, but just enough to add some grounding.

As a final touch I applied some glitter to the coins with clear Wink of Stella.

I really had fun creating this little scene. It’s simple but I think it worked out nicely, and the masking helps add depth to it. Part of me feels like the card still needs something more but I’m not quite sure what.

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

Addicted to Stamps and More – Clean and Simple

CAS On Friday – Color Me Pretty: Use Pencils or Markers

Lawn Fawnatics – Create A Scene

Less Is More – One Layer Card and Colouring In

The Male Room – Masculine and Masking

P.S., you can now follow me on Instagram where you can get sneaky peeks at what I’m working on, and maybe even the occasional cat picture! And of course you can still find me on Facebook and YouTube!