Lighthouse at Sunset – TMR 72

I am so excited to be able to announce that I am joining another design team! I was lucky enough to be picked to join The Male Room, and this is my first post for the new position. The Male Room is wonderful because it specialises in masculine cards which is something a lot of people struggle with. The prompt for this fortnight is “silhouettes” and initially I was a bit stumped as to what to do with it. I only have one stamp set with silhouettes, and that’s floral which is tricky to make masculine. (Not impossible though!) After mulling it over a bit this is what I came up with.

I started by using MFT Black Licorice Hybrid Ink to stamp the lighthouse from Crafty Ola’s Sail With Me stamp set onto some Canson Mixed Media paper. I then used my Molotow Masking pen to mask off the lighthouse, as well as to draw in and mask off a shore line coming from the lighthouse.

After letting the masking fluid dry I started on painting my sky using my Gansai Tambi watercolour paints. I started with a bright yellow across the area of the sky where the top of the lighthouse is. I then worked my way out with a deeper yellow going into orange. I knew I wanted to have purple as the final colour, but purple and orange would go muddy together so I bought in a couple of reds – one more orange in tone, and the next pinker – to help the transition.

Despite being taped down my paper warped quite a lot. (I really need to get some more actual watercolour paper!) The colours bled into eachother a bit too much, with the yellow and purple mixing in some places. I did my best to fix it as much as I could, then left it to dry. I then went over it again to build up the depth of colour and help disguise some of the areas that had bled.

Once I was happy with the colour of the sky I left it to dry completely, then removed my mask using my adhesive eraser. I then painted over the lighthouse and shore area with black paint, to create my silhouette. I’m not sure if the masking fluid slightly damaged the paper or left a residue, but the texture of the paint is slightly different in the areas it had been. As it was my first time using this product I’ll put it down to user error. I’ll have to play with it a bit more in future!

The final element to add was the sentiment. I picked one from the Creative Expressions John Lockwood Lily of the Valley stamp set and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.

I’m pretty pleased with how this turned out. It’s not perfect, but then the texture of the paint just adds to the overall look of the card. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself! I did start off with a photo as a reference, but actually ended up deviating from it quite a lot. I did consider cutting the panel down and adhering it such that there would be a white border all around, but after consulting with husband I decided to leave it as a one layer card.

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

Daring Cardmakers – City Girl/Country Girl

HLS Watercolour Challenge – Anything Goes

Lil Patch of Crafty Friends – Anything Goes

The Male Room – Silhouette

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Check out what the rest of the DT made:

Andreja

Cathy

Chris

Deborah

Faith

Lady Joyful (that’s me!)

Monika

Rocky

Shawna