Beach Day | CAS Card

I have cards planned for pretty much every day this month. Do I have them made yet? No. Do I at least make them with plenty of time to spare on the day I want them to be going live? Also no. I just got finished with making and photographing this one, and it is (as I start writing this) now 11PM… I definitely need to get better about that!

In any case, I wanted to make a summery card with Lawn Fawn stamps today, following a particular sketch. I started by thinking about what stamps I could use to create a scene, then cut down a panel of X-Press It Blending Card to make my focal panel. Based on the sketch I wanted to use, the square needed to be tilted on its side, so I did that and then worked out how I wanted my stamps laid out.

After deciding the layout I placed the square into my MISTI and started on my stamping. I first stamped one of the little bears from Lawn Fawn’s Den Sweet Den with MFT Black Hybrid ink. I then masked the bear off and added a sandcastle for the bear to be building. The sandcastle is actually the little mountain stamp from Lawn Fawn’s Ahoy Matey, as is the palm tree stamp that I added in the background.

With everything stamped out I removed the mask from the bear, placing it into the stamp pocket for future use. I then got started on my colouring using my Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers.

I began by laying in my sand area, using the lightest shade which is the LY1. I then worked from darkest to lightest, putting in the shadows and fading them out. Once all the colour was laid down I switched back to the darkest, GB9, and started adding texture to my sand by stippling. I again worked darkest to lightest, and I stippled the darkest colours mostly in the shadow areas, with just a few dots spreading to the lighter areas of sand. I also tried to put a slightly darker area along the waterline where the sand would be wet.

Sand – GB9, GB7, GB4, GB2, LY1

Sea – BT7, BT5, BT1

Sky – IB1

Trees – EB7, EB4, EB1

Leaves – YG3, DG3, DG2

Bear – EB7, GB9, EB4, GB7, EB1, GB4, GB2

Next up was the sea. I used rough, sketchy lines to add the colour, letting the brush nib skip off the paper sometimes to try and give the impression of lots of highlights on the sea. I’m not entirely happy with how it turned out, but it does somewhat give the look I was going for so it will do! The sky was just one colour, which I quickly laid in after doing the sea.

Moving on I coloured the tree trunks and coconuts with a combination of Earth Browns. I wanted to have fairly strong highlights on the light side, because I’m imagining a very sunny beach day. For the leaves I wanted to go quite dark and usually I would use all Dull Greens but I switched things up by using my darkest Yellow Green for my darkest colour, which I felt added more contrast.

Rather than bringing in any new colours to the card I used a combination of both the previous browns for colouring my bear. Combining the Golden Browns with the Earth Browns allowed the bear’s colour to tie in with the rest whilst still being nicely differentiated.

The final touch for my image was some white gel pen. I stippled it into my sand, concentrating it mostly in the lighter areas, though with a little in the darker areas as well. I also added some highlights to the sea, the palm leaves, and the bear’s nose and eye.

I wanted to mount my image onto some Lawn Fawn gingham patterned paper I had sitting around. (I believe the paper is retired, but Lawn Fawn does have a Gingham Backdrops stamp set that could be used to make your own.) I had a few colours to chose from, and asked for my husband’s opinion. He liked the pinky-red version best with the image, which surprised me as I hadn’t used any colours like that in my colouring. But I decided to go ahead and use it. I cut the patterned paper a little larger than my focal panel, then used my We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper to round the corners on both pieces.

I found a white card base to use for this project, and positioned the panels onto it so that I could work out about adding my sentiment. After some consideration I partially stamped a sentiment from Lawn Fawn’s Critter Concert stamp set, masking off the “hope you” from the beginning of it. I positioned it so that it would be going along the edge of the square panel, and stamped with Distress Ink in Victorian Velvet, which I chose because I thought it would tie in the colour of the gingham a bit more.

Finally I adhered the gingham square onto the card base with double sided tape. I then used more double sided tape to adhere the image panel onto a piece of chipboard for dimension, and adhered that onto the gingham panel, completing my card.

I am quite pleased with how this turned out! The little bear is so cute, and seems to be enjoying the sunny day at the beach. I also think that my husband’s colour choice for the gingham paper was a good one. Like I said, it surprised me at the time, and it wasn’t what I would have chosen, but I think it worked out really nicely.

Love,

Charlotte E (Lady Joyful) Email thejoyfulsoulcreates@gmail.com

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Challenges:

CAS Colours and Sketches – Sketch

Craftyhazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge – Patterned Paper

Double D Challenges – Summer Gingham

Krafty Chicks Challenge – CAS

Lawn Fawnatics – Summertime Fun

Simon Says Stamp Monday – Lazy Days of Summer

TGIF Challenge – Vacation Vibes