Surf's Up

Kowabunga! Surfin' with the sparkle of the sun on the ocean. Lexi and her pup are out for a day of fun. This card brings a bit of sunshine into your day.

This Summery card features Kraftin' Kimmie stamps, Distress Oxide with a reverse stenciling, and Distress ink watercolouring.

Supplies

LinkDeli.com

These are not affiliate links just the products I use and where you can find them, too (if they're not retired).

Putting It Together

The idea for this project started with the background I wanted to make, a rising, or setting, sun with rays, and then I decided on a surfer in front of it.

I started with blending Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide on the Elizabeth Craft Designs soft finish cardstock. I like the soft finish for blending. It has a very subtle pebble texture which gives a really lovely look with ink blended on it. I started with a sorta half circle arc.

I added Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide in an arc over the Fosssilized Amber. After blending on the orange, I went back over the dividing line with the yellow,

I then added Worn Lipstick in the arc.

I blended more of the orange over the pink to make it more coral-y than just pink.

I added hints of blue at the top corners with Faded Jeans.

I sprayed the back of the stencil with water.

And laid it on top of the panel.

I covered the panel and stencil with a paper towel and blotted off the excess water squishing up from under the stencil. I patted the paper towel several times to make sure I had no water stilling in the non-stencil covered areas.

While the stencil was still in place, I lightly brushed on some Tarnished Brass Distress stain with a bristle dome stenciling brush brush to add a hint of sparkle.

When I removed the stencil, the areas that had been covered had reacted with the water to lift some of the ink for  lovely softened effect. One of the tricks with reverse stenciling is leaving the stencil on long enough for the water to fully react with the Oxide ink.

I immediately washed my stencil with a wet wipe to make sure I didn't accidentally contaminate a future project.

I used a heat tool to fully dry the panel.

The panel and the colours used.

I dry fit the surfer stamp for sizing.

I use the Misti to do my stamping, especially on watercolour cardstock which has a bit of textrure.

Stamping with the Misti allows me to stamp more than once when I don't get clean sharp lines on the first stamping. I stamped the image with light brown to do a 'no lines' colouring.

Starting the colouring, I figure out a few colours I know I want for the first area or two. I often start with skin and hair. I smush the Distress ink mini pads on my work surface (a smooth plastic divider sheet) as my palette. If I know for sure I will only use a small amount, I'll just tap the side rather than smushing the full pad. If I use up a smush, I can smush more in the same spot.

I use the water brush to pick up a small amount of pigment. I have a small pan with a few drops of water off to the side which I will use to just barely wet my brush if I need it. Squeezing the barrel of the brush to force water to the bristles is usually far more wet than I want. But, even without the pan to the side, the bristles are slightly damp from water continuously trickling from the barrel. If my brush gets too wet, I'll dry it on a dried up wet wipe from a previous day. When I want to clean my brush, I just use a wet wipe and will sometimes squeeze the barrel to push water from the top of the bristles.

For this project, I started by lightly wetting all of the skin areas with just plain water first. I usually start with a wetter lightest colour, but I wanted to try the darkest colour on outline, first.

After outlining in Dusty Concord, I went in with Vintage Photo and then Tea Dye.

I continued with Vintage Photo and Tea Dye until I had her skin the way I wanted. I was aiming for a more browned skin tone than just Caucasian with a tan.

When you can control the amount of wet in the brush, with a light hand you can get flicks. You can even layer one colour over another with minimal or no blending if you make sure the bottom layer is dry and your brush is not watery wet. I have to dry the small brush a lot when I am working. The gravity feed from the barrel will often get the bristles too wet. But, with a waterbrush, you don't have to have two pans of water and keep the clean water from getting contaminated.

As I work, I add more colours to the palette and scribble the notes on the scrap.

I rarely start with all the colours planned out ahead. I often will let the project I am working on 'ask' for the colours. I worried a bit about her outfit being too much like the background, but.. it felt right.

And the colouring all done. Quite the laundry list of colours even if you leave off the ones at the top for the background.

I trimmed the background panel and ended up losing most of the blue.. I only wanted a hint of background sky so that's perfect.

I fussy cut Lexi with a thin margin so the background would show behind her.

To cut away the inside areas, I used a craft knife and cutting surface.

I dry fit them on the background and was happy.

For the matting, I used a sparkly white glitter paper. I used a blending tool to add Salty Ocean to the bottom, Spiced Marmalade Oxide to the sides, and Faded Jeans Oxide to the top to continue the card into the mat.

Inside, I used the same stencil and a Clarity brush to add a little more sunshine with Fossilized Amber Oxide. Brushing up from the bottom lightly lets the rays fade as they rise.

To make sure the sun panel adhered to the glitter cardstock, I used Scor-tape.

To give the surfer some dimension, I added foam mounting tape.

I stamped a small sentiment directly on to the sun panel before putting it together and adding Lexi.

I stamped the inside sentiment with Simon Says Stamp premium dye ink. I used Duckling and Coral but discovered my stamp wasn't entirely clean from a previous use of it so there's a hint of blue in there, too. I love having the sun on the inside, too, to tie back to the front.

Challenges

Kraftin' Kimmie Krafty Krop: Challenge #3 - Sparkle
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Summer Sunshine
Fab 'n' Funky: Little Boys and Girls
Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday: Summer Icons
Kraftin' Kimmie Wonderful Wednesday: Anything Goes
Through the Craftroom Door: Anything Goes
A Bit More Time to Craft: Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner: Anything Goes