Crafty Secrets....By The Sea

First things first: Marianne from Copic now has a BLOG! If you love Copics like I do, you should be jumping up and down in your seat! Marianne is the Product Specialist for Copic. What's that mean to us? Wellllllll, Marianne is going to answer all those trouble shooting questions we have and show us technique based posts so that we can continue to learn how to utilize our Copic markers. I would definitely visit her site, tell her I sent you and sign up for the email notifications. Congratulations Marianne, you're now a BLOGGER!! Also, I will be joining Marianne this summer at CHA in the Copic booth. So be sure to stop by say hi, ask questions and see lots of Copic coloring demos. I can't wait!

Okay now to today's card. I've been wanting to use one of the new Crafty Secrets stamp sets called By the Sea which can be purchased HERE. It's the perfect little beach set and I think it's just darling. I grabbed a bunch of Copic markers and colored my image then die cut it with a rectangle Spellbinder's Nestabilities Die Template.

When I'm coloring backgrounds like sand or sky, I don't color them in solid like what you see at the bottom of my scratch paper. I use very loose, sketchy strokes leaving some white space like what you see at the top of my scratch paper. By layering in these backgrounds very loosely, you give the indication of sky, sand, grass, etc.....without having to be a great rendering artist.
My colored image had some pretty stark white areas left once I cut it with my rectangle die. So I decided to add some airbrushing with the sky and sand colors to even out the colors a bit. It's hard to see in this photo but while the die template was still in place, I airbrushed some of the sky blue onto the top half of the colored image. I didn't really use that scrap piece of paper because I didn't want that stark line....I just layed it there so you could see the division line that I used.
Then I did the same thing with the sand color. I airbrushed some of the white space all along the sand area to blend out some of the color.
I then removed my die template and was ready to assemble my card. I reached for the patterned papers I created in yesterday's post. I decided to use the giant polka dots, the stripes and the ticking plaid. These three designs really remind me of fabrics and that you would see on beach chairs and in little beach side cottages. Paired with the crisp white, I thought they'd work nicely with my beach theme.
While picking out my card design from my sketch book, I added some Glossy Accents to the water and let it dry.

Here's my finished card. I paired the three patterns with Papertrey Berry Sorbet cardstock and twill ribbon. The twill ribbon reminded me of fabric on beach chairs and pillows.
I had so much making this first creation with my new hand stamped patterned paper. I think this card will be perfect for the girls to send to my inlaws.....they have an awesome pool and we spend a lot of time there during the summer. No sandy beaches for us though, we're smack dab in the middle of the USA!

Stay tuned for more to come with the patterned paper. Have a great day my blogging friends!