Happy Wednesday Dare 2B Artzy fans, it’s Tonya. Hope everyone’s having a great day! I’m super excited to get to share a card today that features a brand new stamp set from Dare 2B Artzy! This set is called Shine on Lighthouse and I love it.
I love lighthouses so I was really excited when Cindy shared the sneak peeks of the new stamp line with the Design Team and it included lighthouses. Immediately the little squeaky wheels inside my brain started churning, LOL!
To create this fun card I started off with a panel of white cardstock that was about 5 x 7. I took a ruler and drew a faint pencil line which would be my horizon line for my background.
I started off with several ink pads in shades of blue and blue green and started gently sponging on what would be water. I tried to create depth by using the various shades to make it look like water. I used a larger panel of cardstock to begin with because I find that when I’m sponging on inks, I can tend to get round “sponge-looking” images if I’m not careful. With the larger panel that gave me lots of surface area to color and then I could easily cut down the sections that I didn’t like.
I deliberately left an area to the left of the cardstock white because I knew I’d be putting my lighthouse on a strip of land/beach. When I was satisfied with my water, I started sponging on a couple of shades of brown and tan ink. I went for a nice even base of color and carefully blended out to the edge of the water to make it look like a shoreline. When I was finished sponging, I used my Copic markers and dotted on some texture to make it look more like a beach or shore.
Next stop was creating a sunset/sunrise – depending in which you prefer. Personally, I love watching a good sunset over the ocean or lake. They’re just stunning. Living in a land-locked state like Colorado we don’t get enough time on the water.
To create my sunset, I used a sunset distress stencil that I had. I carefully placed it so that it lined up on the horizon line. Of course it wouldn’t match perfectly because there is about a ¼ inch border around the stencil, but I had a plan for that also. I was just going for alignment to make sure it was straight. Once I was satisfied with placement I taped it in place using a roll of 3M Post It Tape. Many times it’s my go-to masking tape for holding things in place temporarily and it doesn’t leave a sticky residue on your cards and it removes really easily.
With everything taped down, I once again sponged in my sunset using some yellow, orange and a hint of salmon pink. The colors look so pretty together. I carefully removed the stencil to make sure I’d gotten an even coverage. Next, I used a light blue ink and sponged in the white spaces left by the stencil to give the sky a hint of blue. I didn’t take the blue all the way back down towards the center, but rather picked a lighter shade of yellow and gently sponged it out to meet the blue – being careful not to overlap too much for fear of a green sky. I also sponged a little of the yellow along my ¼ inch border that was left from the stencil. That would give the appearance that the sunset and water line were meeting at the horizon.
The distress stencil doesn’t really have a clearly defined sun, so I made one which actually ended up giving the card more dimension. I die cut a circle with some white cardstock then cut it – not quite in half. I sponged it with some darker yellow and a small amount of orange and then glued it in place over where the center of my sunset stencil would be.
Since I still had my full 5 x 7 panel at this point, I decided to cut it down. I used a stitched square die and cut the panel down to a square that is about 4 ¾ x 4 ¾ – it cut off one end of my sun but I thought that made it a bit more interesting.
With my background done I was finally able to stamp and color my lighthouse. I stamped it onto some white cardstock and colored it with my Copics. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a colored lighthouse. I’ve only seen a few on the coast of North Carolina and they were all black and white. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but for this card we needed some color. I chose red and teal with a hint of gray trim and then a couple of brown shades for the rocks beneath the lighthouse. Once it was colored, I fussy cut it out, added some dimensional foam and placed it over the beach/shore I’d sponged on next to the water.
Once my lighthouse was in place on the background, I also used the little bird silhouette stamps flying off into the sunset just above the lighthouse.
For the sentiment I used some Versamark ink and heat embossed the Shine On sentiment with some shimmery teal embossing powder. It was really pretty. I love it when an embossing power surprises you with its shimmer.
I die cut the sentiment with a fishtail flag and lightly sponged on some green/blue ink and placed it onto the card with some dimensional foam.
For a finishing touch, I used some clear Wink of Stella in the water to give it a bit of shimmer and also on the lighthouse light and window.
I added two more layered panels to my card and then placed everything onto some Kraft cardstock.
I love how this whole card came together. It really makes me want to head to the ocean and seen a sunset again soon.
I hope you found this card inspiring – even if it’s just inspiring you to visit the nearest body of water and relax this summer. Maybe relax while playing with one or two of these new Dare 2B Artzy stamp sets that have just been released. Check out the Dare 2B Artzy store for all the latest stamps.
Have a wonderfully crafty week!
Tonya
