Tall Ship Birthday

Hi everyone.  I recently got the latest Creative Stamping Magazine with the Message in a Bottle set of stamps and a stencil with waves, hearts and shells, and made this masculine card with them for a family birthday using the waves on the stencil and the sailing ship, shells and starfish, but there are also some bottles in which you can place different images and lots of other sea related ones and also some flowers for more feminine cards.

I started with the background using Turquoise and Ultramarine Brushos and Peacock Pixie Powder sprinkled on to my glass mat and spritzed with water before laying the stencil card over and moving it around to cover it.  I then added the stencilled waves using Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink added to the card applied with a blending tool.

I then inked up the tall ship stamp using Versafine Deep Lagoon ink on to a stitched die cut circle and ink blended the clouds with the ink left on the blending sponge using a small cloud mask I made myself, and then added the water with a bit of the Deep Lagoon ink and also coloured the hull of the boat with it, sponging very carefully.  I also added the little birds in the sky with the inked end of a pokey tool.   I then stamped the different shells from the stamp set again using the Versafine Deep Lagoon ink and fussy cut them out, and gave them some soft colour with the inked blending sponge before adding them around the left hand edge of the circle.  It is amazing how far the residue ink on the sponge goes.

I finished by adding the 'Happy Birthday' from the set on to the banner which actually comes with a different sentiment on it, but I inked just the banner and in order to fit the birthday sentiment on to  it I inked and extended the straight edges to the length I needed and then added the end pieces.  I wasn't sure this would work as I did it with an acrylic block but luckily it was more or less OK and a bit of ink blended over the top hid most of the imperfections.  I then added this all on to my 6" square white card as you can see.  

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope to see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers May Stencil Challenge - Anything Goes.
Addicted to Stamps and More Challenge - No. 404 Any Occasion.
NBUS Challenge - No. 26 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.
Cardz 4 Guyz Challenge - No. 270 Monochromatic.
The Male Room Challenge - No. 150 Water/Beach.