Just Chilling

Hi there everybody.  It was my DH's birthday a few days ago, on Tuesday actually, and I recently bought some stamp sets from Sheena Douglass and one of them was this image from a set called Just Chilling which I thought was quite atmospheric and which he would like.

I started by stamping the image on to a roughly 6" square piece of white card using Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then heat embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss Embossing Powder.  I then set to work colouring it with my Brushos but using them more like paint with a waterbrush, and then I think I added some more colours into it with some of my Distress Inks too, so a bit of a hotch potch to get the result I wanted.  When I was happy and it was dry I added the birds using Versafine Smokey Grey ink and heat set again using WOW Clear Gloss EP.

I finished by adding a black mat before mounting it on to my 7" square white base card.  I then added the sentiment using my Misti and the Smokey Grey ink heat set with the Clear Gloss EP.  I did go over the stamp several times to darken it and the embossing always makes it look darker.

I don't know if I overinked the stamp and the Distress Inks always give a less defined finish to the stamping, but it did seem overly dark and dense but maybe next time I'll try using Archival or Versafine ink.  I only used the Walnut Stain as it was more the colour I wanted to represent its decaying state.

As soon as I saw this stamp it reminded me of a poem called Cargoes which I learned at school written in 1902 by a British poet called John Masefield and if you are interested the whole poem is here.  Although this is nothing like the size or shape of a cargo vessel, just the look of this rusting hulk brought the last verse to mind.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.

I hope I haven't made you all drop off with boredom...lol, and I promise I won't be going all poetic on every post.

Thank you for dropping by today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Cardz 4 Guys Challenge - No 173 Beside the Sea.
Simon Says Monday Challenge - Distress It (it icludes the use of Distress Inks).
Penny Black and More Challenge - For the Boys.