Arctic Seals

Just a quick hi and a winter-inspired card. I have a pile of work to do today! LOL

Card is jumbo! 6 /1/2" x 7 1/4"

The colors in the scan are a bit off, but you get the idea. Some things you can only see irl: there is a "pool" of water in front of the seals (Stamp Affair) made by using Judi-Kins Diamond Glaze, which dries 3D and clear (mine is a bit yellowed here :o( Also, I stamped the seals on textured paper, made by rubbing cs over a table edge repeatedly to break up fibers, and then picking at the corner to peel into two layers. This provides a fuzzy, suede type finish. (thanks Beate's blog Fresh & Fun under the Leather post for this cool technique!)

I started by doing two Watercolor Distress backgrounds, one in Weathered Wood, and one in WW and Walnut Stain. On the blue-only one I stamped the mountain range (Cowtown) in Staz-On Stone Grey and highlighted it with a Sakura Gelly Roll sparkle pen. It looked too stark so I ran a white pencil over the lines.

I stamped the seals in Staz-On Timber Brown and trimmed them out. I colored them in lightly with pencils for definition, and then pop-dotted them onto the bkgd (I had stamped just the head of the large one on first, so I wouldn't have to trim whiskers out.) It looked too plain so I stamped the sun (Stampin' Up Scenery Set), the birds and water (Just For Fun) in the WW.

I applied khaki photo corners to the main panel, and then adhered the layers as shown. The darkest layer is brown and not black like it appears.

Thanks for looking!