Tropical Sun

The first stamping magazine I ever picked up and browsed through was a RubberStampMadness, and I fell in love with scenic stamping.

I know a lot of collage and abstract has taken over as far as trends go, but I still can't resist plain old scenic stamping once in a while. This card is to all of us freezing in the snow and cold today - take a mental break and you can almost feel the sun and hear the birds calling over the water :o)

Now I made this card at the end of last winter and sent it out so it's not available for the drawing, and I don't remember the exact ink colors or brands I used so I'm going to be a little more generic in my terms than usual (though probably no less wordy, unfortunately! Never learned the fine art of putting things in a nutshell apparently LOL)

I started by stamping the gal on the towel image (Viva Las Vegastamps) two times on a scrap of white cs, and once on a scrap of beige. I colored the towel on one white image and the hat on the other. I trimmed the hat out closely and the body with swim suit from the biege stamping and layered them on the image with the colored towel, which I had already trimmed.

*tip*

You could certainly just stamp once on white cs and color it all in - I can't remember why I did it this way but I'm sure I had a good reason LOL

I opened up a gold jump-ring and attached it around her right wrist.

For the background I did the black silhouette stamping last, the sun, and footprints in sand next to last. So picture a blank piece of white card stock. I laid out my inkpads open, grabbed some of those round yellow airy synthetic sponges...

*tip*

Cut these round yellow sponges into quarters (it'll look like pie pieces - yep, always thinking about food! LOL) Then use just one color family per wedge, always inking the rounded edge for soft blending. I keep all of mine in an open basket as I use them quite a bit for sponging the edges of panels. You want to throw them all in a sink full of soapy water and then rinse once in a great while just to clean off buildup and start fresh.

...and sponged in colors freehand as shown blending at the edges. I sponged yellow first where I wanted the sun, and then a bit below that in a cone shape for reflection. Avoid sponging colors over one another where they will mix and turn into another color entirely (blue over yellow will give a greenish cast) unless you intend to change the color.

As I went along sponging, I kept laying the cut out image down to see where I wanted certain elements, like the sun and sand line.

To make the sun, I used a cheap plastic template with a circle area cut out, and sponged it in about 2/3 of the way around as you see it.

I stamped the sand line (Toybox) in the same color ink I had sponged the beach in, and then used a Q-tip to make faint footprints.

I stamped the birds (Just For Fun), the shoreline (Stampscapes) and the leaves (Paper Candy) in black ink, using a stamp positioner for placement, with my main image laying where I intended to place it. Some of the leaves are second generation stamping to add depth.

*tip*

Whenever you do a second stamping where there is an edge of cs involved, don't just stamp your image and then stamp again, or you will end up with uneven coloring on the second image because you will not have removed all of the first layer where your image didn't touch the surface (from hanging out over the edge). So stamp the image where you want it, wipe off stamp, ink again, stamp lightly on a scrap, then stamp your panel.

Lastly, I pop-dotted the main image, added black photo corners, and layered as shown.

Thanks for looking!