Scenic Birthday on the Beach! ;) With cake and roses, at sunset..

I'm back with another card I made way back in January this year. What I liked about this card was the specifics I was provided with before I began. This card was made for someone's wife's birthday and he wanted sunset at the beach or at Marine Drive (I figured making a beach would be easier :P) and two figures - a boy and a girl - the girl smiling shyly while the boy hands her a cake with a bunch of roses hidden behind his back!

Extremely specific, I know. And that's what made creating this card easy and the most difficult as well. For one, the answer was obvious - I had to distress to create the scene and even though I had always dreamed of making something on these lines, I had never actually done it.

It took about five tries to get the right tone of pink, lavender, purple and orange - Spun Sugar, Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord and Wild Honey for those who speak "Tim Holtz" and only then I was satisfied that this was something I could show other people.

Once the sky was done and ready, I used The Craft's Meow's stamp set called 'Vintage Rides' and stamped a banner and the sentiment on watercolour paper and stuck it in the sky. Let me start giving you glimpses at the card.. :)

This post is picture heavy and has extremely detailed notes. :)

For each element - sky, water, sand - I used used a layer of CS that I stuck over the previous layer. So the sea was supposed to start right where the horizon ended and yet have a little bit of a yellow tinge, so I distressed the edge of the next layer with Mustard seed.

For the sun, I punched out a circle and used Mustard Seed and dabbed a little bit of Wild Honey on the edges with a sponge dauber (took three tries to get the right amount of orange) and dabbed some around the sun as well. It was supposed to be the glow around the sun.

Here's what the top of the vertical card looked like. I stamped the birds using the Kites2Fly set by The Stamps of Life.

Right below the sky, was the sea and for this, I blended Faded Jeans and Broken China and got it right instantly. You can't go wrong with just two colours :P On the same sheet, however, I also used Antique Lenin and Tattered Rose for the sand and layered the another sheet with the Sand colours on it. It was supposed to make it look like a Sand Dune. Or at the least, add some dimension.

It's times like these when I wish I could draw better, because I was left with no choice but to draw stick figures as they were the easiest. So when I drew them, I decided to keep it simple.

For the face, I drew a simple circle and dabbed it on the Antique Lenin ink pad and with a black get pen, drew the eyes, tiny little nose and that big smile. The hair on the head was done by using a brush; the colour of the ink - Tattered Rose dabbed on an acrylic block. For her hair, it's a stamp from the Kids2Love stamp set.

For her clothes, I simply drew a triangle on PP and cut it out. Then, the head was placed on her body and I drew the hands and legs. I realise she's missing a neck, but I never claimed to be Picaso, did I? :P

I also stamped a coconut tree from the Island2Visit stamp set and because there were layers, the leaves and branches didn't stamp clearly. So when I didn't have a clear impression after stamping twice, I dabbed some Peeled paint on a block, sprayed some water from my mini mister and ran it over directly on the paper using a paint brush. Problem solved. That's why you can see lighter and darker versions of green. The colour is darker where I've used a paintbrush over, ran it twice sometimes just to make sure.

The little sand castle, is also from the same stamp set. Can't see it? Click on the picture for a larger version. It's right near the bark of the tree.

Now for the cake. This was totally, 100% Moumita. I didn't touch it. She cut out the rectangular base and wrapped it with a brown 3mm strip and that gave us some depth. She then placed tiny petals on the top and solid coils on the bottom. On top of the cake, she also added 3 quilled roses, also made from 3mm strips! :)

The guy was made pretty much in the same manner as the girl. His right hand, isn't visible because the cake turned out to be slightly larger than we intended it to be. His left hand is behind, holding a bouquet of red and yellow quilled roses attached to some wire stem and then held together using twine. :)

Here's both of them together!

A close-up of the third layer with the sand. 

And now, I proudly present to you, the entire card, in all its glory (Layers! :P)

Now, there's still some issue with the SSS affiliation with the inlinks. SSS has a new website and that's apparently causing some trouble, so I'll add the links when it is up and running. Till then, I've mentioned the list of products that I have used in the gazillion words that I have used to describe the card-making process. So please bear with me.

That's all for now and I'll see you soon!

Happy Sunday!

Love,

Nikita.. :)