Creative Blessings: Day 2 of 100 Days of Creativity ~ Dad's Birthday

I'm back with another masculine card to celebrate Dad. That's 2 days in a row!!! This crafty challenge is getting my creative juices flowing. While I was making those Father's Day cards I shared yesterday, I realized that my dad's birthday was coming up. You see, I've been sick with a summer cold for 2 weeks, so I haven't kept track of dates, nor been able to craft much with the added vertigo to go along with my ear infection.

My dad loves the ocean and he passed that love onto mom and I. Now I have passed that love on to my husband and children. I was feeling (a little too) confident in my painting skills and knew I had seen an ocean scene recently while binge watching youtube videos from other cardmakers. So, I went on a search of my recent history. I never did find that video I was thinking of, but I did find a new watercolor class from Sandy Allnock, so I decided to give it a whirl and purchased her class. Time was of the essence because Dad's birthday is tomorrow. I got to work and this is what happened.

The first thing I did was stamp the outline of a lighthouse in distress ink. I knew the ink would blend out and I also knew I didn't know how to draw a lighthouse on my own. I chose the layer that shows the shadows and used paint to add the red stripes to my lighthouse. Once it was dry I went back and added blue in light (almost grey) hues and bright touches of brighter blue. I then used some black in my red and a dry brush to just go over the shadows on the right. Because I used the textured side of the watercolor paper it just hit the highlights.

I've circled the image I stamped below. You could choose any lighthouse, or if you are braver than I you could paint/draw your own.

High Tides

Now for the truly artistic part. As I said, I took a class from Sandy Allnock. She has this class offered for 3 forms of media, so if watercoloring isn't your thing, try the Copic or colored pencils class. https://art-classes.com/product/mini-watercolor-course-underwater-scenes/ I used liquid watercolor from the Let's Make Art watercolor classes I've been taking. You could also use water-based ink refills. In the class Sandy has suggestions of beautiful colors too, but I don't own them. (yet)

Once the painting was dry I took a pen and traced around my lighthouse to give it a little more definition. I also added a few dots with that pen at the base of the lighthouse and along the edge of the cliff/water. The sentiment was stamped with my MISTI so that I could be sure to get a crisp image on that textured watercolor paper. The final steps were to add a mat and attach it to a card base. I did some additional stamping on the inside, but forgot to take a picture before sending it to my dad. This would make a great masculine card for Father's Day, Retirement, Sympathy, Get Well, Encouragement and Birthday. Whatever you need for the special guy in your life.

Once the card was finished I took the seashells from the stamp set I used on the inside for the sentiment and stamped it on the flap of my envelope. As soon as he and Skooter go to the mailbox they will know a card has arrived from his favorite (and only) daughter. The seashells and sandollars were colored with Zig markers.

Precious Moments

Thank you, Sandy, for putting out this fabulous tutorial. I have more piece to turn into cards from other lessons in the class and plan to add them to the blog during this 100 days of creativity. What have you been working on lately? Where do you find inspiration for masculine cards?