Blue Skies Ahead

I created yet another card for the "Hope You Can Cling To" card drive at Splitcoast Stampers. The theme for this particular challenge is "Can I Get a Ride?" Participants are to make a card using an image of some form of transportation. I found a stamp set in my collection (name & manufacturer unknown) with this van, and thought it would be perfect. It also has a small stamp with "blue skies ahead" inside a frame. Unfortunately, this is a rather cheap clear stamp set, and the greeting stamp just would not stay on my MISTI, even long enough just to ink it up. So I ended up spelling that out with Lawn Fawn's "Milo's ABC's" stamps.

I used Sketch #259 by Operation Write Home as the basis for my CAS design:

I decided, rather than have a separate layer for my focal image, just to stamp the van on the background.

I cut a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper to 3.75x.5.5", and stamped the van on the bottom left of the panel, using Versafine Onyx Black ink. Then I set that aside to let the ink dry thoroughly, while I worked on my greeting strip. I lined up my letters to spell "Blue Skies Ahead" on my MISTI. I stamped the greeting with Versamark ink in the center of a 1/2" wide strip, and heat embossed that with Zing Blue embossing powder. Then I stamped the greeting on either side, again in Versamark, letting it go off the ends of the strip. I heat embossed that part with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. It makes it show up a little, but not compete with the main, center part of the greeting.

By the time I finished the greeting strip, the Versafine on my main panel had dried. I colored my van with Inktense pencils, using a damp paintbrush to blend and create highlights & shading. I tried to go for kind of a retro look, in keeping with the van style, with bright colors. Not to the point that it glows in the dark, though! :)

After I mounted my panel & strip on a white A2 card base, I felt the white space of the panel was a bit too blank. So I lightly blended Tumbled Glass Distress ink on the background, letting it fade out close to the van. Finally, I added Glossy Accents to the windows, hubcaps, bumpers, & headlight on the van. This was a pretty simple card to make. The hardest part was doing the greeting strip, but mostly because I was mostly winging it, with no real plan. Once I had a plan for how to emboss the lettering, it went pretty quickly!